Exploring Amtrak's High-Speed Rail and What's Next 

It is a true high speed rail, we can’t just keep changing the definition of high speed rail to make a point. The Acela tops out faster than the Austrian Railjet which is referred to as a high speed rail, it’s faster than Brightline which people refer to as high speed rail. Yes the US needs more high speed rail, but can we stop lying about what it already has.

@@bencns The issue with Acela is that they only go operate as high speed for less than 15% of the NE corridor. The route it runs on are too curvy for the gen 1 trains to go fast, plus it also has to run alongside freight and commuter trains. Giving it a dedicated high speed spec'd tracks will definitely increase its competitiveness

@@duncantalksalotand brightline can only go 120mph for 1 mile

you can run at 160 mph next to commuter trains, that's what the four tracks are for. I don't think the northeast corridor sees much freight traffic. And good luck increasing curve radii in the densest part of the country.

@@darthmaul216important to be clear that this is only the case for the Orlando brightline, dedicated line is being built for brightline in California - which I do believe is truly worthy of being dubbed the first high speed rail in the US

The way I squealed

We had him in Toronto and we LOST him

We had him in NYC, and Cuomo basically drove him out.

​@ScenicDashcamRides Yep, the politics of the state and the ego of the governor at the time!!!! Man it's go to see him. You can't keep a good man down!! The New York City Transit subway has gone to blazes!!! Deploying a 1000 National Gaurd in the subway, the assaults on MTA employee's, the increased violence acts on the train, not to mention kids surfing on top of the train. Man we could use an Andy Byford now!!!

That means politicians need to stay out of his way

Which subway?

@@RGGeekNYC Subway. Was the President there until Cuomo pushed him out.

@@jayy9029 oh yeah, now I remember this guy. Sad to hear that happened. 😢

Yup, the man can absolutely get the job done. Just need the red tape bs to be removed.

Agreed. I took the Shinkansen twice when I went to Japan and the on-time performance is absolutely incredible.

That's exactly the situation where high speed rail works! The primary benefit of HSR is that high speed rail allows you to run trains at higher frequencies and requires less rolling stock. The speed is only a secondary benefit to increased capacity.

Could extend the Texas triangle to include New Orleans and OKC as well.

Why not route the lines under airport terminals so that medium haul fights become more competitive with easy access to competing airports in a region?

@@SethMethCSthe whole point is to not have to travel out to an airport to take a train to go to another city. I don’t understand your thought process here.

Chicago is screaming to be the main HSR connection hub in the Midwest. So many Chicagoans don’t own cars and usually only rent one when traveling to another regional city. HSR please and we’ll actually see Interstate congestion fall! I know DOTs won’t like that, but it’s a better more effective reality for everyone.

Minneapolis/Saint Paul to Milwaukee to Chicago

Japanese trains are mid. China has better infrastructure, Germany and France have better rolling stock.

​@@MAL1GNANT China has horrendous infrastructure lol. They've had thousands of casualties in less than 20 years of service, and numerous major accidents lol. Japan has had 0 in over 70.

@@MAL1GNANTJapanese already start building the world first long distance maglev line, due to competition in 2027. They are probably the only developed country that doesn’t run into massive cost and time overruns

@@stc2828 Besides the maglev, obviously.

Yes, they entered into a partnership to revive the project and got federal funding under the infrastructure bill for the early-phase planning

Amtrak has essentially taken over Texas Central

@@hge437 epic!

@@hge437can’t wait to see the progress they make

@@averyshaham1697 I think Amtrak was always part of the coalition, and was always going to be the ones operating the trains, they just took a bigger role once a huge amount of federal funding got tossed at the project.

There aren't any US rolling stock manufacturers that build HSR trains. The Shinkansen rolling stock for this project in Texas will be built in the US, and the design will be modified a bit from the Japanese design to meet US regulations. Using existing HSR rolling stock with modifications for US regulations is much more cost effective. The original Acela was a joint venture between Bombardier and Alstom it used a modified TGV 200 series power car combined with Bombardier tilting cars. Avelia Liberty (2nd gen Acela) is a modified version of the newest French TGV trains and is built by Alstom. Brightline West will use a US spec version of the Siemens Velaro trainset which is the most common high speed train in the world (most German ICE trains and Spanish AVE trains are Velaros, plus a lot of the Chinese HSR trains) so a very established and reliable design. All of these are built in the US for the US market. Siemens has a huge factory building trains in California and Alstom has a huge factory in New York. Stadler a Swiss company that builds light rail and commuter trains has a big factory in Utah.

The only way that can happen is if we start building our high speed railways. And since we don't have that industry here, we can't build our own high speed trains (and let's not forget how some of our government is against anything dealing with rail).

Me too 🎉

Yeah and have the College Station station actually IN College Station

I suspect you're going to see a LOT of increased development in that NW Houston area, such that access is created, either through actually acquiring trackage to downtown HST, or at least connection via the streetcar.

@@HighHolyOne we shall see what happens. I’m excited for this!

I'd rather have Amtrak handle it than the private group... Still, that's a lot of farmers and ranchers who will have their businesses destroyed by trackage bisecting their land. I also don't know how they'd get around closing off towns that are positioned along the route since level crossings need to be minimized if not entirely eliminated. I saw a lot of people agreeing with this on Reddit and it's definitely going to harm public support for the issue. Not filling out the triangle between Houston-SA and SA-Dallas also hurts it and precludes a lot of people from using the system, myself included. I ultimately support the system, to be clear, I just find it annoying that it's primarily going to target "super commuters" who are already flying between Houston and DFW instead of regular people (this is why the private group chose to target that corridor so you can assume Amtrak is interested for the same reason).

I think it's a case where Kawasaki has the factory capacity available in their US factories (The Shinkansen N700 series is designed and built by Kawasaki), they are finishing up building new trains for MTA in New York. Siemens and Alstom have massive backlogs in their US factories and Amtrak is Siemens and Alstoms biggest US customer.

DC to Miami, high speed rail is just a dream. Never going to happen.

@@edwardcricchio6106 I am not saying DC to Miami. But stuff like NYC-Cleveland-Chicago, Philly-Pittsburgh, Detroit-Chicago, and so on.

@@drdewott9154 Oh I only mentioned that run because I go from NY to West Palm on the snail trains. I know the high speed rail will not happen in my lifetime. I'm already 65 so I don't think within the next 20 years I will see it.

The top area of the NEC that needs upgrading is in Connecticut, that is the section that is not owned by Amtrak. Top speed on the CT shore line is 90mph between New Haven and New London. Between NYC and New Haven top speed is 80mph if you're lucky.

It's really important for high speed trains to bump up their capacity. 1300 passengers per trainset is the number to meet in my opinion, maybe with select trainsets of lower capacities that the US is familiar with for services with lower capacity demands. I think it would be prudent to increase capacities on other rail services too, like the Surfliner.

The metroliners reached 150mph in testing, but took many years to be cleared for 125mph in service, by the time they did the EMD AEM-7s were entering service and could hit 125mph more easily and were much more reliable than the metroliners. You can see the remains of the metroliners to this day on the NEC, the Amfleet cars are unpowered metroliner cars, the Amfleet cab cars were the old metroliner control cars simply with their power systems removed. Budd company of course is now part of Alstom, they got bought out by Bombardier in the early 90s and then Bombardier was bought out by Alstom in 2021.

Heck numerous express steam locomotives were capable of above 100, beyond the paltry 80mph initial operating speed on brightline.

I would say the tide is turning, that there's a growing majority of Americans, namely younger generations, who want better passenger rail in the US, including high speed rail. We first need to make building big things easier, streamline the environmental review process, and not let a few powerful opponents hold up these kinds of projects in litigation. Texas could have had high speed rail back in the 90s, had it not been for a Southwest Airlines-led misinformation campaign to stop it. It's also about changing the stigma around passenger rail here, show that trains are meant to provide more travel options, not take any away, and that they should be faster than driving, and flying for high speed rail. We've had decades of auto-centric spending, pushed heavily by lobbies that support that industry, and airline lobbies have fought hard in the past to stop HSR happening here. We need to be able to break that mold, and make building better rail easier, and that starts with continuing to engage with the public and make the idea of investing in rail and transit a positive. What's not helped is the negative stigma around transit in general, even though cases often cited fall in the minority of most people's daily experiences. Online opinions probably don't do much, but they can still influence enough people to choose to vote against any new transit spending, while we continue to pour hundreds of billions of dollars into roads despite driving being statistically more dangerous than riding transit. However, like I said above, the tide does appear to be turning toward a more positive view of transit, and a greater demand for improving and building more of it, including intercity transit like high speed rail. Car culture is far too ingrained in our society, and many of our cities built post-WW2 are built around it, for it to go away. Better trains and transit won't eliminate driving, or flying for that matter, nor should they, but by providing another travel option that's competitive with those, and by some choosing transit means fewer cars on the roads and less crowded airports for those who will continue to choose those options, makes life easier for everyone. Having great intracity and intercity transit makes driving and flying easier. That should be the message that's pushed. Yes, let's keep maintaining our existing road and airport infrastructure, but let's also invest in modes of travel proven by much of the developed world to relieve the strain on those. Those countries have roads and airports, but they also have great transit, including high speed rail. America is not too big for fast trains, just as it isn't for cars. They along with air travel can and will all work here. Let's stop kicking the can down the road and get it done. If we can build the Interstates, we can build 200+ mph high speed rail. It starts with a first, whether it's California, Nevada, Texas, or wherever.

@@ChrisJones-gx7fc I love ALL of this.

​@@ChrisJones-gx7fcWell, CAHSR is the only one under construction since 2015. BLW just announced their groundbreaking a few days ago

@@mrxman581 BLW will be finished and running before CAHSR gets halfway done. CAHSR is being killed by NIMBYs and cost overruns

I’m optimistic, I’ve seen some of the most conservative people from the US travel to Europe, take a HSR trip, and return to the US asking why we don’t have those here. It’s not a political ideological thing, HSR is an incredibly attractive and effective solution to real transportation problems.

You probably need 2 stops - an outer suburban park and ride and a genuine downtown. The line between the 2 does not need to be full hsr standard

​@@radicallyrethinkingrailwaysinathat would be roughly similar to CAHSR plans for San Francisco/Bay Area, running bullet trains at standard speed on electrified Caltrain right of way. The unfortunately likely scenario would be instead similar to Brightline West's terminus in Rancho Cucamonga. Hopefully they all do better anyway, and of course them getting constructed will mean inevitable demand for the terminus to reach either respective downtown station.

No

@@cmmartti They should just say "The Americas" at that point.

Another big Hollywood hit showing Americans navel-gazing

Do Americans even have geography classes?

​@@gsf02Byford is literally British you dolt

SLC doesn't really have another major metro area close to it. Boise is about the only one in reasonable range for HSR where the terrain isn't too difficult. The terrain is quite difficult between SLC and Denver and SLC and Las Vegas, the two next closest major cities. As for within Utah, there's no reason, 80% of Utah's population lives within an hour of SLC, they just need to keep expanding their commuter rail.

@@cmmartti Then it should rather be called "the Americas".

Ah your confusing "western hemisphere" with "the West"/"Western Civilization". "Western hemisphere" is a geographic term that refers to North and South America "the West"/"Western Civilization" is a much more nebulous term that refers to a group of countries that share a consolation of social/political/cultural traits. Usually defined as Western Europe and most of their former colonies.

@@Patmorgan235Us In reality, western hemisphere refers to anything between 0° and 180° west, and that includes spain, morocco, parts of france, parts of great britain and some more area. Especially mentioning morocco should illustrate, that "the west" is not meant. If you mean "the americas", then say "the americas". Otherwise "western hemisphere" means everything west of greenwich.

​@@doctorhabilthcjesus4610except it doesn't. words are defined by how people use them and that's not how people use or understand the term Western hemisphere in this context.

​@@doctorhabilthcjesus4610and that isn't a colloquially useful definition of the western hemisphere. In simple terms, the western hemisphere refers to the northern and southern American continent group and the territories therein. And the eastern hemisphere would refer to the Eurasian and African continents and the territories therein. What's vague in my mind is whether Oceania goes into the Eastern hemisphere, which I imagine it would after some thought. That's all, you don't need to break out a map and think about it so much.

Also some TGV services. (Rennes and Bordeaux)

And the Al Boraq in Morocco

Agreed. Including pushing forward the 2nd phase to San Diego. The LA to San Diego Surfliner is one of the most popular routes on Amtrak. They could replace that route with the CAHSR.

TX Central and Brightline West will be complete and operational before CAHSR is even halfway built. California is just a nightmare to build any public infrastructure in due to NIMBYs and special interests. BLW just has the advantage of being mostly privately funded and building down the median of I-15 with the blessing of the state so less NIMBY problems.

​@@mrxman581agreed. Especially when they have to constantly close the tracks whenever it rains for months at a time to stabilize the bluffs

@@mrvwbug4423 as much as I like timelines, Texas Central was supposed to complete construction 4 years ago based on their original plans. They have kept pushing back for 11 years. Similar with DesertXPress now Brightline West. While I was to see all 3 built only one has actually made significant progress.

The rust belt is a great place for HSR expansion. The major cities of the rust belt are all in optimal HSR range of each other.

I agree! Would love one between Chicago and Milwaukee too! That is the busiest route outside of the NE or California and would make it possible to commute from Chi to MKE (currently 1.5 hour trip with 7-8 trains per day)

Or Morocco for that matter

HSR is not a cross country thing in a country as large as the US. The optimal distance for HSR is 150-300 miles and is a viable alternative to air travel up to 600 miles, beyond that air travel reigns supreme. HSR is best used for linking cities within a region like the Northeast, California, Texas, Florida or the rust belt.

@@mrvwbug4423 Thank you for the information.

Yup, only 56 miles of the NEC have 150mph line speed

Good luck building new ROW in CT with all those rich NIMBYs.

I would likely expect something similar to what is going on the new 2nd gen Acela trains, which are supposed to be pretty good. Also quite similar to what is on the new Amtrak Venture cars and Brightline.

But you will pay all the costs in time, uber and so on for 2 airports at either end?

@@radicallyrethinkingrailwaysina Driving is only slightly slower than Amtrak between NYC and DC and much faster between NYC and Boston.

@@mrvwbug4423 driving is for losers. you cant afford $140? And where do you park in either city's downtowns? I suspect you are a control-freak, can't handle someone else taking the wheel. Most perennial drivers are that. You can see too when they won't fly, they are unable to sit in a vehicle they are not controlling themselves.

Siemens isn't building any more. The ALC-42E is going to replace the ACS-64 on the NEC by the end of the decade, that will be a dual mode diesel/electric that will eliminate locomotive swaps on a lot of their routes that change power modes. The retired ACS-64s will likely be sold to MBTA, MARC, SEPTA and NJT. And they are planning to use a dual mode Diesel/battery version of the Charger on the Empire corridor (the battery will give them enough juice to get out of Penn station and also extra power for acceleration then it will charge off the diesel when cruising basically like a hybrid car).

@@mrvwbug4423 an Mbta acs64 will be so cool!