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Map shows foundation for high-speed rail—and need for a national plan
Moving beyond “crayons”
Without a map, it’s difficult to grasp just how much of the US could be served by high-speed trains.
There are many “crayon” maps, where people express their visions for where high-speed rail should run. Most of these maps propose very similar routes. This shows that there is a strong demand for high-speed rail and a growing consensus for where we should build it. The most thoughtful is probably this one by Alon Levy, who used a ridership model to establish his case.
But unfortunately, no comprehensive planning has been done, which is a big problem.
Alon Levy has produced one of the most thoughtful high-speed rail vision maps.
If we want a national network, we need a national plan.
In 2008, Congress actually directed the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to create one, but the Trump Administration stopped work on it.
What did get done, though, were three regional framework plans for groups of states—the Midwest, Southeast, and Southwest—and a more detailed plan for the Northeast Corridor.
The FRA did these studies largely in isolation. If you combine their maps, though, an interesting picture starts to emerge. It’s a hopeful picture, but it’s far from complete.
The picture starts to emerge
The map shows that, if we build out the lines recommended by the FRA’s studies, a vast part of America will be served by fast trains.
For example, there would be electrified trains from Birmingham to Boston, MA; from Phoenix to San Francisco; and from St. Paul to Miami. These would each create the spine of extensive rail networks serving their regions.
Of course, key projects and possibilities are absent because the FRA hasn’t yet created a national plan. For example, high-speed lines from Dallas to Houston and Seattle to Portland are now in the planning stages. Chicago to New York is an obvious gap.
The Federal Railroad Administration has done planning frameworks for four groups of states.
The regional frameworks are a good start. So is the new Corridor ID program, which creates a federal program for moving state-sponsored rail projects from the idea/planning stage to construction ready. But state- and regional-level planning are no substitute for a national vision.
Which means that Congress needs to fund the FRA to create a plan for a national railroad network and take a strong leadership role in getting it built.
It needs to be much bigger than high-speed rail. We think it should be roughly 20% high-speed and 80% shared-use.
So what should the map look like?
That picture starts to emerge from the FRA’s long distance study, which isn’t yet complete. The trains proposed in the study are too slow and would run just once a day. But the map is very close to what a comprehensive plan should be.
So, a national network plan is starting to emerge. It is up to Congress to take this foundation and turn it into an actual plan.
The FRA’s draft long-distance map probably has the right route, but the trains need to be much faster and more frequent.
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