CO-NM-TX High Speed Rail Study

[birdy]

This thing is a huge boondoggle when we can't even get HS rail between Texas two largest metro areas, Houston and Dallas/Ft Worth. There are many more productive ways to spend 32 billion dollars. Even the cost of the study is a waste. The only viable part of the plan is the I25 corridor down to Pueblo. After that a conventional LD train once a day is all that is required and few would ride it. El Paso is not exactly your most popular destination.
A better prospect is a LD train to connect Texas DFW area with Colorado or extending the Heartland Flyer to KC. The Amtrak system is totally lacking in north-south connecting trains. A Texas Colorado train would of necessity use the joint line from Trinidad north. So it's feasible to join it there with one from El Paso and ABQ.

Well, I think the main advantage of the route is political. Its one of the few viable routes in the Mountain time zone. Cato institute likes to talk about how unfair all that is. Phoenix happens to be the best situated city in the US for HSR, having no less than six good destinations and the largest city in the U.S. with no Amtrak service. However, they are in a Libertarian coma over there so....Denver, which is a particularly poorly situated city for HSR, but with a population that is very jazzed about the service moves ahead on the list.

I'd view it as two separate HSR lines. El Paso 'Cruces Albuquerque, and Denver, Colorado Springs, Albuquerque. It would work, its far from a train to nowhere, but its not an optimal route.

 

[jphjaxfl]

Colorado and New Mexico are a lot more proactive than Texas for establishing HSR and commuter rail. Southwest Airlines has a strong lobby against HSR connecting Dallas with Houston and San Antonio. Texas will need to come up with a plan and funding to support any kind of passenger rail. The Denver-El Paso plan serves a very small area of Texas so it is really for Colorado and New Mexico and El Paso happens to be a city that would be the terminus.

 

[VentureForth]

Again,

What is HSR? for 50% of Americans, HSR would be consistent 90 MPH running - something faster than a car. For the other 50%, half would say 120 MPH, a quarter would say 200 MPH and the rest would say 300 MPH Maglev, baby!

If they want a Denver to El Paso route, they should concentrate on the line between Belen and El Paso. Currently, I believe it's like Class III or IV track, going up to 45 MPH, P.

Going North, once they hit Belen, it's 79 with LOTS of little slow orders through the mountains. Then, once you hit Trinidad, its back to slow freight speeds requiring a relatively easy upgrade to probably 90 MPH.