Tech blog summarizes state of HSR

[CHamilton]

High-Speed Rail: What's the Hold-Up?

If you're a rail travel proponent, there's good news and there's bad news when it comes to high-speed trains.

The good news is, globally, high-speed is up and running around the world — to the tune of some 13,000 miles of track in more than half a dozen countries....

The not so good news is, if you live in the United States, you're out of luck when it comes to HSR, thus far. High-speed rail in the U.S. is mired, for the most part, in opposing views about what's best for the country's travel infrastructure — and how we should pay for it.

The U.S. does not lack for recent efforts to implement high-speed rail, however. The western part of the country is alive with proposals. But if there's a future for the technology of moving people from one place to another along a fixed track at tremendous velocities, it will be born of something other than entrepreneurial spirit alone....

The article continues with a discussion of the California projects, and the latest from Japan.

 

[George Harris]

The thng that slaps me in the face in the picture at the top of the article is the huge gap between side of train and edge of platform. This does not meet ADA and does not even come close. There is not caption ot say whose train this is, either. It is obviously not a Shinkansen set. Those do come very close to meeting ADA, and in fact the platform can be positioned so they can. Otherwise with a quick skim, and I will do no more, it appears to be the usual discussion warmed over and put on the table again.

 

[MattW]

I believe the train pictured is a South Korean KTX. The platform looks low-level anyways or at least not high-level.

 

[CHamilton]

The California High Speed Rail Blog posts their rebuttal to the original article.

The opposition to HSR is primarily rooted in an aversion to spending money. We live in an era defined by the collapse of western civilization due to a stunning refusal to allow government to spend money. Herbert Hoover lost the argument against spending during the 1930s, but he has won it here in the 2010s. Congress is controlled by a right-wing political movement that opposes government spending, and the results are catastrophic for the operation of a modern society.Austerity is destroying the modern America that we all grew up taking for granted. ...

High speed rail is a casualty of this insane war on modern life. We are living off the massive infrastructure investments made in the 20th century, even as they decay, and make excuses for not making new investments. ...

Austerity is threatening America’s ability to innovate, build, solve problems, and meet the needs of the 21st century. High speed rail is just one of the more important and high profile casualties of this mad war on the future.

The nice thing is that this austerity mania will come to an end, and soon. It will run its course before much longer and we will be able again to spend money to build a great society. The question before us is what lasting damage will be caused by this austerity.