First, the Northeast Next...?

High speed rail does not mean 150-mph Acela Express-like trains everywhere. It means increasing speeds to 110-125 mph from the 79 mph or less that is now the max of trains like the Cascades Talgo pictured below.

By James P. RePass, Contributing Editor

The success of Amtrak's Cascades service in the Pacific Northwest with new Talgo equipment illustrates that the American public wants improved, more-frequent passenger trains. At 79 mph, the Cascades is not really high speed, but it's a step in the right direction. Talgo and Siemens are seen as likely finalists to build 110-mph trainsets for Amtrak's Chicago-based Midwest Regional Rail Initiative.

Photo by Washington State DOT

If you insist on giving the U.S. passenger rail renaissance a birth date, you could pick Dec. 12, 2000, because on that day a new Acela Express trainset left Washington's Union Station for New York and Boston on its way into history, the first new high speed scheduled train in a generation, and the first that can be seen as the leading edge of a growing shift away from auto- and air-dependence in the U.S. It managed to garner lots of criticism before its debut, as the U.S. news media concentrated on its test trials, late delivery, and a nouvelle vague advertising campaign that some felt was more than just a little weird. Five months later, the train-is-late stories have been replaced with an odd silence emanating from the general news media. The Bombardier/Alstom-built Acela Express is running 90% ontime and ridership is 10-12% above projections, according to Amtrak.

What makes this so important is that this time, unlike previous Northeast Corridor improvements that never migrated out of the Northeast, the movement toward high speed rail is nationwide. These are not grandiose all-or-nothing plans to implement "supertrains" overnight or have nothing at all. And they're not limited to small, technology-based demonstration projects (p. 51).

There are two reasons for this. First, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) established that high speed corridors should exist outside the NEC, and that Congress should have some role in funding them. Legislation introduced in the Senate in January and backed by a majority in both the Senate and the House, the High Speed Rail Investment Act (S. 250), calls for $12 billion in capital spending for infrastructure for high speed passenger rail on existing rights-of-way. It has a good chance of passage. Freight railroads will benefit from these improvements as well. Second, beginning in the late 1980s, citizens' groups around the country, independently and coming from divergent political and ideological perspectives, began to agitate for better rail service. Over the past decade, that agitation has led to the appropriation of hundreds of millions of dollars for rail infrastructure in several states: $250 million in Illinois , another $50 million in Wisconsin, and $10 billion in California, to name but three.

Outside of the NEC, the first regional rail effort was the Pacific Northwest's Cascadia Project (www.discovery.org/cascadia), the brainchild of Bruce Chapman's Discovery Institute in Seattle, and former county commissioner and Congressional aide Bruce Agnew. Designed to relieve congestion in the heavily traveled I-5 corridor from Oregon through Washington State to British Columbia via a shift to rail-based freight and passenger service, the Cascadia Project has resulted in the introduction of significantly improved passenger service in the form of Amtrak Cascades Talgo trains. WashDOT has provided funds for the project, and for commuter rail in the Seattle/Tacoma region.

In the Midwest, the Environmental Law & Policy Center spearheaded the public affairs campaign that lead to the nine-state Midwest Regional Rail Initiative. The state legislatures, especially Wisconsin's and Illinois', are voting serious money for rail corridor improvements. Recently, Amtrak conducted the bidding process to select the trainsets for this non-electric high speed rail system, and Talgo and Siemens are seen as likely finalists. The system is expected to span 3,000 miles and cost $2-3 billion over 10 years, and will involve significant improvements to the freight railroad rights-of-way it will use. The Coalition of States for Passenger Rail, comprised of state transportation officials and led by Wisconsin, is also fighting for this project.

The Southeast High Speed Rail Association, primarily driven by rail advocates and the 13 largest chambers of commerce in Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, is organizing to extend the NEC southward to Richmond, the Carolinas, and Atlanta, with several other routes under consideration. The governors of the four states are cooperating, and industry observers believe a highly motivated Southeast, where growth has caused considerable congestion along the I-95 corridor and other Interstate and secondary corridors, and where the region's airports are increasingly subject to delays, may become the next region to seek major federal and state funding for rail.

The Gulf Coast Corridor has recently selected a new executive director, and is moving toward completion of a study on likely strategies for improved rail service linking Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, with eventual connections to Florida and Georgia.

California has ambitious plans for a new high speed line between Los Angeles and San Francisco, and from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. These plans have foundered before, but advocates are confident that this time they will succeed. In the meantime, new Pacific Surfliner service using bilevel Alstom cars has replaced and extended San Diegan service. In Sacramento, the Capitol Corridor has already exceeded ridership projections

In Florida, the Florida Overland Express has been brought back to life in another form by businessman Doc Dockery of Lakeland, who used an initiative petition and more than a million dollars of his own money to force the state legislature to re-institute high speed rail on the state's transportation agenda. While some are seeking ways around that referendum, it was passed by 58% of voters. Some of Gov. Jeb Bush's advisors are having second thoughts about trying to scuttle the wishes of the significant majority who supported the petition.

There's more: Texas Rail Advocates, a business group, wants to see investment in high speed rail along several corridors. A group of mayors succeeded in saving the Texas Eagle and even improving its frequency, and is looking for more. In Maine, TrainRiders Northeast is looking toward startup of a new Boston-Portland Amtrak service, and Sen. Jeffords of Vermont succeeded in having a Northern New England High Speed Corridor designated to allow building of new high speed lines in New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont, connecting to Boston, Springfield, and Albany.

Fresh IDEAs to improve safety

High speed regional passenger rail service at 110-125 mph will begin to present real safety issues as such systems are implemented on existing rail lines. While this is of increasing concern to the freight railroads that own the track, there are broader issues that will affect implementation of these plans.

One bright spot is a program of the Transportation Research Board called IDEA (Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis), whose High Speed Rail subgroups began work in 1997. IDEA is funded by the FRA under its Next-Generation High Speed Rail Program. Although the funding for IDEA is minuscule (about $1 million a year; a total of $3.5 million since 1997), IDEA is laying the base for a renewed, broader acceptance of rail by increasing its operational capabilities and improving safety, and simultaneously challenging the industry to work cooperatively in exploring new ways of doing business.

Under the leadership of Chuck Taylor, IDEA has conducted high speed rail-related studies to explore promising but unproved concepts in communications-based train control, grade crossing improvements, environmental impacts, infrastructure improvements, rolling stock, and ergonomics.

IDEA has churned out and tested an impressive number of ideas. Its 2001 report, available through TRB's website (www4.trb.org/trb/dive-idea.nsf), lists 14 completed projects for 2001 and another 10 under active development.

Taylor and FRA's Robert McCown group IDEA's grade crossing projects into four basic categories: remote train sensing technologies, surveillance technology for automatic crossing monitoring, alternatives to conventional gate systems, and crossing control systems.

One such project, sponsored by Foster-Miller, Inc., of Waltham, Mass., "Folding Arm Extension for Grade Crossing Gates" (HSR-9), involves ways of dealing with motorists who drive around lowered crossing gates. Researchers from B&B Manufacturing, Guilford Industries, Amtrak, MBTA, Providence & Worcester Railroad, and FRA are designing a new grade crossing arm that can unfold to block motorists.

Another project that would have applications both at grade crossings and on the main line is HSR-12, "Fiber-Optic Radar System for Track Obstacle Detection." With Union Pacific's Bill Thompson as technical advisor, Aspen Systems of Marlborough, Mass., has designed this project to create a laser/radar based means of detecting obstacles in time to allow the engineer to stop, with enough reliability that false alarms are not given, and that actual obstacles do not escape detection (as can happen now with the common fence-breach warning system).

A project related to railcar construction is HSR-21, "High-Strength Lightweight Car Bodies for High Speed Rail Vehicles," by Ashurst Government Services, Inc., of Baltimore. The objective is to increase the operational efficiency and reduce the life-cycle costs of passenger rolling stock for high speed rail vehicles by developing high-strength, lightweight structural components. Researchers are investigating the applicability of an aluminum-scandium alloy as a construction material. This is combined with an updated look at the monocoque carbody used on the United Aircraft TurboTrain some 35 years ago, plus a new way to build bodies that replaces mechanical fasteners with welded net-shaped structural components.