High-speed Rail

by Petra Todorovich

Author	: Petra Todorovich
Publisher	:
Total Pages	: 0
Release	: 2011
Genre	: High speed ground transportation
ISBN	: 9781558442221

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This Policy Focus Report was a product of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, the Regional Plan Association and their joint venture America 2050. The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy has been engaged in a series of projects with the Regional Plan Association for more than a decade. The partnership spawned the national initiative known as America 2050, which is aimed at meeting the infrastructure, economic development and environmental challenges of the nation, in preparation for a population increase of about 130 million by 2050. A major focus of America 2050 is the emergence of megaregions - large networks of metropolitan areas, where most of the population growth by mid-century will take place. Examples of megaregions are the Northeast Megaregion, from Boston to Washington, or Southern California, from Los Angeles to Tijuana, Mexico. High-speed rail is capable of linking employment centers and population hubs in corridors up to 600 miles in length in 11 U.S. megaregions.This Policy Focus Report was a product of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, the Regional Plan Association and their joint venture America 2050. The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy has been engaged in a series of projects with the Regional Plan Association for more than a decade. The partnership spawned the national initiative known as America 2050, which is aimed at meeting the infrastructure, economic development and environmental challenges of the nation, in preparation for a population increase of about 130 million by 2050. A major focus of America 2050 is the emergence of megaregions - large networks of metropolitan areas, where most of the population growth by mid-century will take place. Examples of megaregions are the Northeast Megaregion, from Boston to Washington, or Southern California, from Los Angeles to Tijuana, Mexico. High-speed rail is capable of linking employment centers and population hubs in corridors up to 600 miles in length in 11 U.S. megaregions.

High Speed Rail in the United States

by David Randall Peterman

Author	: David Randall Peterman
Publisher	: DIANE Publishing
Total Pages	: 31
Release	: 2010-06
Genre	:
ISBN	: 1437927009

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Contents: (1) Intro.; (2) What is High Speed Rail (HSR)?; (3) HSR Options; (4) Components of a HSR System: Conventional HSR; Track; Signal and Commun. Networks; Magnetic Levitation; (5) HSR In: Japan; France; Germany; Spain; China; (6) Background of Intercity Passenger Rail in the U.S.; (7) Previous Efforts in the U.S.; (8) Recent Congress. Initiatives to Promote HSR; (9) Potential Benefits: Alleviating Highway and Airport Congestion; Alleviating Pollution and Reducing Energy Consumption by the Transport. Sector; Promoting Econ. Develop.; Improving Transport. Safety; Providing a Choice of Modes; Making the Transport. System More Reliable; (10) Infrastructure and Operating Costs; (11) Ridership Potential; (12) Funding Consider.

The Economics and Politics of High-Speed Rail

by Daniel Albalate

Author	: Daniel Albalate
Publisher	: Lexington Books
Total Pages	: 212
Release	: 2012-06-14
Genre	: Business & Economics
ISBN	: 0739171240

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The technological revolution linked to high speed rail (HSR) has been accompanied by myths and claims about its contribution to society and the economy. Although HSR is unquestionably a technological advance that has become a symbol of modernity, this review and analysis of the international experiences shows that the conditions necessary to have a positive impact, economically, socially and environmentally, are enormously restrictive. The Economics and Politics of High Speed Rail: Lessons from Experiences Abroad, by Daniel Albalate and Germà Bel, introduces the main questions policy makers and scholars should examine when considering and studying HSR implementation, with particular emphasis on the US’s recent interest in this technology and possible application in California. Albalate and Bel then review the experiences of the most significant implementations of HSR around the globe. This in-depth international perspective includes chapters on the pioneers of HSR (Japan and France), the European followers (Germany, Spain and Italy), as well as Asian experiences in China, Taiwan, and Korea. Albalate and Bel’s study provides a clear distinction between the myths and realities associated with this transportation innovation. Among the most relevant findings, this study highlights how HSR projects that do not satisfy highly restrictive conditions—on mobility patterns, measured costs, and economically rational designs—that make it desirable have been the source of huge financial debacles and the economic failure of HSR in most cases, which result in unfortunate consequences for taxpayers. The Economics and Politics of High Speed Rail is a rigorous investigation of the economic and political challenges and ramifications of implementing new public transportation technology.

Waiting on a Train

by James McCommons

Author	: James McCommons
Publisher	: Chelsea Green Publishing
Total Pages	: 306
Release	: 2009-11-06
Genre	: Travel
ISBN	: 1603582592

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During the tumultuous year of 2008--when gas prices reached $4 a gallon, Amtrak set ridership records, and a commuter train collided with a freight train in California--journalist James McCommons spent a year on America's trains, talking to the people who ride and work the rails throughout much of the Amtrak system. Organized around these rail journeys, Waiting on a Train is equal parts travel narrative, personal memoir, and investigative journalism. Readers meet the historians, railroad executives, transportation officials, politicians, government regulators, railroad lobbyists, and passenger-rail advocates who are rallying around a simple question: Why has the greatest railroad nation in the world turned its back on the very form of transportation that made modern life and mobility possible? Distrust of railroads in the nineteenth century, overregulation in the twentieth, and heavy government subsidies for airports and roads have left the country with a skeletal intercity passenger-rail system. Amtrak has endured for decades, and yet failed to prosper owing to a lack of political and financial support and an uneasy relationship with the big, remaining railroads. While riding the rails, McCommons explores how the country may move passenger rail forward in America--and what role government should play in creating and funding mass-transportation systems. Against the backdrop of the nation's stimulus program, he explores what it will take to build high-speed trains and transportation networks, and when the promise of rail will be realized in America.

The Geography of Transport Systems

by Jean-Paul Rodrigue

Author	: Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Publisher	: Routledge
Total Pages	: 432
Release	: 2013-07-18
Genre	: Science
ISBN	: 1136777326

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Mobility is fundamental to economic and social activities such as commuting, manufacturing, or supplying energy. Each movement has an origin, a potential set of intermediate locations, a destination, and a nature which is linked with geographical attributes. Transport systems composed of infrastructures, modes and terminals are so embedded in the socio-economic life of individuals, institutions and corporations that they are often invisible to the consumer. This is paradoxical as the perceived invisibility of transportation is derived from its efficiency. Understanding how mobility is linked with geography is main the purpose of this book. The third edition of The Geography of Transport Systems has been revised and updated to provide an overview of the spatial aspects of transportation. This text provides greater discussion of security, energy, green logistics, as well as new and updated case studies, a revised content structure, and new figures. Each chapter covers a specific conceptual dimension including networks, modes, terminals, freight transportation, urban transportation and environmental impacts. A final chapter contains core methodologies linked with transport geography such as accessibility, spatial interactions, graph theory and Geographic Information Systems for transportation (GIS-T). This book provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the field, with a broad overview of its concepts, methods, and areas of application. The accompanying website for this text contains a useful additional material, including digital maps, PowerPoint slides, databases, and links to further reading and websites. The website can be accessed at: http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans This text is an essential resource for undergraduates studying transport geography, as well as those interest in economic and urban geography, transport planning and engineering.

Fast Trains

by Emy Louie

Author	: Emy Louie
Publisher	: CreateSpace
Total Pages	: 0
Release	: 2012-09-10
Genre	: High speed trains
ISBN	: 9781478282433

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Across the globe, people are traveling by high speed trains at speeds of 200 miles per hour and higher. They are escaping the woes of long automobile commutes, gridlocked traffic, and the indignities of post-9/11 air travel. They are experiencing the convenience, comfort, amenities, and service not available to automobile and air travelers. This unique book seeks to galvanize public interest in high speed rail by bringing to life the vast economic and lifestyle benefits of having a world-class high speed rail system throughout America. In addition, the creation of literally hundreds of thousands of jobs across numerous industries can become an immediate reality when high speed rail begins construction on American soil. In an easy-to-read, entertaining yet fact-filled and highly informative way, this critically acclaimed book introduces narratives that dynamically compare the experience of people traveling by available means in the United States with the experience of people taking fast trains in countries with established high speed rail systems. Fast Trains - America's High Speed Future passionately and convincingly argues that the time for fast trains in America is now! Our nation needs high speed rail. It needs it urgently, and there is no time to delay.

Designing the Megaregion

by Jonathan Barnett

Author	: Jonathan Barnett
Publisher	: Island Press
Total Pages	: 185
Release	: 2020-03-12
Genre	: Architecture
ISBN	: 1642830437

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The US population is estimated to grow by more than 110 million people by 2050, and much of this growth will take place where cities and their suburbs are expanding to meet the suburbs of neighboring cities, creating continuous urban megaregions. There are now at least a dozen megaregions in the US. If current trends continue unchanged, new construction in these megaregions will put more and more stress on the natural systems that are necessary for our existence, will make highway gridlock and airline delays much worse, and will continue to attract investment away from older areas. However, the megaregion in 2050 is still a prediction. Future economic and population growth could go only to environmentally safe locations. while helping repair landscapes damaged by earlier development. Improved transportation systems could reduce highway and airport congestion. Some new investment could be drawn to by-passed parts of older cities, which are becoming more separate and unequal. In Designing the Megaregion, planning and urban design expert Jonathan Barnett describes how to redesign megaregional growth using mostly private investment, without having to wait for massive government funding or new governmental structures. Barnett explains practical initiatives to make new development fit into its environmental setting, especially important as the climate changes; reorganize transportation systems to pull together all the components of these large urban regions; and redirect the market forces which are making megaregions very unequal places. There is an urgent need to begin designing megaregions, and Barnett shows that the ways to make major improvements are already available.

Railtown

by Ethan N. Elkind

Author	: Ethan N. Elkind
Publisher	: University of California Press
Total Pages	: 314
Release	: 2014-01-22
Genre	: History
ISBN	: 0520278275

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The familiar image of Los Angeles as a metropolis built for the automobile is crumbling. Traffic, air pollution, and sprawl motivated citizens to support urban rail as an alternative to driving, and the city has started to reinvent itself by developing compact neighborhoods adjacent to transit. As a result of pressure from local leaders, particularly with the election of Tom Bradley as mayor in 1973, the Los Angeles Metro Rail gradually took shape in the consummate car city. Railtown presents the history of this system by drawing on archival documents, contemporary news accounts, and interviews with many of the key players to provide critical behind-the-scenes accounts of the people and forces that shaped the system. Ethan Elkind brings this important story to life by showing how ambitious local leaders zealously advocated for rail transit and ultimately persuaded an ambivalent electorate and federal leaders to support their vision. Although Metro Rail is growing in ridership and political importance, with expansions in the pipeline, Elkind argues that local leaders will need to reform the rail planning and implementation process to avoid repeating past mistakes and to ensure that Metro Rail supports a burgeoning demand for transit-oriented neighborhoods in Los Angeles. This engaging history of Metro Rail provides lessons for how the American car-dominated cities of today can reinvent themselves as thriving railtowns of tomorrow.

High-Speed Rail in Poland

by Andrzej Zurkowski

Author	: Andrzej Zurkowski
Publisher	: CRC Press
Total Pages	: 606
Release	: 2018-07-24
Genre	: Technology & Engineering
ISBN	: 1351003283

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The Railway Research Institute (Instytut Kolejnictwa) in Warsaw was established in 1951 and was, until 2000, part of the Polish State Railways (PKP). At present, it serves as an independent entity, it is subordinated to the minister responsible for transport. Since its inception, the Institute has been the centre of competence for technology, technique and organization of operation and services in rail transport, particularly in respect to innovation. One of its fundamental tasks also includes activities connected with safety which are carried out in close cooperation with the National Safety Authority, i.e. the Office of Rail Transport. At the same time the Institute participated in the process of upgrading and modernization of the rail network in Poland. Experience in high speed rail, gained as a result of international cooperation and basing on the effort to increase speed on railway lines in Poland (so far 200 km/h), is included in the monograph “Koleje Dużych Prędkości w Polsce” (High Speed Rail in Poland) published in 2015 for the benefit of the Polish reader. This monograph aims at reaching an international audience of experts so as to present Polish determinants of HSR implementation. In order to elaborate this monograph, apart from specialists from the Railway Research Institute, experts from other research and academic centres were invited. Not only presenting a wide range of problems connected with future construction of High Speed Lines in Polish conditions, but also a number of operational ones. The authors have created a reference work of universal character, solving problems in order to build and operate high speed rail systems in countries on a similar level of development as Poland. Features: providing requirements for design and upgrade of engineering works on High Speed Rail development information on restructuring and building railway lines for countries starting to develop a High Speed Rail system dealing with organizational, engineering, socioeconomic and economic demands for transport services and the formation of human resources for constructing and operting a High Speed Rails system. Presenting these problems on the international arena will facilitate future cooperation and application of world experience to create HSR in Poland and integrate the Polish HSR network into the international one.