France's SNCF hopes to run high speed rail in US
France's SNCF hopes to run high speed rail in US
"The United States is ready for a truly high-speed rail system and France's national railway SNCF would be 'very interested' in operating a network, a senior executive said Thursday.
'We strongly believe that in this country, in some of the corridors, the system should logically be profitable,' SNCF International chairman Jean-Pierre Loubinoux said in an interview on the sidelines of a rail conference in Indiana.
While detailed market analysis still needs to be undertaken, Loubinoux said the French experience has shown that high-speed rail operates most effectively between large cities that are around 1,000 to 1,500 kilometers (600 to 930 miles) apart.
These conditions exist in the east coast, California, the midwest, Texas and Florida.
'You could have more than just a corridor. You could have a system,' he told AFP.
'If the possibility (of operating a network) is open we certainly would consider it with great interest.'"
posted by Hiram at 10:38 AM
2 Comments:
Route of the Capitol Ltd, CHI-WAS: 1257 km (781 miles).
Route of the Lake Shore Ltd, CHI-NYP: 1543 km (959 miles).
Both are woefully underserved right now and would be highly successful if the scheduled time could be brought to 16 hours. It's overnight, you're asleep, the fact that it's 16 hours makes no difference.
Washington, Oregon and British Columbia began to study and deploy High Speed Rail (HSR) passenger trains through the Cascade Corridor in the mid 90’s. Our Talgo tilt trains, capable of 125 mph, have been running between Eugene Oregon and Vancouver, BC since 1999.
Using an ‘incremental approach’ to building the system, with limited state and dwindling Amtrak funding for trains, track and signal, and operations, has enabled some pretty impressive achievements -- while still being limited to 79 mph by the Feds.
Ridership continues to grow at double-digit rates each year. More than twice as many passengers now choose rail over planes for the trip between Seattle and Portland. Trains get twice the fuel economy over planes and cars, while producing only half the CO2 emissions.
All Aboard Washington is excited the needed improvements are now achievable through the stimulus funding for HSR, and applaud our new administration. With modest capital improvements, new train sets could double ridership in years, not decades. Travel times could be slashed by up to 50% through higher speeds and reduced conflicts with current freight traffic, while achieving significant reductions to both fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Truly a win, win, win for America!
For more information, check out our state adopted HSR plan at: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/NR/rdonlyres/83B17378-CDC8-4D57-AA60-4CD64BAF6D94/0/AmtrakCascadesMidRangePlan.pdf
And visit our web site at:
http://www.allaboardwashington.org/cms/index.php?/content/rail_projects
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