Big Upcoming Railroad Projects
- Thread starter EdMc
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That new intermodal station at Orlando International is quite impressive. In addition to the Brightline connection, it will also expand the new commuter rail SunRail with a stop at the airport, and a future possible light rail connection to the theme parks.
F-Line to Dudley
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XpressWest is still unfunded, and not having a whole lot of luck securing funding. To-date, they've only managed to partner with a Chinese consortium to begin tackling the regulatory approvals. This one is still far, far away from graduating out of vaporware into something real. Despite all the promise that makes it seem like a no-brainer, such as contiguous connection to California HSR and co-usage by multiple potential Amtrak routes.
Nevada's still got a long, long way to go at wrapping brain around transit. The various incarnations of this project shouldn't have had to languish for 20 years, but there's just not a very organized public-private relationship at work here compared to elsewhere. I'd be mildly surprised if this latest plan makes any more progress than all the vaporware that came before it.
Texas Central had a lot of momentum going for it in the early going, and the promise of robust private funding getting it done relatively drama-free. Now that the corridor has actually been chosen, however, it's starting to get eaten alive by eminent domain fights. A known Achilles heel of HSR projects attempting to cleanroom ROW's. Texas, unfortunately, has pretty strong land ownership protections which are going to make fighting these disputes very time-consuming for Texas Central.
It's more than vaporware, but it's way way premature to be calling this a done deal. They've got a long slog ahead of them.
Brightline/All Aboard Florida...yes, that one's the real deal. They've already placed their rolling stock order: Siemens Charger locomotives just like Amtrak, and Siemens single-level coaches which they hope to later bid as a proven product for Amtrak's humongous Amfleet replacement order. It helps a lot that the project is being funded by the hedge fund that owns the freight railroad it runs on, and that the corridor pretty neatly matches up with that railroad's mainline...eliminating need for negotiations with other parties. That's allowed them to make a lot more progress a lot faster within-cost through vertical integration.
It'll be a fascinating case to watch in action. All Aboard Florida isn't true HSR, but rather mid-speed 'fast diesel' at 110 MPH on an upgraded existing corridor. Something you only see today on parts of the NY Empire Corridor and a small segment of Chicago Hub through Illinois and Indiana. That sort of emerging standard is where a lot of potential HSR corridors in the country need to pass through. Especially the ones that don't have the luxury of a singular linear network like the NEC or CAHSR to glom off of. Chicago Hub, for instance, gets its biggest bang-for-buck getting all of its radiating lines up to 110 MPH before it even attempts its first electrification to, say, Chicago-St. Louis. It's no single corridor; to prime it for an HSR future requires cranking up a whole spider map's worth of existing corridor routes to peak efficiency on their existing infrastructure first. Simply because that's the only way to prime the ridership pump. If AAF can find new efficiencies for quickly deploying that kind of route performance and getting private investors and private RR's involved, there are many places--none moreso than Chicago Hub, but also a lot of places in the South--where that same scalability can be applied.
Very exciting project as a potential icebreaker for getting similar mid-speed/emerging corridors to graduate from endless studies to greenlit builds. Well-executed, it'll take a lot of the fear and anxiety out of pursuit of similar builds elsewhere.
Nevada's still got a long, long way to go at wrapping brain around transit. The various incarnations of this project shouldn't have had to languish for 20 years, but there's just not a very organized public-private relationship at work here compared to elsewhere. I'd be mildly surprised if this latest plan makes any more progress than all the vaporware that came before it.
Texas Central had a lot of momentum going for it in the early going, and the promise of robust private funding getting it done relatively drama-free. Now that the corridor has actually been chosen, however, it's starting to get eaten alive by eminent domain fights. A known Achilles heel of HSR projects attempting to cleanroom ROW's. Texas, unfortunately, has pretty strong land ownership protections which are going to make fighting these disputes very time-consuming for Texas Central.
It's more than vaporware, but it's way way premature to be calling this a done deal. They've got a long slog ahead of them.
Brightline/All Aboard Florida...yes, that one's the real deal. They've already placed their rolling stock order: Siemens Charger locomotives just like Amtrak, and Siemens single-level coaches which they hope to later bid as a proven product for Amtrak's humongous Amfleet replacement order. It helps a lot that the project is being funded by the hedge fund that owns the freight railroad it runs on, and that the corridor pretty neatly matches up with that railroad's mainline...eliminating need for negotiations with other parties. That's allowed them to make a lot more progress a lot faster within-cost through vertical integration.
It'll be a fascinating case to watch in action. All Aboard Florida isn't true HSR, but rather mid-speed 'fast diesel' at 110 MPH on an upgraded existing corridor. Something you only see today on parts of the NY Empire Corridor and a small segment of Chicago Hub through Illinois and Indiana. That sort of emerging standard is where a lot of potential HSR corridors in the country need to pass through. Especially the ones that don't have the luxury of a singular linear network like the NEC or CAHSR to glom off of. Chicago Hub, for instance, gets its biggest bang-for-buck getting all of its radiating lines up to 110 MPH before it even attempts its first electrification to, say, Chicago-St. Louis. It's no single corridor; to prime it for an HSR future requires cranking up a whole spider map's worth of existing corridor routes to peak efficiency on their existing infrastructure first. Simply because that's the only way to prime the ridership pump. If AAF can find new efficiencies for quickly deploying that kind of route performance and getting private investors and private RR's involved, there are many places--none moreso than Chicago Hub, but also a lot of places in the South--where that same scalability can be applied.
Very exciting project as a potential icebreaker for getting similar mid-speed/emerging corridors to graduate from endless studies to greenlit builds. Well-executed, it'll take a lot of the fear and anxiety out of pursuit of similar builds elsewhere.
EdMc
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Thanks for the additional information, F-Line. Never been to Miami or Orlando, I hope to fly Southwest into Ft. Lauderdale someday and bounce back and forth between these cities using Brightline.
I hope this private initiative is successful and leads to other successful private railroad projects across the country. Is Acela in the black operating between Boston and New York? If not, I wonder if Amtrak would allow a well-funded private consortium to complete a railroad from Boston to New York, going through Worcester and Hartford, and replace Acela between Boston and New York along this inland route. It would lighten the load on the Northeast Corridor for Amtrak and allow more attention to the Hudson River tunnels that are sorely needed(?). Are there too many obstacles, or simply out of the question, politically? Thoughts, F-Line?
I hope this private initiative is successful and leads to other successful private railroad projects across the country. Is Acela in the black operating between Boston and New York? If not, I wonder if Amtrak would allow a well-funded private consortium to complete a railroad from Boston to New York, going through Worcester and Hartford, and replace Acela between Boston and New York along this inland route. It would lighten the load on the Northeast Corridor for Amtrak and allow more attention to the Hudson River tunnels that are sorely needed(?). Are there too many obstacles, or simply out of the question, politically? Thoughts, F-Line?
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Let's put most of the NEC & alternative spine question in the thread we already have going on that, such as http://www.archboston.org/community/showthread.php?t=3599&page=24
Amtrak's NEC (Acela & NER) and its Virginia Extensions (engine-change to 79mph diesels at WAS) are all profitable above-the-rails, as they say. The problem is that the NEC's rails depreciate/wear each year at about what the NEC's profit is, and they need more $ to move ahead on capacity & reliability to stay competitive.
The accounting for Amtrak Virginia is also such that they appear to be able to pay for their rails (as part of costs paid to CSX and NS), but they will never never pay back Virginia's capital investment (upgrades to platforms and CSX/NS in order to get permission for added frequencies.) Right now Virginia's spending $75m on a freight line (the Virginian) owned by NS (and supposedly going to take diverted trains) as part of the deal to extend 1 train just Lynchburg to Roanoke. (the state lays out big $ for ROW upgrades up front--they justify it as being like highway spending and then they like to pretend they're thrifty because they don't subsidize train operations (also like highways)). Its actually a bad deal for taxpayers, but it preserves an important political fiction of not subsidizing operations, and the railroads love being the bag-man, receiving big fat captial-spending checks.
Except for NHV-SPG which is now under construction for 110mph service (and is techno-legally part of Amtrak's NEC) most other work ripening in the near future is going to be 90mph (like DC-Richmond), even though VA&NC continue to nudge along several 110mph through the EIS process.
As F-line says, Brightline is going to be in the rare 110mph Diesel club alongside Illinois' CHI-STL, Michigan's CHI-DET, and Amtrak NHV-SPG lines.
Amtrak's NEC (Acela & NER) and its Virginia Extensions (engine-change to 79mph diesels at WAS) are all profitable above-the-rails, as they say. The problem is that the NEC's rails depreciate/wear each year at about what the NEC's profit is, and they need more $ to move ahead on capacity & reliability to stay competitive.
The accounting for Amtrak Virginia is also such that they appear to be able to pay for their rails (as part of costs paid to CSX and NS), but they will never never pay back Virginia's capital investment (upgrades to platforms and CSX/NS in order to get permission for added frequencies.) Right now Virginia's spending $75m on a freight line (the Virginian) owned by NS (and supposedly going to take diverted trains) as part of the deal to extend 1 train just Lynchburg to Roanoke. (the state lays out big $ for ROW upgrades up front--they justify it as being like highway spending and then they like to pretend they're thrifty because they don't subsidize train operations (also like highways)). Its actually a bad deal for taxpayers, but it preserves an important political fiction of not subsidizing operations, and the railroads love being the bag-man, receiving big fat captial-spending checks.
Except for NHV-SPG which is now under construction for 110mph service (and is techno-legally part of Amtrak's NEC) most other work ripening in the near future is going to be 90mph (like DC-Richmond), even though VA&NC continue to nudge along several 110mph through the EIS process.
As F-line says, Brightline is going to be in the rare 110mph Diesel club alongside Illinois' CHI-STL, Michigan's CHI-DET, and Amtrak NHV-SPG lines.
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F-Line to Dudley
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http://www.progressiverailroading.c...high-speed-rail-pact-with-Chinese-firm--48507
XpressWest's Chinese partners just pulled out. Vaporware has now been downgraded from "slightly humid" to "semi-arid".
XpressWest's Chinese partners just pulled out. Vaporware has now been downgraded from "slightly humid" to "semi-arid".