Found this article over at Pajamas Media discussing why trains as a passenger service just won't ever work again in America. The author posits trips from Denver to D.C., Denver to NYC and Denver to LA and calculates some numbers comparing planes and trains and concludes that planes are more economical. I disagree.
Let's re-calculate a bit:
All directions are from Mapquest. And we're assuming an non-stop express train with speeds similar to the TGV, which runs at top speeds of 200 MPH.
Denver-DC: 1689.82 miles= 8.44 hours
Denver-NYC: 1779.69 miles= 8.89 hours
Denver-LA: 1018.51 miles= 5.09 hours
As you can see, its far short of the 74, 54 and 90 hour times that the author predicted. And the prices would change too! If we made the investment and built tracks specifically graded for high speed rail, anything is possible- and train travel could be very economical. Granted, the above times are assuming no stops and a constant speed of 200 MPH throughout the journey- but even so, we can add about three hours to each journey which amounts to about 12, 12 and 8 hours respectively to each prospective destination.
What we need is for the government to make the necessary investment and for them to co-opt the automobile and airline companies to help pay for it. There's money to be made in more than one form of transportation. And if you price it between plane tickets and the price of driving then you could potentially have a niche market for train travel again.
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