"We are finally going to build the first high-speed railway in American history!" The US government is setting off a wave of high-speed railway construction. Is this country with weak railway passenger transportation really going to make a big leap forward in infrastructure construction and enter a new era of high-speed rail? The future looks bright, but it’s unclear when it will be completed and opened to traffic.
There is no high-speed rail in the country
Although the United States is the undisputed number one economic power in the world in terms of economic aggregate and core innovation, in terms of many infrastructures, the United States may only rank last among many capitalist powers, and is even worse than many developing countries that are vigorously building infrastructure. Many airports, bridges, highways, and subways in the United States are decades old. Not only do they lack the latest technology, but they are also in serious disrepair and damage.
Railway passenger transportation is the biggest weakness of the American social economy. Although the United States was the first country in the world to build a railway network, opening its first passenger railway as early as 1827, the status of railway transportation in the US economy is directly related to the development of coal, steel, machinery and other industries. Passenger trains had become a thing of the past a century ago.
As road and automobile transportation became mainstream in the 1930s, and civil aviation began to develop and become popular in the 1950s, Americans gradually became accustomed to traveling by plane or car. The proportion of cross-city rail transportation in the U.S. passenger transportation field has been minimal. Today the U.S. rail network plays an almost exclusively freight role, with passenger long-distance trains serving tourist purposes.
There are of course certain objective reasons for the lack of high-speed rail in the United States: the development of the aviation industry, and almost major cities have their own airports and flight lines; the number of cars is extremely high, and highways extend in all directions, and most of them are free or extremely low-cost; private land ownership makes demolition and land acquisition very difficult, and it is easy to be resisted by the local government.
Therefore, the existing passenger rail lines in the United States are aging and in disrepair and lack modern technology trains, which further affects Americans' willingness to travel by train. In 2019, before the pandemic, Amtrak (the national railroad funded by the federal government) had only 32 million passengers, with an average speed of only 110 miles per hour and a top speed of only 150 miles per hour.
The fastest passenger train in the United States is currently the Acela, the Northeast Corridor line connecting Boston to Washington, DC. It is also the only "American high-speed rail" in the United States with a design speed of more than 200 kilometers per hour. It was put into operation in 2000, and the theoretical maximum speed can reach 240 kilometers per hour. Since the United States does not have its own high-speed rail technology, the Acela Express trains come from Canada and France.
But there is a clear gap between theory and reality. Because the Acele Express runs on existing old tracks and shares lines with trucks and ordinary trucks, its actual average speed is only 110 kilometers per hour. The 700-kilometer journey from Boston to Washington, D.C., takes nearly seven hours on the Arcile Express, which seems to have nothing to do with the high-speed rail experience we imagined.
Regarding high-speed rail technology, there is no unified standard around the world. If the speed of newly built high-speed railways is 250 kilometers per hour, then the United States does not yet have a true high-speed rail line. In the important field of high-speed rail, the technology and infrastructure gap between the United States and the world's powerful countries is incredible, and it is even worse than some developing countries.
In contrast, the high-speed rails of major high-speed rail countries such as China, Japan, France, and Germany all operate at speeds exceeding 300 kilometers per hour and are exported to other countries around the world. China's high-speed rail has gone through the entire process from technology import to innovation to export. Currently, the fastest operating speed of China's high-speed rail trains reaches 350 kilometers per hour. It is the country with the fastest high-speed rail operation in the world and the country with the largest high-speed rail network in the world.
Biden administration sparks high-speed rail craze
However, it seems that the Biden administration is planning to launch a wave of infrastructure construction in the field of high-speed rail, build new high-speed rail lines in densely populated areas across the United States, change the status quo of third-world countries in the field of high-speed rail, and lead the United States into a new era of high-speed rail in one fell swoop. Of course, what is more important is that Biden, who is facing re-election, urgently needs achievements in infrastructure construction to win votes for himself.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced an $8.2 billion U.S. passenger transportation planning project, of which the construction and renovation of high-speed rail is the most concerning part. The U.S. Department of Transportation mentioned that it not only needs to upgrade existing railway lines to increase the train speed on the current line to 79-125 miles per hour (approximately 127-200 kilometers), but also build new high-speed rail lines with speeds exceeding 186 miles per hour (approximately 299 kilometers).
The U.S. Department of Transportation has listed several key planned high-speed rail lines, including: the Amtrak project connecting Dallas and Houston, the Brightline project connecting Los Angeles and Las Vegas, the California high-speed rail project connecting San Francisco to Los Angeles, the high-speed rail project connecting Charlotte, South Carolina to Atlanta, North Carolina, the Cascadia high-speed rail project from Vancouver to Seattle to Portland, Canada, and the Victor Valley to Palmdale high-speed rail project in central California (this high-speed rail can open the high-speed rail line from San Francisco to Las Vegas).
Most of these lines are completely concentrated on the east and west coasts. This is the most densely populated area in the United States, with nearly 30% of the population in the United States. It is also the most economically developed area in the United States, with huge business and travel needs. The Gulf of Mexico region, where Texas is located, is also the third most populous region in the United States.
Do Americans really want to take high-speed rail? Of course, the need for convenient travel is what all people want. A 2015 survey showed that more than two-thirds of Americans said they were willing to travel by high-speed rail if it could save time and be reasonably priced.
Although the United States is vast and sparsely populated, the population is almost concentrated in several large urban areas on the east and west coasts. Building high-speed rail on the east and west coasts will not lack passenger traffic. Although the Arcile Express is far from a high-speed rail, it still has more than 2 million passengers every year, and even exceeded 3.4 million passengers at its peak in 2016.
However, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s $8.2 billion investment is not for these high-speed rail lines, but includes all existing passenger rail networks. The Department of Transportation only provides $500,000 in preliminary development planning and preparation funds for each of these planned high-speed rail lines. The cost of each high-speed rail line may exceed tens of billions of dollars, and will be jointly funded by the federal government and local governments.
Although these high-speed rails are just long-term plans, the Biden administration can't wait to promote its achievements. Biden flew to Las Vegas, Nevada last Friday to announce the construction of a high-speed rail line between the casino and Los Angeles. This is a key project for infrastructure project investment during his term.
Building high-speed rail from Las Vegas to Los Angeles
Biden announced with enthusiasm at the event, "Finally, we are going to build the first high-speed rail project in American history. We are working together to make the high-speed rail project connecting Las Vegas and Los Angeles a reality."
Facing the presidential re-election in 2024, Biden is urgently looking for all infrastructure construction projects that can boost his political performance and use them for political propaganda in the re-election. The "Infrastructure Construction and Employment Act" of 2021 is the biggest political achievement during his term.
If, as Biden said, this is the first high-speed rail in the United States, then according to the internationally recognized high-speed rail standard of 250 kilometers per hour, it will only take less than three hours from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.
From many aspects, the section from Los Angeles to Las Vegas is the most suitable line for high-speed rail construction in the United States. As the most famous casino city in the United States, Las Vegas' economy relies almost entirely on the convention and exhibition tourism industry. According to statistics from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau (LVCVA), nearly 20 million people come to the casino city of Las Vegas every year to attend exhibitions, shop, watch performances, etc., and of course gamble. How to attract more tourists to the casino more conveniently is their economic lifeline.
The greater Los Angeles area, with a population of more than 10 million, is the most densely populated area in the United States and the main source of tourists to Las Vegas. According to LVCVA statistics, 1.8 million people flew to Las Vegas from several airports in the Los Angeles area last year. The second-ranked source of tourists is the San Francisco Bay Area, with 1.3 million people taking flights to the casino last year.
The distance from Los Angeles to Las Vegas is nearly 700 kilometers. You can either take a 75-minute flight, drive yourself or take a bus, which takes 5-7 hours. The United States is a country on wheels, and many people in Los Angeles are used to driving all the way east on weekends, all the way across the vast Mojave Desert (Mojave, the source of the name of macOS Mojave in 2018), and going to the casino to relax for two days.
More importantly, most of the area between Los Angeles and Las Vegas is sparsely populated desert land with sparse vegetation. Compared with densely populated areas on the east and west coasts, the cost and difficulty of acquiring land to build high-speed rail in the desert may be the lowest.
However, this high-speed railway did not disclose the specific construction time. They stated that it was "about to break ground", but the previously planned start of construction by the end of the year was impossible. According to the plan, Las Vegas hopes to complete the construction and put it into use before the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. This is also a goal that Biden has emphasized many times in his speeches.
In the opinion of many experts, it will take four years to build a nearly 700-kilometer high-speed railway. This goal seems a bit too aggressive. Yonah Freemark, a research scholar at the Urban Institute, a think tank that studies transportation issues, said that the construction timetable of this high-speed rail looks very aggressive, but if (in the end) I am wrong, this will be a great project. "
However, some experts are optimistic about this project. Rick Harnish, executive director of the High Speed Rail Alliance, said he is fully confident that the Las Vegas High Speed Rail will be completed on time because they have acquired all the necessary land for the high speed rail line, and most of the road is along desert land that is easier to build.
However, this high-speed rail, which is an image project of the Biden administration's infrastructure, is not actually a project of the American railway company Amtrak, but a joint investment project between Brightline, a subsidiary of the private equity giant Fortress Investment, and the governments of California and Nevada. In the first half of this year, Japan’s SoftBank just sold a major stake in Fengbao Investment to Mubadala, the UAE government investment fund. In other words, the ultimate parent company of this U.S. government infrastructure project is actually the UAE Government Investment Fund.
Brightline has great expectations for this first high-speed rail in the United States. They hope to create 35,000 high-speed rail construction jobs and 1,000 permanent jobs in the future.
Just two months ago, the "American-style high-speed rail" in Florida invested and constructed by Brightline was finally fully operational and opened to traffic. The Las Vegas-Los Angeles high-speed rail is their second ambitious project. Brightline began planning the high-speed rail between Miami and Orlando, Florida, in 2012, started construction in November 2014, and has been put into operation in sections since 2018.
The total length of the high-speed rail between Orlando and Miami is about 380 kilometers. It was initially estimated to cost US$1.5 billion. However, during the construction process, the cost continued to increase, and the final cost exceeded US$6 billion. The completion and operation time has been continuously delayed. The most important section, from Orlando to West Palm Beach, did not start operation until September this year.
Moreover, this American-style high-speed rail is different from other high-speed rail powers in the world. Brightline's high-speed trains use a 16-cylinder Cummins QSK95 diesel engine. Although the top speed can reach 200 kilometers per hour, the average speed is only 110 kilometers per hour, and the total journey takes up to three and a half hours.
Even though there is a clear gap between the high-speed rail experience in other countries, Brightline has still become the focus of the U.S. government and media because it is the first train line built by a private enterprise in the United States in more than 100 years. More importantly, in addition to Amtrak, the American national railway company, there are finally companies willing to raise their own money to invest in railway construction.
Of course, the initial expected total investment in the Las Vegas-Los Angeles high-speed rail line is US$12 billion, which is impossible to achieve by one company alone. In fact, Brightline only needs to bear part of it, and the rest will be completed by the California and Nevada governments and federal subsidies. The federal government will provide $3 billion in funding, which is less than the $3.75 billion Brightline previously applied for.
California’s long-shot high-speed rail
Although Brightline's high-speed rail from Los Angeles to Las Vegas faces many uncertainties, it is more realistic and predictable than the long-planned California high-speed rail from Los Angeles to San Francisco, because Brightline only needs to be responsible for building the section from Las Vegas to Rancho Cucamonga, California, and the remaining section to Los Angeles will be connected by the existing Metrolink railway line. This means that Brightline avoids almost all densely populated areas of Los Angeles and avoids all man-made obstacles.
How difficult is it to build a high-speed rail in California? The high-speed rail line from Los Angeles to San Francisco has been planned for decades, and the formal plan was approved as early as 2005. However, for more than ten years, it has been stuck in a lengthy environmental assessment process, enduring protests and opposition from environmental protection departments and local people along the high-speed rail line.
It was not until 2015 that the construction of this high-speed railway officially started. The expected first phase of the project, the line in the Central Valley, will not be completed until 2031. It is still unknown when the full line between Los Angeles and San Francisco will be accessible. After all, today, 18 years after the project was approved, nearly one-sixth of the lines are still undergoing environmental assessment.
Just last week, the California High-Speed Rail Authority received a new $3.1 billion grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to build a high-speed rail between Bakersfield and Merced in California's Central Valley, the first section of the high-speed rail line from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Although US$3.1 billion is already a huge amount of money, the estimated cost of the first phase of the 275-kilometer California high-speed rail is US$35 billion.
However, this does not prevent many politicians in California from considering this long-term high-speed rail line as their political achievements. He also proudly announced last week that California will soon bring the United States' first fully electrified high-speed railway with a speed of 350 kilometers per hour, and the US federal government has provided up to $6 billion in funding.
At the same time, Congressman Jim Costa, California Senator Alex Padilla and California Congressman Nancy Pelosi from the Central Valley are also publicly claiming credit, claiming that this ambitious project is due to the infrastructure bill they helped pass, and they have been working to promote California’s high-speed rail to become a reality.
It seems that it does not matter when the high-speed rail is completed and opened to traffic. What is important is that politicians have obtained the political achievements they want.