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PostJun 03, 2011#451

Email from Midwest High Speed Rail Association

Patrick,

We have reached a major milestone for high-speed rail in the Midwest. Yesterday at the US High Speed Rail Conference in Chicago, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn announced that the Illinois Department of Transportation has contracted with the University of Illinois to design and evaluate a 220-mph bullet train line. The line to be studied will link O'Hare Airport, downtown Chicago, and Champaign, IL. Potential connections to St. Louis and Indianapolis will also be included in the analysis.

The governor has named a nine person advisory committee to provide oversight for the project. I am very honored to be serving on that committee with some of the biggest leaders in transportation advocacy, rail issues, and regional planning in Illinois.

The University of Illinois will lead the design project, and the synergy resulting from this important partnership will make the university a leader in high-speed rail development in the United States. The University of Illinois has excellent railway engineering, economic development, and urban planning programs that will be utilized and enhanced by the project.

With this announcement, Illinois continues to demonstrate its leadership in the development of high-speed and inter-city passenger rail services. Thank you very much Governor Quinn for your leadership on the issue!

Most importantly, this development represents a great success for high-speed rail advocates. Thank you to all of our members and high-speed rail supporters for all that you have done to continue to push forward for high-speed rail in the Midwest.

A press release and additional news articles of the announcement can be found on our website at MidwestHSR.org

Sincerely,

Rick Harnish
Executive Director
Midwest High Speed Rail Association
4765 N. Lincoln Ave.
Chicago, IL 60625
773-334-6758

Join us at MidwestHSR.org
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PostJun 13, 2011#452

I took a day trip to Jeff City on Saturday. I highly recommend it. Jeff City could use a real train station. It looked like the former Missouri Pacific one was great, but that's not where Amtrak drops you off. It looked like Washington has a nice one. Something like that would be great.
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PostJun 13, 2011#453

^ Can you offer some details? ie How much it was, how on-time it was, how long it took, how the on train experience was? Did you leave from St. Louis of Kirkwood? That's a trip I'd love to take some day.
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PostJun 13, 2011#454

I took the 311 9:25 am from downtown. Two coaches and a cafe car. We picked up a lot of people at Kirkwood. Lots of talking not too bad though. The lady who sat next to me chatted for a bit then went with some of her family to the cafe car. There's one long tunnel at Grey's Summit and another shorter tunnel. You see tress, farms, rock faces, a few small towns and the river. People got off at Washington and Hermann for bike riding trails and wineries. Made it to Jeff City about 10 min late ~11:45 am. $31

Spent most my time on High St and in the Capitol building. Took the tour. It's a really cool building. They have a Civil War in MO exhibit. The area around the capitol was pretty quiet. Ventured to Central Dairy for a milkshake.

Returned on the 316. It was about 15 min late ~7:20 pm. Fewer people than in the morning. Mostly quiet. A baby cried a little bit. Made it to St Louis on time 9:40pm. $19 (bucket rate)

It's nice that the route is double-tracked so the freights don't get in the way. We passed many. But the route is very curvy. Why a straighter route wasn't worth the effort even in the 1850s I wonder. I get why it'd be easier to follow the MO River, but for the parts of it not along the river why not straighter? Just look at the part from DT to Kirkwood. I wonder how much of it could support 110 mph service.
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PostJun 13, 2011#455

quincunx wrote:But the route is very curvy. Why a straighter route wasn't worth the effort even in the 1850s I wonder. I get why it'd be easier to follow the MO River, but for the parts of it not along the river why not straighter? Just look at the part from DT to Kirkwood. I wonder how much of it could support 110 mph service.
I’ve taken this route many times both (from KC) terminating in both STL and Hermann for Oktoberfest… always been a good time & rarely been more than 10 – 15 minutes late (occasionally it is early)... Bikes cost an extra $10 to take on – but a cool (& doable) trip to go to Hermann or Jeff City and ride back to St. Chuck - possibly stay at a B&B.

Due to low power in contemporary locomotives, at the time these lines were built the focus was to have a level grade as opposed to a straight alignment – hence following a river’s flood plain provides a LOT of pre-graded real estate. Hills slow trains down a LOT more than do curves (even on HSR). I can only imagine the route from DT STL to the MO river (near Pacific) via Kirkwood/Webster was the flattest (followed the contours as best as possible) – as both MoPac and Frisco choose similar routes for a distance of 30 + miles. Before trains, a means of transport was the river, so anyone who needed to ship stuff (grain etc) was located near the river... for trains, locating along the river had the benefit of serving these existing towns.

Unless the system is completely grade separated – even a “110 or 220 MPH HSR” system won’t run near full speed in urban areas. Even the most grandiose plans that I have seen DON’T call for full grade separation (or high speed) within urban areas.
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PostJul 06, 2011#456

High-speed rail
How fast is fast enough?
http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver ... fastenough
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PostJul 07, 2011#457

hebeter wrote:High-speed rail
How fast is fast enough?
http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver ... fastenough
One of the commenters wants to sell all the highways to private enterprise. Some politicians are voucher happy right now, wanting vouchers for health care, medicare, schools, highways? What's next -- defense? You would get a voucher from the government and you could take it to Boeing or Lockheed for defense of your house. And how about fire protection -- put your voucher somewhere where it won't burn up in the fire if you want your house squirted.

There are some things that are so big or pervasive that only government can do them unless we are willing to wait 60 years for private enterprise to get there incrementally. Or it is just more convenient and efficient for government to do it. A simple thing like inspection of restaurants is a subsidized convenience, so we don't have to wait for news reports of food poisoning to find the unhealthy restaurants. Train travel is a subsidized convenience to provide another travel option so we don't have to put up with driving, bouncy buses, or airplane security to get from point A to point B.
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PostJul 07, 2011#458

"And how about fire protection -- put your voucher somewhere where it won't burn up in the fire if you want your house squirted."

I guess this is what happens when the invisible hand holds the fire hose:
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_ ... department
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PostJul 11, 2011#459

Tough to listen to Obama's press conference this morning if your a HSR let alone a passenger rail advocate. Every time he referenced infrastructure in his responses it was roads, bridges or ports. Not a peep for rail. My bet, even though it is pure speculation on my part is that the California HSR funds are on the chopping block.

Would be disheartening, Even if California continued to have its issues getting construction started it would be nice to see those funds reprogrammed to the NEC and Midwest were you got progress being made on the construction end for 90-110 mph midwest hub system, from new rail between Chicago to St. Louis, upgrades in Michigan, new service out of Chicago to Iowa and even a request from the Wisc gov to still invest between Milwaukee to Chicago.
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PostJul 12, 2011#460

There was an article in the Post Dispatch today how Congressional Republicans want to divert HSR funds to pay for disaster relief in the Midwest. This is incredibly short sighted if you ask me. Yes we need to be fiscally prudent--but not at the expense of investment in much needed transit.

We're spending $150 billion a year in Afghanistan. Surely with the draw down of troops there we can divert some of that funding to disaster relief and leave HSR funding as is. Unfortunately I don't think any Republicans these days will risk the wrath of the Tea Party to agree to something like that.
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PostJul 12, 2011#461

southsidepride wrote:There was an article in the Post Dispatch today how Congressional Republicans want to divert HSR funds to pay for disaster relief in the Midwest. This is incredibly short sighted if you ask me. Yes we need to be fiscally prudent--but not at the expense of investment in much needed transit.

We're spending $150 billion a year in Afghanistan. Surely with the draw down of troops there we can divert some of that funding to disaster relief and leave HSR funding as is. Unfortunately I don't think any Republicans these days will risk the wrath of the Tea Party to agree to something like that.
The same house that passed to keep Ethanol subisdies to the tune of $6 billion a year intact not to mention on the told amount that has been given since 1993. Honestly, I don't know if their is a politician who understands infrastructure is pay me now or pay me a lot later. Instead we give billions in direct payments that have benefitted industrial agriculture and big farms in the billions and somehow we can't afford to come to the aid without taking from Paul to pay Peter.

PostJul 15, 2011#462

Not directly related to HSR, but a nice article about an expanding local railroad supply/manufacturing in this weeks BizJournals. Just click on the digital version to get the full story on the first few pages of viewing before it asks for you to subscribe,

What I thought was awesome is the fact that the company is relocating and across from the Kirkwood Train Station, maybe not Union Station but the next best thing. Talk about a company knowing where its bread and butter coming from instead of staying in some non-descript office park. Instead, they will give themselve front view seats on some train action.

Railroad company Gross & Janes ties up more business

St. Louis Business Journal - by Evan Binns

http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/prin ... es-up.html

PostSep 09, 2011#463

Tough to see how this will all work out politically, but would love to see some things happen from Obama's call for a jobs bill. Would love to see a $2 billion to NEC or split between NEC/California, $1 billion to Virginia/NC corridor, $ 1 billion to Midwest. The Midwest projects that would like to see secure funding and would certainly strengthen rail for the area

1) Chicago to Milwaukee improvements @ 175 mil I believe - gots support from the Wisc conservative gov and was in the last reallocation request
2) No doubt Chicago to St. Louis continued improvement, the sooner you get 110 mph service the sooner you will get more support for Chicago/Blomington/St Louis/Indy HSR in my opinion.
3) Rolling stock purchase, you could double the last grant request of $285 I believe
4) Mississippi Span replacement in St. Louis, 175 mil. MoDot got grant to do the engineering
5) Missouri rail improvements with UP matching funds, another 50-75 million (third track in Jeff City & additional sidings)
6) The rest to Chicago CREATE, any improvements or separations of rail junctions in Chicago is a plus to the whole network


http://enr.construction.com/opinions/bl ... d=blogDest

Obama $447B Jobs Plan Has $105B for Infrastructure
Posted by tom_ichniowski at 9/9/2011 11:35 AM CDT

The $50 billion, which the White House describes as “immediate investments…to jump-start critical infrastructure projects and create hundreds of thousands of jobs,”
includes $27 billion for highways, $9 billion for transit and $2 billion for airports.

Also in the $50 billion is $10 billion for “innovative ways of financing and investing in infrastructure,” including $4 billion for high-speed rail and $5 billion for the existing, and extremely popular, TIFIA federal loan program and TIGER discretionary grants.
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PostSep 09, 2011#464

You know what I wish Obama/White House/Congress would do? I wish they would set aside some money for a new 220mph bullet train to be built somewhere in the U.S. Have a design competition for each proposed line (California, Illinois, Florida, etc.) and award one to be built in full. No more of this "a little bit here, a little bit there" to each and every project. Its peanuts. Its too slow. Its boring.

This country needs something fresh, innovative, and concrete. Spreading around the money is more fair, but its going into existing infrastructure. That doesn't really grab people's attention. A new high speed train anywhere, whether its California or the Northeast, would be perceived as progress. Its something to get excited about.
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PostSep 09, 2011#465

pat wrote:You know what I wish Obama/White House/Congress would do? I wish they would set aside some money for a new 220mph bullet train to be built somewhere in the U.S. Have a design competition for each proposed line (California, Illinois, Florida, etc.) and award one to be built in full. No more of this "a little bit here, a little bit there" to each and every project. Its peanuts. Its too slow. Its boring.

This country needs something fresh, innovative, and concrete. Spreading around the money is more fair, but its going into existing infrastructure. That doesn't really grab people's attention. A new high speed train anywhere, whether its California or the Northeast, would be perceived as progress. Its something to get excited about.
Certainly understand, but until we have the political will to shoot for the moon I see any opportunities to improve anything as a win for rail transportation in this country. Realistically, we might have to settle for building corridors as first step in just getting to a strong national network. At that point, the support to get to a third transportation opion in this county might start to happen.

In the meantime. Engineering News Record also posted a LA times arictles noting difficulties on the left coast. Essentially, A question if Gov Brown will go forward with state HSR bond sale as approved by voters. It is believe that the state bond sale has to happen in a couple of months. If that doesn't happen, you will see plus 3 billion in HSR Fed funds being pulled in my opinion.
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PostSep 10, 2011#466

Bad news coming out of House Transportation Reauthorization.... Republicans want to decrease funding for Amtrak (not surprising) but also strip out completely operating assistance for state-supported routes (disastrous for Missouri).
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PostOct 27, 2011#467

Throw in your two cents for MODOT's State Rail Plan:

http://contribute.modot.mo.gov/othertra ... ilplan.htm

Annoying how the local public meeting was in Kirkwood.
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PostOct 27, 2011#468

quincunx wrote:Throw in your two cents for MODOT's State Rail Plan:

http://contribute.modot.mo.gov/othertra ... ilplan.htm

Annoying how the local public meeting was in Kirkwood.
Much better than the Illinois HSR public meeting coming up on Nov 3... in Alton.
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PostNov 10, 2011#469

Does anyone know the details of this program on HSR at SLU tomorrow?
Rick Harnish, the executive director of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association, will be in St. Louis on Thursday to meet with local elected officials and participate in a program at St. Louis University
http://www.stlbeacon.org/issues-politic ... ck-harnish
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PostNov 21, 2011#470

Good article on how Transportation funding was appropriated in FY2012 - one of the few budget bills actually passed. I don't think anyone really surprised about no HSR funding in FY12. Believe it was one of the compromises made when it came to keeping funds for TIGER in FY12 ($500 million) and an actual boost in funds for Transit (Maybe METRO can take advantage of one of these days - new start BRT/Streetcar line)

http://enr.construction.com/policy/wash ... tments.asp

Obama Signs FY12 Spending Bill for DOT, 4 Other Departments
11/18/2011
By Tom Ichniowski

Federal transportation construction programs have their fiscal 2012 funding locked in, thanks to a newly enacted appropriations package. Highway funding and TIGER grants were sliced, high-speed rail was zeroed out, but aid for mass transit got a boost.
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PostDec 09, 2011#471

Good article about why true high speed rail is dead in America and why maybe that's a good thing considering what was proposed by the Feds....

http://www.slate.com/articles/technolog ... ingle.html
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PostDec 16, 2011#472

This article in the West End Word doesn't make sense. Getting average speeds STL-KCY to 90 mph would surely cost >$1B, right? It makes it sound like just the purchase of new equipment, which has already been funded, will be all it takes.
Passenger trains are now getting up to 50 or 60 miles per hour with the improvements, but with fast trains the average speed can jump to 90 miles per hour with speeds of 120 on straightaways
http://www.westendword.com/Articles-Are ... uture.html
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PostDec 16, 2011#473

^ Definitely seems to be some confusion in the article regarding what is achievable. But equipment can make a difference. The Amtrak Cascades route between Portland and Vancouver uses Talgo train equipment which is capable of tilting allowing it to take curves at higher speeds than normal Amtrak trains. Perhaps that's what they're talking about in the article?
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PostDec 29, 2011#474

On my way out of town last week we took the Merchants Bridge route. While it was a nice treat to take a different route through the Arch grounds and the industrial north riverfront, it was even slower than the regular route. There are many more grade crossings (17 vs 2 by my count). The view of the city from the approach to the MacArthur and crossing the river can't be beat. I hope this remains the preferred route. BTW they replaced the rails and ties for most of the UP ROW on the East Side. You can see it on Google Maps (turn off the 45 degree angle view. The over head images are newer).
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PostJan 10, 2012#475

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nati ... 9939.story
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