Can the U.S. afford high-speed rail?

The Current California High Speed rail project is projected to cost 68 - 99 billion dollars for the 520 mile segment, this is roughly 130 million to 190 million dollars per mile. High costs are largely why the project will never make it past the Central Valley. European Countries do it for a fraction of the price.



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U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced that 54 high-speed rail projects in 23 states will share in $2.4 billion to continue developing America's first nationwide program of high-speed intercity passenger rail service.

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That works out to $200 million a mile for hilly areas. At these costs, Obama's original high-?speed rail plan would require well over $1 trillion, while the USHSR's plan would need well over $3 trillion. Building a system longer than China's would cost at least $4 trillion.

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A story of US transportation Highways (as well as aviation) became the focus of infrastructure spending, at the expense of rail. This trend has continued, and not the least because highways require continuous maintenance, while the US's growing population demands more lanes and roads to relieve congestion.

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California's landmark Cap-and-Trade Program, created by the California Air Resources Board in 2008, is also a source of funding for the high-speed rail project. This program generates revenue by selling quarterly greenhouse gas allowances, or permits, through an auction mechanism.

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China's 'Hidden Debt' Accordingly, a 30,000-kilometer expansion will cost about 3.6 trillion yuan. China Railway sells bonds to state-owned banks and brokerages to pay the costs.

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This investment has spurred economic benefits around California and across the country. Investment in high-speed rail is supporting jobs, labor income and economic output across a number of California's regions, including some of those hardest hit by the Great Recession.

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The Great Depression of the 1930s forced some railroad companies into bankruptcy, creating hundreds of miles of disowned and subsequently abandoned railway properties; other railroad companies found incentive to merge or reorganize, during which excess or redundant rights-of-way were abandoned.

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Inflation and higher construction costs have contributed to the high price tag. The project has spent $9.8 billion so far, according to Brian Kelly, CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority. We knew we've had a funding gap ever since the project started, Kelly said.

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Modelling by Virgin Hyperloop One in 2016 estimated a per-mile cost of $84 to $121 million for a cut-down 107-mile Bay Area project. This compares to a projected cost of $178 million per mile for the full Californian high speed rail project.

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High Speed Rail is the world's safest form of transportation proven by decades of operations all around the world. Japan was the first nation to build high speed rail in 1964, and has since transported 10 billion passengers without a single injury or fatality!

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It costs 120 million to 130 million yuan to extend the high-speed rail 1 km, he estimates. This suggests that extending the network by 8,000 km by 2025 would take an investment on the scale of 1 trillion yuan.

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American railways were also built on a wider gauge (the distance between the rails), which allows for larger and heavier trains. As a result, American freight railways are much more efficient than their European counterparts, carrying almost three times as much cargo per mile of track.

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High-speed trains are European-standard high-speed inter-city trains, capable of typical ground speeds of 250 kph (or 155 mph). They currently run between Moscow, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, and Nizhny Novgorod. These trains are called Sapsan within Russia, or Alstom on the Helsinki – St.

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Social Benefits In addition to sprawl, a large country like the United States often has vast distances between populated areas. High-speed rail reduces the travelling distance between far flung suburbs and center cities. High-speed rail can also help to ease congestion of urban areas with mega-large populations.

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This paper highlights that HSR can help achieve accessibility of rural area and poverty alleviation simultaneously. An understanding of the effect is critical for policymakers to promote intra-regional development, balancing efficiency and regional equality.

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According to the latest data, as of the first half of 2022, the total liabilities of China National Railway Group totaled 6 trillion yuan, and in the first half of 2022 alone, it has lost 80.4 billion yuan, with an average loss of 400 million yuan per day.

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