Sestak
jk2020
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Posts: 13,284
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« on: March 06, 2021, 02:57:01 AM » |
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Right, so:
First of all, the coastal routes. The west coast route seems to be already fully either under construction/planning in three separate pieces (Fremont's Northern Pacific line, authorized 2017, the original California HSR proposal, and the Fremont LA-San Diego line authorized 2018). I think we're all in agreement that building another line there is not actually our intention. I would be open as designating the three lines together as a federal infrastructure project and providing federal government funding, as well. Yet of course from there there is still a lot to decide - including how much to fund and how much to allocate between the three projects (which, in Fremont law, seem to still be budgetarily separate). It would also be helpful if someone could check if Fremont has ever gone back and manually subsidized the SF-to-LA portion or if it's still in RL status - if it is, then (especially given Lumine's reporting) it should probably be granted the most federal funding, possibly with a requirement for the region to match funding to some level.
For the east coast line, we already have the Northeast Corridor as the only (theoretically) HSR-ready railroad in the country both in-game and IRL. We could, of course, fund improvements and renovations on the Northeast Corridor in an attempt to transition it to carrying "true" HSR full-time (as opposed to current routes who only just barely make the more generous classifications of "high speed"). Yet there are questions here as well. First of all, Lincoln does not seem to have any funding allocated for Acela/NE corridor improvement - should this be done as a solely federal project, or as a combined project requiring funding from Lincoln (and the South in the Southern portion) before it can begin? For what it is worth, I am more open here to just having these improvements be fully federally funded - these are only improvements to an already existing line which has proven to be integral to national transportation infrastructure. In addition, it technically is a trans-regional line and also runs through our nation's capital. Given this coupled with both the disunion in Lincoln's rail system and it's budget problems, I am more comfortable making this a solely federal project.
As for the rest of the east coast south of DC, that's another question. We could make provisions for creating a high-speed ready southeastern corridor adopting the southern portion of Amtrak's Silver Star route (DC-Richmond-Raleigh-Columbia-Savannah-Jacksonville-Miami) or choose some other similar right-of-way and/or have our own built. Once again, the funding is a question. Here I would be much more wary of the project being federal-only, as it lies entirely within the South and, more importantly, requires much more investment as it seeks to create a high speed line where there currently are none. I would prefer a joint funding system where the project would only commence if/when the Southern government agreed to support and fund it.
Finally, I must note that I don't think I support the look into transnational lines at this time. Given the progress of the regions, it seems they are already spreading themselves too thin. I don't want to repeat this mistake at the federal level - best to set out what the key projects are and pump all the federal money into them in order to try and expedite their construction. In addition, the efficacy of a transnational line is not an idea I'm completely sold on in general - any train crossing the Plains is going to quickly become uncompetitive against flying when dealing with transport between larger metros, and building high speed infrastructure in the Rockies would require extremely expensive (and environmentally intrusive) tunneling etc., only to run into the same uncompetitiveness problem. (I had not realized that Fremont was actively constructing Transdakotan and Central lines to high speed rail standards, which I also see as a blunder on their part). Thus, I favor a focus only on pushing federal funding into the coastal railroads, and perhaps one more project set up somewhere else with numerous large metro areas lined up, should Congress so choose.
I am, of course, persuadable on all of these things. But that's where my thoughts stand at this very moment.
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