Who comes out ahead in high-speed train derby? French AGV high-speed train

Who comes out ahead in high-speed train derby? | HULIQ

Who comes out ahead in high-speed train derby?
French AGV high-speed train

With the Obama administration set to award $8 billion in grants to jump-start high-speed train projects in several parts of the country on Thursday, perhaps it's time to take a good look at who stands to gain and lose if and when superfast passenger trains finally start running in America.

Among the winners will certainly be the foreign firms that have developed the current state-of-the-art high-speed trains. Canada's Bombardier, which licensed Swedish technology to build the current U.S. fast-train champ, Amtrak's Acela service from Boston to Washington, could stand to gain additional business from one or more of the states and regions that have submitted proposals for the Federal seed money.

Firms in other countries that have advanced high-speed trains, including Germany's Siemens and France's Alstom, will need to find American partners or facilities if their technologies are selected in order to meet Federal rules governing where the trains are built.

The Central Japan Railway Co., owner of the granddaddy of all modern high-speed trains, the Shinkansen, has also entered the fray with a bid to build a proposed high-speed rail line connecting Tampa, Orlando, and Miami/Ft. Lauderdale. That line is projected to cost $3.5 billion to build; the state of Florida has asked the Feds for $2.5 billion of that total. As President Obama is scheduled to announce the grant recipients in Tampa on Thursday, observers expect the Florida proposal to be among the awardees.

The fact that Europe and Japan have eclipsed the United States in developing fast passenger trains, however, has not kept American companies from also bidding on these projects. General Electric Co., which has decades of experience building diesel and electric locomotives, and Lockheed Martin have also expressed interest in building fast trains.

Construction firms in the states through which the trains will run will also stand to win big. For instance, the State of Florida, in its application for Federal money, estimates that the Florida High Speed Rail project will create 15,000 construction jobs. Similar projects being promoted in California and the Great Lakes region would create at least as many construction jobs.

The cities where the trains will stop should also see benefits, as rail transport favors and reinforces dense urban development. These cities, however, will be relatively few in number, because high-speed trains do not stop frequently in order to maximize the performance advantages of high-speed rail over motor vehicles or air transport for short- to medium-distance (up to 450 miles) travel.

The one sure loser in the high-speed rail derby will be taxpayers. While some high-speed rail routes abroad break even or turn a modest profit on operations, none cover their capital costs, which means those will come from the public purse. The American pattern of urban development since World War II, which is highly spread out and suburbanized, also works against these rail lines' attracting the traffic they need to cover their operating costs, even in such promising corridors as San Francisco-San Diego or Tampa-Orlando-Miami. As a result, it's quite likely that these routes will require continuing operating subsidies along the lines of those Amtrak receives now for the overwhelming bulk of its service.

Written by Sandy Smith
For HULIQ.com