Amtrak might create a trendy high-speed rail community alongside the Northeast Hall between Boston and Washington, D.C., for about one-sixth the price of the railroad’s $117 billion 15-year plan, in keeping with an April 29 report from the transit prices venture of the New York College Marron Institute of City Administration.
The plan isn’t wishful considering. It depends on reimagining the rail line as a coordinated dance of high-speed, regional and commuter trains, off-the-shelf electrical a number of unit trains and confirmed expertise from Europe and Japan. “You actually should deal with the system as a single system on the Northeast Hall,” stated analysis scholar Alon Levy.
Researchers imagine that an funding of about $12.5 billion in infrastructure and $4.5 billion in high-speed prepare units might allow journey between New York and Boston or Washington in below two hours. Trains would depart each 10 minutes as demand will increase, touring as much as 199 mph between New York and Washington and as much as 160 mph on the Boston phase. Present Amtrak trains prime out at 150 mph.
Coordinating commuter and high-speed trains
However that received’t work until timetables are coordinated with commuter trains that share Amtrak’s rail traces round Boston, New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Maryland. The examine envisions frequent, all-day commuter rail service, with standardized station stopping patterns. For instance, the plan reduces 13 totally different stopping patterns on Metro-North New Haven Line trains to only two to Grand Central Terminal and one to Penn Station in Manhattan.
Excessive-speed trains would make fewer stops than Amtrak’s present high-speed Acela trains, and the railroad’s slower Northeast Regional trains can be eradicated, additional simplifying scheduling alongside the hall, thus decreasing the schedule padding that’s at the moment wanted, in keeping with the examine. Extending commuter trains to a extra regional mannequin, because the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is doing already, would allow riders to achieve extra locations with coordinated connections.
Amtrak expects new high-speed trains to enter service this spring, changing its 25-year previous Acela trains. Constructed by Alstom in Hornell, New York, the trains are based mostly on the train-maker’s Avelia platform, modified to U.S. specs. They function energy vehicles at every finish and 9 unpowered coaches in between.
As compared, each automobile is powered on most electrical a number of unit trains, which the NYU report recommends for the Northeast Hall. Just like these put into service by Caltrain alongside the San Francisco Peninsula final yr, they’ll speed up sooner than locomotive-hauled trains, serving to to cut back total journey time between stations.
Easy methods to save $100 billion
However how do the NYU researchers avoid wasting $100 billion over Amtrak’s plan? It begins with establishing an authority composed of the federal authorities and state transportation companies to coordinate infrastructure initiatives, rolling inventory procurement, prepare schedules and technical requirements.
The report recommends finishing these initiatives envisioned by the Northeast Hall Fee’s 15-year plan that may enhance monitor capability and cut back delays, however deprioritizing megaprojects such because the reconstruction of Penn Station in New York Metropolis. Funding for normal upkeep, sometimes called state of excellent restore initiatives, ought to come from working budgets as a substitute of capital funding funds, the report says.
The report recommends adopting worldwide finest requirements for trains and infrastructure. It recommends additional electrification of the Northeast Hall the place wanted and upgrading the overhead catenary system that gives electrical energy to the trains to extra trendy requirements south of New York Metropolis. Equally, the report recommends modernizing monitor switches and setting up monitor bypasses at essential junctions to cut back the necessity for trains to drastically decelerate at these places.
“All of it’s attainable,” Levy stated. “It requires a whole lot of coordination, however it’s coordination that’s attainable.” The largest barrier, in keeping with the report, is that longstanding railroading practices within the U.S. take little studying from Europe and Asia, the place “rail expertise has lengthy surpassed the US,” the report states. Levy added, “The laws do not should be modified in any respect. It is simply the observe that should change.”
Amtrak might create a trendy high-speed rail community alongside the Northeast Hall between Boston and Washington, D.C., for about one-sixth the price of the railroad’s $117 billion 15-year plan, in keeping with an April 29 report from the transit prices venture of the New York College Marron Institute of City Administration.
The plan isn’t wishful considering. It depends on reimagining the rail line as a coordinated dance of high-speed, regional and commuter trains, off-the-shelf electrical a number of unit trains and confirmed expertise from Europe and Japan. “You actually should deal with the system as a single system on the Northeast Hall,” stated analysis scholar Alon Levy.
Researchers imagine that an funding of about $12.5 billion in infrastructure and $4.5 billion in high-speed prepare units might allow journey between New York and Boston or Washington in below two hours. Trains would depart each 10 minutes as demand will increase, touring as much as 199 mph between New York and Washington and as much as 160 mph on the Boston phase. Present Amtrak trains prime out at 150 mph.
Coordinating commuter and high-speed trains
However that received’t work until timetables are coordinated with commuter trains that share Amtrak’s rail traces round Boston, New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Maryland. The examine envisions frequent, all-day commuter rail service, with standardized station stopping patterns. For instance, the plan reduces 13 totally different stopping patterns on Metro-North New Haven Line trains to only two to Grand Central Terminal and one to Penn Station in Manhattan.
Excessive-speed trains would make fewer stops than Amtrak’s present high-speed Acela trains, and the railroad’s slower Northeast Regional trains can be eradicated, additional simplifying scheduling alongside the hall, thus decreasing the schedule padding that’s at the moment wanted, in keeping with the examine. Extending commuter trains to a extra regional mannequin, because the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is doing already, would allow riders to achieve extra locations with coordinated connections.
Amtrak expects new high-speed trains to enter service this spring, changing its 25-year previous Acela trains. Constructed by Alstom in Hornell, New York, the trains are based mostly on the train-maker’s Avelia platform, modified to U.S. specs. They function energy vehicles at every finish and 9 unpowered coaches in between.
As compared, each automobile is powered on most electrical a number of unit trains, which the NYU report recommends for the Northeast Hall. Just like these put into service by Caltrain alongside the San Francisco Peninsula final yr, they’ll speed up sooner than locomotive-hauled trains, serving to to cut back total journey time between stations.
Easy methods to save $100 billion
However how do the NYU researchers avoid wasting $100 billion over Amtrak’s plan? It begins with establishing an authority composed of the federal authorities and state transportation companies to coordinate infrastructure initiatives, rolling inventory procurement, prepare schedules and technical requirements.
The report recommends finishing these initiatives envisioned by the Northeast Hall Fee’s 15-year plan that may enhance monitor capability and cut back delays, however deprioritizing megaprojects such because the reconstruction of Penn Station in New York Metropolis. Funding for normal upkeep, sometimes called state of excellent restore initiatives, ought to come from working budgets as a substitute of capital funding funds, the report says.
The report recommends adopting worldwide finest requirements for trains and infrastructure. It recommends additional electrification of the Northeast Hall the place wanted and upgrading the overhead catenary system that gives electrical energy to the trains to extra trendy requirements south of New York Metropolis. Equally, the report recommends modernizing monitor switches and setting up monitor bypasses at essential junctions to cut back the necessity for trains to drastically decelerate at these places.
“All of it’s attainable,” Levy stated. “It requires a whole lot of coordination, however it’s coordination that’s attainable.” The largest barrier, in keeping with the report, is that longstanding railroading practices within the U.S. take little studying from Europe and Asia, the place “rail expertise has lengthy surpassed the US,” the report states. Levy added, “The laws do not should be modified in any respect. It is simply the observe that should change.”
Amtrak might create a trendy high-speed rail community alongside the Northeast Hall between Boston and Washington, D.C., for about one-sixth the price of the railroad’s $117 billion 15-year plan, in keeping with an April 29 report from the transit prices venture of the New York College Marron Institute of City Administration.
The plan isn’t wishful considering. It depends on reimagining the rail line as a coordinated dance of high-speed, regional and commuter trains, off-the-shelf electrical a number of unit trains and confirmed expertise from Europe and Japan. “You actually should deal with the system as a single system on the Northeast Hall,” stated analysis scholar Alon Levy.
Researchers imagine that an funding of about $12.5 billion in infrastructure and $4.5 billion in high-speed prepare units might allow journey between New York and Boston or Washington in below two hours. Trains would depart each 10 minutes as demand will increase, touring as much as 199 mph between New York and Washington and as much as 160 mph on the Boston phase. Present Amtrak trains prime out at 150 mph.
Coordinating commuter and high-speed trains
However that received’t work until timetables are coordinated with commuter trains that share Amtrak’s rail traces round Boston, New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Maryland. The examine envisions frequent, all-day commuter rail service, with standardized station stopping patterns. For instance, the plan reduces 13 totally different stopping patterns on Metro-North New Haven Line trains to only two to Grand Central Terminal and one to Penn Station in Manhattan.
Excessive-speed trains would make fewer stops than Amtrak’s present high-speed Acela trains, and the railroad’s slower Northeast Regional trains can be eradicated, additional simplifying scheduling alongside the hall, thus decreasing the schedule padding that’s at the moment wanted, in keeping with the examine. Extending commuter trains to a extra regional mannequin, because the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is doing already, would allow riders to achieve extra locations with coordinated connections.
Amtrak expects new high-speed trains to enter service this spring, changing its 25-year previous Acela trains. Constructed by Alstom in Hornell, New York, the trains are based mostly on the train-maker’s Avelia platform, modified to U.S. specs. They function energy vehicles at every finish and 9 unpowered coaches in between.
As compared, each automobile is powered on most electrical a number of unit trains, which the NYU report recommends for the Northeast Hall. Just like these put into service by Caltrain alongside the San Francisco Peninsula final yr, they’ll speed up sooner than locomotive-hauled trains, serving to to cut back total journey time between stations.
Easy methods to save $100 billion
However how do the NYU researchers avoid wasting $100 billion over Amtrak’s plan? It begins with establishing an authority composed of the federal authorities and state transportation companies to coordinate infrastructure initiatives, rolling inventory procurement, prepare schedules and technical requirements.
The report recommends finishing these initiatives envisioned by the Northeast Hall Fee’s 15-year plan that may enhance monitor capability and cut back delays, however deprioritizing megaprojects such because the reconstruction of Penn Station in New York Metropolis. Funding for normal upkeep, sometimes called state of excellent restore initiatives, ought to come from working budgets as a substitute of capital funding funds, the report says.
The report recommends adopting worldwide finest requirements for trains and infrastructure. It recommends additional electrification of the Northeast Hall the place wanted and upgrading the overhead catenary system that gives electrical energy to the trains to extra trendy requirements south of New York Metropolis. Equally, the report recommends modernizing monitor switches and setting up monitor bypasses at essential junctions to cut back the necessity for trains to drastically decelerate at these places.
“All of it’s attainable,” Levy stated. “It requires a whole lot of coordination, however it’s coordination that’s attainable.” The largest barrier, in keeping with the report, is that longstanding railroading practices within the U.S. take little studying from Europe and Asia, the place “rail expertise has lengthy surpassed the US,” the report states. Levy added, “The laws do not should be modified in any respect. It is simply the observe that should change.”
Amtrak might create a trendy high-speed rail community alongside the Northeast Hall between Boston and Washington, D.C., for about one-sixth the price of the railroad’s $117 billion 15-year plan, in keeping with an April 29 report from the transit prices venture of the New York College Marron Institute of City Administration.
The plan isn’t wishful considering. It depends on reimagining the rail line as a coordinated dance of high-speed, regional and commuter trains, off-the-shelf electrical a number of unit trains and confirmed expertise from Europe and Japan. “You actually should deal with the system as a single system on the Northeast Hall,” stated analysis scholar Alon Levy.
Researchers imagine that an funding of about $12.5 billion in infrastructure and $4.5 billion in high-speed prepare units might allow journey between New York and Boston or Washington in below two hours. Trains would depart each 10 minutes as demand will increase, touring as much as 199 mph between New York and Washington and as much as 160 mph on the Boston phase. Present Amtrak trains prime out at 150 mph.
Coordinating commuter and high-speed trains
However that received’t work until timetables are coordinated with commuter trains that share Amtrak’s rail traces round Boston, New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Maryland. The examine envisions frequent, all-day commuter rail service, with standardized station stopping patterns. For instance, the plan reduces 13 totally different stopping patterns on Metro-North New Haven Line trains to only two to Grand Central Terminal and one to Penn Station in Manhattan.
Excessive-speed trains would make fewer stops than Amtrak’s present high-speed Acela trains, and the railroad’s slower Northeast Regional trains can be eradicated, additional simplifying scheduling alongside the hall, thus decreasing the schedule padding that’s at the moment wanted, in keeping with the examine. Extending commuter trains to a extra regional mannequin, because the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is doing already, would allow riders to achieve extra locations with coordinated connections.
Amtrak expects new high-speed trains to enter service this spring, changing its 25-year previous Acela trains. Constructed by Alstom in Hornell, New York, the trains are based mostly on the train-maker’s Avelia platform, modified to U.S. specs. They function energy vehicles at every finish and 9 unpowered coaches in between.
As compared, each automobile is powered on most electrical a number of unit trains, which the NYU report recommends for the Northeast Hall. Just like these put into service by Caltrain alongside the San Francisco Peninsula final yr, they’ll speed up sooner than locomotive-hauled trains, serving to to cut back total journey time between stations.
Easy methods to save $100 billion
However how do the NYU researchers avoid wasting $100 billion over Amtrak’s plan? It begins with establishing an authority composed of the federal authorities and state transportation companies to coordinate infrastructure initiatives, rolling inventory procurement, prepare schedules and technical requirements.
The report recommends finishing these initiatives envisioned by the Northeast Hall Fee’s 15-year plan that may enhance monitor capability and cut back delays, however deprioritizing megaprojects such because the reconstruction of Penn Station in New York Metropolis. Funding for normal upkeep, sometimes called state of excellent restore initiatives, ought to come from working budgets as a substitute of capital funding funds, the report says.
The report recommends adopting worldwide finest requirements for trains and infrastructure. It recommends additional electrification of the Northeast Hall the place wanted and upgrading the overhead catenary system that gives electrical energy to the trains to extra trendy requirements south of New York Metropolis. Equally, the report recommends modernizing monitor switches and setting up monitor bypasses at essential junctions to cut back the necessity for trains to drastically decelerate at these places.
“All of it’s attainable,” Levy stated. “It requires a whole lot of coordination, however it’s coordination that’s attainable.” The largest barrier, in keeping with the report, is that longstanding railroading practices within the U.S. take little studying from Europe and Asia, the place “rail expertise has lengthy surpassed the US,” the report states. Levy added, “The laws do not should be modified in any respect. It is simply the observe that should change.”
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