60 years ago Japan unveiled the Shinkansen: the first high-speed train that carried passengers from Tokyo and Osaka at speeds of more than 200 km/h.
That 500 km route was just the beginning of one of the most efficient and modern public transportation networks in the world, which currently has “bullet trains” that travel at 320 km/h and arrive at their destination with extreme punctuality.
This infrastructure, built in a country recovering from World War II, was an example for other developed countries.
China is the country that currently has the largest high-speed train network, with more than 30,000 km. The main cities of Europe are interconnected with high-speed trains, especially in France and Spain.
The United States also took notice of the Japanese and the politicians of the time considered rebuilding the railway system that helped exploit the industrial potential of the United States since the 19th century.
But six decades later, there is still no high-speed train on North American soil that links two large cities at a constant high speed, without interruptions.
This Friday, and after several delays in the original inauguration plans, a rail service began operations between the cities of Miami and Orlando, in Florida, which is the closest thing there is in the United States to a high-speed train. .
“Doing something like this requires a lot of things. It requires a lot of energy, a lot of capital, but above all you have to set it up well,” Brightline executive director Michael Reininger told BBC Mundo when inaugurating the route that connects those Florida cities that has taken more than 10 years to launch.
Although the train has the capacity to reach more than 200 km/h, most of the inaugural trip had an average speed of about 60 km/h because the convoy crosses streets, makes stops at intermediate stations and, in some segments, must give way to other trains.
When the road allowed it, it accelerated to more than 150 km/h, a speed that exceeds other land transport on the same route. At its fastest, it reached 200 km/h for about 15 minutes.
Thus it became the second fastest train in the United States, after the one that connects Boston and Washington DC, in the northeast of the country. They are the only two medium to high speed trains in the country.
Meanwhile, the California project that seeks to link the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco with high speed is more than a decade behind schedule and faces a cost overrun of more than US$100 billion.
The “bright line”
Brightline is a private company that has been offering service between cities in southeastern Florida since 2019, but this Friday it launched its route between Miami and Orlando, the two largest cities in Florida, which are 375 kilometers away.
On the inaugural trip, company guests boarded a train with all the comforts common on European or Asian trains: a cool temperature, spacious seats, individual tables and internet access.
Outside of the urban areas and their skyscrapers, the view of palm trees and tropical vegetation is an attraction on this route of the so-called “sunshine state.”
Miami and Orlando are two great tourist attractions in the United States. Last year, Florida received a record 137 million visitors, seven million of whom were foreigners (a lower proportion than previous years due to the effects of the pandemic, the government says).
Until now, getting from Miami’s beach resorts to Orlando’s theme parks requires a 4-hour car trip or a more than 1-hour flight.
The boarding and disembarking time of a train is much faster than what it takes for a passenger to move between airports, a point in the train’s favor. In Miami, walking from the station entrance to boarding the train takes less than 15 minutes.
On the other hand, the Brightline train takes passengers in 3.30 hours for about US$80, which is still a high price compared to a US$50 low-cost airline flight. One point against.
These types of pros and cons are on the balance when creating high-speed train projects in the United States. But the infrastructure is the most complicated thing to achieve.
car culture
Since the mid-20th century, the infrastructure of the United States shifted towards the use of the automobile as the main means of transportation.
The expansion of large cities led their inhabitants to the suburbs, where the lack of public transportation options made it essential to have and use a car for all daily activities: going to work, school, shopping…
Currently, notes the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in its most recent report on the subject, “45% of Americans do not have access to public transportation.”
The ASCE has rated infrastructure of this type with a D-, that is, far from A (optimal) and very close to F (the worst rating).
The US government chose since the 1950s to invest in the creation of interstate highways while neglecting the railway lines that had transported Americans across the country for decades.
And the aviation industry became the main means of transportation between cities.
“We just haven’t prioritized them. [a los trenes]” Andy Kunz, president of the US High Speed Rail Association (USHSR), a non-profit organization that analyzes projects on the subject in the country, explains to BBC Mundo.
“Historically, the federal government has spent trillions of dollars on highways and air transportation and invested little in high-speed rail,” he added.
The expansion of roads to try to solve saturation, however, also has a limit that is already being reached in large metropolises such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston or Seattle, among others.
Moving parallel to the interstate highway, on the trip from Miami to Orlando, traffic jams could be seen as the train moved at a constant speed.
Despite the fact that Joe Biden’s government agreed with Congress on the largest infrastructure investment package in history, only US$12 billion was allocated to the railway system and the majority will be allocated to cover the financial gaps in the Amtrak system.
3 problems on the road
Government-funded Amtrak is the only national passenger rail company in the US, covering 35,000 km of track.
But its high operating cost impacts the prices of its tickets, which are usually more expensive than those of airplanes, and some routes take up to 72 hours to cross the country from coast to coast.
Distances that are “too short to fly, and too long to drive” are ideal for a high-speed train network, as occurs in other developed countries.
“High-speed rail is ideal for connecting major metropolitan areas at a distance of between 100 and 500 miles. [160-800 km] and especially in places with high traffic congestion and serious air pollution,” explains Kunz.
However, the projects have faced three major problems when they have tried to launch: public financing that depends largely on state governments; the acquisition of new land to build exclusive high-speed railway lines; and adapt to environmental protection regulations.
“You have to have a route on which the train can be built and you have to go through environmental approvals so that changes can be made. And then you have to build,” Reininger tells BBC Mundo.
After a decade of efforts, Brightline’s CEO says they were able to find in Florida “a way to innovate with an approach to the business that would overcome those challenges. And that is why we are standing here today with a spectacular train system.”
In other parts of the country, building on available tracks is difficult because they are outdated for modern trains and are occupied by various local and commuter services, says the USHSR president.
Amtrak’s Acela line is an express service that theoretically peaks at up to 135 mph. However, most of its journey is made at 99 km/h, the normal speed of other trains, due to “coexistence” with other trains on the same tracks.
Kunz explains that high-speed railway trunk lines are needed, which are a kind of equivalent to the automobile road system: highways must be free of obstacles and receive flow from other secondary roads. But that is not the case with US trains.
In California, a project to build a high-speed train between Los Angeles and San Francisco with exclusive tracks was approved in 2008 at a cost of US$33 billion, US$9,000 of which would come from taxpayers, and the rest from private investors.
But political disputes led the original project, which was planned for the shortest route, to add intermediate stops on a longer route. The project became more expensive and problems arose in acquiring land for the new route and environmental demands.
This led to delays in the project and an increase in costs that has exceeded US$100 billion.
In Miami, Michael Reininger celebrates optimistically: “We don’t let challenges get in our way.”
For those who traveled on the inaugural train, it was a “new,” “relaxing” and even “fun” experience, something that is common for European or Asian passengers, but in the US it is a “new experience.”
The final stretch before reaching Orlando was the most exciting for some, as the train exceeded 200 km/h, a high speed that it maintained for around 15 minutes.
Despite the speed variations, the Brightline train arrived in Orlando on time, a smooth trip of just over 3 hours without the stress of airports or congested highways.
The driver celebrated: “Today we were the second fastest train in the United States.”
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