Archive for the 'High Speed Rail' Category

Metro Tuesday: Acela

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on March 25, 2008
in Acela, Amtrak and High Speed Rail
. 0 Comments
Running a day behind, today’s metro (Monday) attempts to illustrate just how fast our “High Speed” Rail system is. Imaging one of these suckers crossing the state to Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, and Tallahassee. Certainly makes more sense than funding more road projects…

Last year, Amtrak’s high-speed Acela Express train carried a record 593,000 passengers from Boston to New York. An Amtrak rep says Acela’s market share on the busy route grew from 36 percent in 2006 to 41 percent last year.

Follow the link for the reasons behind Acela’s recent success…

Via Overhead Wire…

Holiday Travel

Published
by
Andrew Davis
on November 26, 2007
in Amtrak, High Speed Rail, MIC, Miami, Silver Meteor, Silver Star and Tampa
. 0 Comments
Like many on their Thanksgiving holiday, I had the arduous task of traveling in order to meet up with the family. Only this time I decided to travel to Tampa, Fl by train rather than car. The Amtrak experience was more interesting than what I thought. For starters the Miami station was a bit of a disappointment, it looked dilapidated and in need of an upgrade. Then again, it probably won’t get one since Amtrak will be moving into the MIC, Miami Intermodal Center, once it finally gets completed.

The Miami station has only two trains leaving a day, the Silver Meteor at 7:50 a.m. and the Silver Star at 8:50 a.m., and both end up in New York-Penn Station. Of the two the Silver Star connects to Tampa while the Silver Meteor travels directly to Orlando.

The train was quite comfortable with ample room for your carry on bag, your luggage and still had room to spread your legs. Also, every row of seats had its own power outlet which came in handy during the trip. During the five hour and twenty minute trip the only annoyance was the constant stop and go in the urban areas of South Florida and Tampa. I have to believe that these stops where for dispatching in order to get permission to access the track and/or other trains where ahead of it. If these stops where eliminated or kept to a minimum I believe at least one hour would have been saved on the trip.

I was impressed to see that the train was sold out to Tampa, and it was evident when the train stopped at the historic Tampa Union Station in downtown Tampa.

Let’s just say I was glad I was able to keep my luggage with me. In such a populous state as Florida the need for its own rail system is obvious. Rather it’s on a high speed train system or not the demand is there.

Metro Monday: Berlin’s Hauptbahnhof

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on November 26, 2007
in Amtrak, Berlin, Commuter Rail, Hauptbahnhof, High Speed Rail, Miami Intermodal Center and Regional Rail
. 0 Comments
The last time I was in Berlin the new Hauptbahnhof was still under construction and a year or so away from the May 2006 grand opening. The Berlin Hauptbahnhof now handles over 1,800 trains and 350,000 passengers per day. This digital representation provides a good example of what Europe’s largest train station is like and the type of rail catalyst the MIC should become for our region…

Transitography 16

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on September 18, 2007
in Acela, High Speed Rail, Northeast and Ridership
. 0 Comments

Acela || 28mm Wide angle / Minolta X-570, originally uploaded by gossammer9.

Ridership on the passenger rail system is up 6% so far this year, the biggest jump since the late 1970s. On the Acela Express, trains that run at higher speeds between Washington, New York and Boston, the number of riders has surged 20% over the past 10 months. That’s enough new passengers to fill 2,000 Boeing 757 jets.

-Wall Street Journal

Falling Behind, Quickly

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on July 18, 2006
in Bilbao, High Speed Rail, Highway Expansion, Miami, Portugal, Taiwan, Train and Transit
. 0 Comments
I may have gone a little picture happy below. But, I’ve come across a bunch of stunning pictures of two major up and coming transit systems on complete opposite sides of the globe. The first two are of the Porto, Portugal brand new Urban Transit Rail system. Mind you, this is a city of 1.5 million inhabitants and look at the sophistication and efficiency of the whole thing. Porto also just unveiled a brand new international airport terminal which is also absolutely beautiful. Makes me wonder if either project ran years behind schedule or hundreds of millions of dollars over budget. With over 5 million people in our metropolitan area, we need to advance some of our public transit projects pronto, in order to keep our status as a “World-class City.” I also personally love how the trains travel over green space, no longer making the tracks as “unsightly” to some as they once were (This is also used in Bilbao’s new Urban Train.)

The second set of pictures reminds me of the wonderful plan ole Jebby Bush had us repeal to outfit our state with a High-Speed Train network. This is the Shinkansen, the Japanese bullet train, capable of speeds of up to 275 MPH on conventional (Well built, Not our worn down system) rails. This is the Taiwan High speed rail, which will link many of Taiwan’s major cities along a 360 KM path. The benefit of this train speaks for itself. Floridians really dropped the ball (well twice, we elected him in the first place) when we repealed the Florida High Speed rail act due to a “Lack of Funding.” What a load. Billions are spent in this state alone to continue to enhance and expand the existing highways, why not institute a better measure of budget appropriation, Jeb? Perhaps we wouldn’t have a lack of funding if we hadn’t instituted so many useless tax cuts or decided to invade…You get the point. Our cities have fallen behind technologically and our urban planning is beyond deplorable…

Oh and by the way, the Taiwan rail was built in 8 years and had an October 2006 opening date, which I believe is actually going to occur sooner than originally scheduled…Unreal? No. Just the way things should be…

Pictures Credited to the forumers who posted them here.

(Pictures Removed from post…April 09, 2007)

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