A
Case for Intercity
Rail
R.E.G. Davies,
Curator of Air Transport, Smithsonian
National Air and Space Museum makes the case for intercity high speed
rail.
At the "Wright Stuff" conference hosted by UC Berkeley to mark the
100th
anniversary of the Wright brothers flight, he offered the keynote
address,
"Directions of Air Transport in the 21st Century."
The
following graphics are from his talk and illustrate Davies' points. Of
the
busiest air routes in the United States, "most of them - 69% - are over
distances
less than 400 miles."
"
(1) The airlines are operating services on routes where the railroads
can or could do a much better job.
" (2) If the airlines could
hand
over these short-haul routes to the railroads, they would be relieved
of
the chore of operating loss-sustaining flights.
"(3) The airports would be
relieved
of providing gates and slots for short-haul routes, thus making them
available
for long-haul services, which is what the airlines do best."
He concludes: "In Europe and Japan, [high speed rail] is taking
over
much of the short-haul work from the airlines, which are
thereby relieved of the pressure to provide high-frequency service
on
short, busy, and often loss sustaining routes. The United States should
follow
suit."
He illustrates the point with maps of California drawn to scale with
France
and Italy. The maps show major cities, most of which are linked, or
will
be linked, by high speed rail in Europe. None have connecting fast rail
service
in California.
This is part of the explanation for Southern California's push for more
airport
capacity.
Click on the graphics to enlarge.
"
(1) The airlines are operating services on routes where the railroads
can or could do a much better job. 