Decreasing energy prices through $66 per barrel crude oil, ($1.57 per gallon) the lowest in 5 years, will unfortunately disincentivize intercity high speed rail investment. This price fall, combined with a Republican controlled US Congress opposing infrastructure investment at the national level, suggests that cities interested in high speed rail for the future to minimize fossil carbon foot prints forever and protect against future fuel scarcity and fuel price spikes should focus on saving time for the long term, because time is reliably increasing in price, and world energy prices could easily rebound, (e.g. Another war in the Persian Gulf region). The best high speed rail business model for single cities premium airport express rail, to save as much time as possible in metro regions, ramping up high speed rail capacity, and funding unifying HSR rail tunnels through downtowns. Amtrak runs roughly 30+ trains in each direction per day on the north east corridor, while PAERs every 15 minutes would run roughly 73 trains per day. Biggest cites with two airports would likely have two such PAER services. The time saving from fastest express trains, directly into rail terminal in the airport would justify the premium rail ticket price.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 05:16:52 +0000
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