How Brightline Plans To Bring High-Speed Rail To The U.S.
Brightline is the first privately-funded passenger rail line in the U.S. completed in over 100 years, spanning 230 miles from Orlando to Miami. In contrast to the government-run Amtrak system, which has limited usage and no dedicated high-speed passenger rails, Brightline aims to offer a viable solution for intercity transportation. With a plan to build a high-speed rail connecting Los Angeles to Las Vegas, Brightline is at the forefront of private rail expansion and is hoping to play a major role in creating a viable passenger rail network in the U.S.
Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction
02:47 - The beginnings of Brightline
05:55 - Is private rail viable?
10:44 - American car culture
14:02 - Collaborative railway vision
Produced, Shot and Edited by: Liam Mays
Camera and Editorial Support: Magdalena Petrova
Animation: Andrea Schmitz, Alex Wood
Supervision Producer: Jeniece Pettitt
Additional Footage: Getty Images, Brightline, The California High-Speed Rail Authority, Texas Central
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How Brightline Plans To Bring High-Speed Rail To The U.S.
I would absolutely like a train between Vegas and LA. That traffic is HORRENDOUS.
Special interests have killed this many times in the past. People are always looking for a way to profit at the expense of society. Its pretty disgusting. Only a totalitarian government like China could do it now in the US.
Out of curiosity, why is the traffic so bad? That many vacationers? Or do people actually have some jobs or something that would require commuting that distance?
@@Mike__B Because America doesn't have investment in alternative forms of transportation.
This video is a little misleading Brightline west would go from Las Vegas to Rancho Cucamonga which is still an hour outside of Los Angeles.
@@Mike__BBecause there’s lobbying efforts by car and oil companies against quality passenger rail across the US
Using existing transport corridors is genius. People in their cars stuck in traffic will see trains zoom by and start realizing the utility.
It only works in certain situations (luckily the LA to Vegas I-15 route is mostly straight), but in this particular case, yes, it's a brilliant billboard for HSR once done. Every time someone sees the HSR flying straight past them while they're already doing 80mph, it's gonna make them rethink how they want to get between the two cities.
@@thatoneotherotherguy And I also think that's where the old mentality of "cars are better" came from. Old trains only went like 40-50 MPH, and then suddenly there were these new cars that went way faster. So people got the idea that they weren't needed anymore, but couldn't see the grim future of days-long traffic jams and vehicular deaths.
@@HigherQualityUploads Also the population of cities and just population in general has grown plus when people have cars and for example two or four people live in one house they don’t just have one car they have two or more cars
It definitely depends on the type of transit, and where the existing corridors go. Doing this has a lot of uses, but there are also a lot of drawbacks that can hurt the usefulness of the end product. For example, if you try to build a light rail or subway in the middle of a highway (like in LA and Chicago), you run into the issue of limiting the potential economic development around the stations, not to mention that people will often need to walk through busy highway interchanges to get to the stations and the overall experience will be less pleasant (no one wants to stand on a platform in the middle of a highway) Certain highways can also skip past a lot of population centers. For example, the reason why California's HSR didn't just build along the I-5 (even though it would have been a lot faster and cheaper) is that you'd be skipping all the major cities in the middle of the state's central valley, the poorest part of the state with a total population of over a million people in the region. In this case, building along the existing corridor might be cheaper in the short term, but you end up with a much less useful system. The reason building along the median for the LA/Vegas line works is because it doesn't have any of these issues. There are no other major population centers between the two cities, so you won't have to really worry about skipping population centers, and the planned stations are few enough to where you can go off the highway for a bit (not to mention the terain is flat enough for HSR to work). Even then, there are other compromises they've had to make, such as having to single track the line, which significantly decreases the amount of service you can run.
I live in a small town so I won’t
Anyone who's been to Europe, Japan or China and utilised their high speed rail networks will understand its value. Hopefully, interest in high speed rail can reach a critical mass to really help it get off the ground.
I agree. Especially since a lot of American cities literally grew on railroads before they transitioned onto the freeway.
it's so valuable that the US still leads the world economically, militarily, healthcare-wise, university-wise, patents-wise. good call!
@@RobertMJohnson Valuable to who😅? We see how your country try to stay ahead by sabotaging other countries rather than working hard and competing fairly.
@@RobertMJohnson leads the world healthcare wise and university wise??? Bro what planet are you on
@@pipsasqeak820 americans delusion on their healthcare is very funny lmao😂 who cares if they have top doctors when they can't even afford to pay their service.
I lived in Fort Lauderdale for a bit last year and used Brightline a few times. Once to grab lunch and explore West Palm Beach on one of my days off, and a couple times to Miami. It was nice being able to take a train, not worry about south Florida's awful traffic, and have a few beers at a Marlins game without having to worry about how I was going to get home after. I'm rooting for Brightline and hope it succeeds in the long run.
Brightline needs to make it easier to walk and cycle to and from their stations!
Glad to see people fighting for highspeed rail.
Yeah, cars are not the problem, car dependency is.
People are forced to drive. Only if there are alternatives people won’t even want to drive. Just imaging how much time and lives are saved.
@@Joseph-ke3xc How are cars inherently bad? They revolutionised travel. Do you think trains and bikes cover every transportation need? Idiotic.
@@ncard00absolutely, I love cars but I believe we should not depend on them.
this should have already been done. you should be able to take the train anywhere
I hope the US understands HSR is not just a fancy way of traveling. You need to connect to regional, local public networks to make it efficient for customers.
Yeah, it's definitely something you need to do all the way. If you take a train to a city just to get right back in a car, what's the point of the train? We need to be building walkable places with further transit access at either end of these rail lines. That way, people will have actually have the choice whether to drive or not.
The problem w America is we like fancy experiences so yes, HSR has to be advertised as an experience so regular, non transit enthusiast/advocate Americans would actually use it. I actually live in Florida by the Brightline station in Miami which has bars, shopping, food options, and lounges. Aventura, Fort Lauderdale, Boca, and West Palm have Brightline Teslas that will take u from the train to your final destination. It’s a unique service, but it works. At this moment, it runs pretty much parallel to Tri-Rail but idk a single person who rides that despite it being a cheaper, no thrills option
@@QueenFondue I feel like for some reason here folks generally hate transfers (unless they're timed) Example: My parents and I were taking BART somewhere. We had two options: walk a quarter mile from home, take the (2.25 USD) bus that comes in fifteen minutes, and then be in that bus (it comes every 30 minutes) for 15 minutes, and then wait 20 minutes to catch BART. The other option was to drive there starting a little earlier, park at the BART station (3 USD) and then make the train we would've missed (BART trains also come every 30 minutes; the track in our area was interlined, but there isnt that much good transfer stuff to get to the area we were headed). In this case, they decided to drive there and park, because doing the transfer thing would have resulted in us reaching there 30 minutes after we would have normally. I'd guess that one other scare with taking transfers besides waiting for a long time when going someplace is that there's usually more money involved (Here in the SF bay area, there's a BUNCH of different transit agencies, and even though now that we have an integrated fare-card, interagency transfer discounts are starting to be a thing, transferring between agencies usually still costs more; same thing goes with fare-capping, there's sometimes fare-caps for certain agencies, but no interagency way of fare-capping (though that might be hard to implement because there's all sorts of stuff here, regional rail/commuter rail (BART/CalTrain) and a lot of different buses))
This is why I think major upgrades to the existing network and development of lines connecting to it will be the most successful. Think the rebuilding and expansion of the long-electrified but bottlenecked South Shore line in the Chicago and northern Indiana area, or the electrification of Caltrain in the SF Bay Area...these can be very useful local and regional feeders for longer-distance trains such as the 200-300 mile services described here.
@@QueenFondueeven with car dependency, taking HSR will save money vs driving to Vegas and back. Gas will cost $120 round trip in a 20mpg SUV vs $350 a month for a pass of which if you travel 5 times roundtrip that month, it costs $35 round trip on average. It also would save 2 hours of driving and you can always Uber (which costs extra but it’s worth it if you save time) Gas is crazy expensive in California so many will use rail
Thanks for talking about Brightline! Two important things not mentioned: 1. Bright-line survived the pandemic, with no huge bailout required (at least not one that was publicized). Just a little irked this wasn't mentioned in the context insinuating that all private rail is at some point taken over by governments. 2. Bright-line Florida is already profitable (March 2023 being their first profitable month).
The reason it's profitable because it's building on public acquired land. Aka your tax dollars are funding their profitability. The real difficultly and cost of developing more rail isn't the construction itself but the acquiring the land. Brightline is getting all of the credit in this case but not actually doing the real hard work. If they actually had to acquire the land, they're wouldn't be profitable whatsoever but this entire propaganda puff piece is portraying this story as an example of the superiority of privatization when really is just a parasitic company doing the bare minimum and taking all of the credit
Brightline has already received hundreds of millions of dollars from the government to subsidize its operations. It's not publicized, just like SpaceX's government funding isn't publicized, but it definitely gets that money anyway.
Brightline cheaped out on safety by using old freight tracks and dangerous level crossings that go through crowded downtowns. 60+ people are dead.
They took millions in taxpayer dollars, already.
@@RevToxand the streets and highway take billions
I am German, travel blogging in my free time with a focus on transportation. Riding Brightline last year really impressed me. I especially liked how they combine a high class rail service with local transportation services like bicycles or free local car transport rides (a key issue you sometimes have in Europe: getting to the train station). I feel it is really impressive, flattered to see Brightline West coming true the next years...
It irritates me how nearly 1 trillion dollars was allocated to infrastructure, yet only 6 percent of that is allocated to rail…
EXACTLY!! More roads.
@@lizhoward9754AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Yes, do United States is really Behind most of the European countries, and England and some of Asia
Rail transportation
It’s a good start though
Please be real, we need HSR in this country
As long as its decently affordable, In japan the shinkansen is expensive af its cheaper to fly for some destinations.
@@TheRabbitHasLandedthats why many people take less fast and less expensive lines instead of the Shinkansen
@@TheRabbitHasLandedit’s not “expensive af”
Yeah, cars are not the problem, car dependency is.
#bigfax
Affordable Public transit is a necessity in an equitable society. US should lead here
No it is not.
@@WillmobilePlusIt is.
Having been to Germany this summer, I am "on board" with high-speed rail. I criss-crossed the country on the ICE and, while Die Bahn had some delay issues on my trip (and rightly gets a lot of grief from the public), it's overall a great service. Hoping this idea of smaller pockets of high-speed rail between nearby cities keeps growing in the US.
Die Bahn kommt. Später... :D
I just returned from traveling in Europe and realized how behind the U.S. is. Europe's rail and HSR system makes traveling from countries so easy and affordable.
Why don't you **** move there then.
Well US infrastructure is wayyyyyyy behind other developed countries. Go to Asia and same story. You see how behind the US is. The US is stuck in 1940.
I was in Japan during the month of June and after coming back, it really struck me how behind U.S is. Im a car guy, but It was so nice using Japan's public rail and the Shinkansen HSR to get to my destinations without worrying about traffic.
@@testaccount1055 Trains were invented in the 1700s.
have you travelled to china? their hsr is on a whole other level
Americans often associate public transportation with the poor, but in Europe and Asia, it’s the best. Way more preferable to use trains than cars. It’s nice to relax, read, play games, look out at the scenery instead of focusing on traffic. We also waste so much land space on huge giant parking lots that are bigger than the big box stores themselves. Our landscape has become so dreary and ugly. Just take a look the next time you exit your Target or Publix. A sea of gray asphalt and giant machines. We Americans are used to this but it doesn’t have to look this way. If we fix up our trains/buses so that they are more frequent, clean, and reliable, then more people would use it, I’m sure. We need to build shops, restaurants and residential homes near train stations.
Yeah, a saying from switzerland “a developed and rich country is not where everyone can afford cars, it’s where the rich use public transit.
exactly. One of themain problems with current public transportation in the US is how it completely wastes the potential of Transit-Oriented Development by placing stations far from any meaningful locations, surrounded by highways and parking lots. by only building routes where the investors deem it to be 100% profitable and by not having enough mixed zoning around stops.
Trust not all trains are good in Europe here In uk there a complete mess mostly owned by other countries rip off prices always on strike only decent rail is the underground
Outdated zoning laws makes it difficult/impossible to mix commercial with residential, and often prohibits dense residential where it should prevalent. While house hunting, you should ask yourself what is in walking distance and biking distance.
@@mygetawayart seriously. In GA we have one train station that's out in the middle of the freeway. You have to take the freeway to get to this station. It's the stupidest thing.
I’ve used Amtrak for trips between Detroit and Chicago. Current trip cost ~$40 and takes 4.5 hours. I’d love if there was a high speed rail option instead
We definitely need to put more people in trains. There's too many bad drivers nowadays and no one likes to sit in traffic for hours.
@SteelShield21 People reporting from Europe do not seem to have noticed that it is possible to put your car on a freight coach which is part of the same train and drive off in your own car at destination.
@pindapoy1596 such train cars do exist in Europe, however they're not very common, since most of Europe is easily accessible without a car.
@@LouisSubearth Well, it depends. Not all cities are on the high speed main lines and regretfully, as railroads have been privatized, the new companies have cut service to places that do not provide sufficient traffic in order to make profits. I have known rail service when the state maintained unprofitable lines because it was felt that it was a necessary service to the people living in those areas. But the need to service the people (and the country) has been displaced by the need to service shareholders. As an aside, have you noticed that the video praises the technical achievements in rail transportation in Europe, Japan and China? What have these three places in common? They have NO OIL. That means no (powerful, national) oil companies and no oil lobbies. Easy.....
@@pindapoy1596 BP in the UK?
“There ARE too many bad drivers.” DriverS is plural. The verb “is” is singular.
We NEED more passenger rail in and between cities. We also need more cycling infrastructure in the cities. We depend on cars way too much. Cars are the wrong tool for daily, short commutes. It's so much nicer to ride a bike or relax on a train, and would be even better if trains and cycling infrastructure got better funding and were made more convenient and reliable. Take a look at Japan or the Netherlands, we need something like that in and between cities.
Agree. People need to keep pushing for it in their local cities/states.
Lol it woud take 10 to 15 yrs to implement
@@obitoxic04 So, start now, and have it ready in 10-15 years. We didn't balk at the time it would take to build the highway system when it was approved.
cycling infracture makes traffic worse improved busses and public transport makes transport better (i live in london)
High speed rail is perfect for trips no more than 500-600 miles apart
So trains are: - Safer than cars ✅ - Better than cars and planes for the environment ✅ - Desirable ✅
Right, unfortunately much of the US has been poisoned against the idea of trains. The extreme car centric culture doesn't help either.
And many more good reasons, trains are the best form of transportation.
PRIVATE trains - fixed that for you
also faster than cars, especially in the segments they're building Brightline on
Desirable? Who wants to travel on the rail companies' schedule instead of their own? Who wants to be limited to a small carry on bag instead of having the entire trunk to themselves? Who wants to pay hundreds of dollars for rush hour or holiday season travel when they can buy gas at a much cheaper rate?
Ive been saying for years "why dont we just build a railway on that huge median between highway lanes" finally its about time someone else agrees we are wasting space
I just lived in the UK for 2 years and took the train everywhere. When I returned to the US, I took Amtrack from VA to NY. No internet, and we were late with 45 minutes of leaving our first stop resulting in having to reschedule all of my subsequent trains. It was a 13 hour trip and only 100 dollars less than a flight.
plus some days the line is down.......now what?
The train to nowhere in California was initiated by a ballot measure funded by the train conductors union. I think that speaks volumes about government operated trains in US.
I really hope I get to see a transit-oriented America within my lifetime.
Yes, if there’s a more walkable America, and a choice of better train travel then I’ll be glad I live in the United States again. used to work overseas.
@@enjoyslearningandtravel7957 walkable America? You plan on walking the entire U.S? Good luck with that.
@@kvm1992 you have my words wrong?
@@kvm1992they are not sayin it that way, think of places like Amsterdam they are taking away most of their roads to make it easier for people to walk to certain places while still keep major streets, so more people ride on bikes for transportation, also less pollution in the air, less accidents and so on, in the US and Canada we have a thing that is called a strode which is a street that is a road (5 lanes) place where people should be able to cross but can’t because of how big the streets are getting whatch youtube channel Not Just Bikes they explain it better and show the comparison between the states and Europe
@@kvm1992 He means for the US to be more transit focused. Without a car in the US you can hardly get jobs. The ones that use public transit are basically people who have to. Getting around in cities would be so much better if I could walk to the closest grocery store instead of driving there. When I stayed in Japan it was so nice to just get on a train and pretty much go anywhere.
High Speed rail, and rail transit in general, should be a public service. It absolutely does not have to be profitable because it provides an amazing service to the public and economic benefit to the areas it connects.
exactly. people don't question highways never making a profit, but as soon as its rail they're up in arms
Sure, but if the public sector isn't going to do it, better have the private sector do it than no-one at all
@@lllluka I would agree. Better to have a train than no train at all. But it is important for us all to vote for representatives that will increase infrastructure funding and pursue rail projects.
Also, Brightline isn't completely privately funded as they also receive government grants which should go to public works high speed rail. Just another example of propaganda.
@@lalodaniels1388The amount they've gotten from federal grants is a drop compared their own investment.. Stop.
USA for 100 years: The market will find a solution! Meanwhile in China: Govt funded Maglev goes 268 mph.
No personal freedom, but at least the trains are fast
I think America has at least one city in every state that could support a high speed rail line. I'd love to see all the medium-to-large cities in the US connected in a network of high speed trains; I think that would be feasible, where adding trains to small cities probably would not be profitable enough.
There are certainly at least a hundred cities in the US that could support high-speed rail service. And every state should indeed have at least one city worthy of service, except maybe Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, the Dakotas, and Vermont. And Hawaii. Honolulu is quite big, but there's obviously nowhere to connect it to. But smaller cities and towns can still have regular, slower, less frequent trains servicing them.
@@lllluka Haha, yeah, I meant the contiguous states. And the states you mentioned are definitely the weakest links. Assuming that this has to be done by private companies, I'm just not sure that smaller cities or towns could generate enough revenue to support it. But then again, maybe that would change if a rail line came to a small city, because it could create new opportunities to support some economic growth.
I’d love to see one of these that connects Washington DC, Knoxville, Chattanooga, and Atlanta
100% Traffic is horrible in those areas
It is going to happen via Bristol, hopefully within the decade
@@Allaiya.Tell me about it! I live in Maryland and traffic on I-95 is 2nd worst in the US 🙄. There’s never a time we don't have congestion until after 8pm.
Cincinnati owns a railway that goes from Cincinnati to Chattanooga and I think it passes through Knoxville. But they’re planning to sell it Norfolk southern (same one that had the chemical derailment at East Palestine, OH)
@@Allaiya. True, especially Atlanta.
Took a Brightline from Miami to West Palm Beach and it was an awesome experience, highly recommended
How much does it cost?
@@cockatooinsunglasses7492 it was like 20 bucks for standard but I paid 40 and got first class seating with open bar at the terminal so I got there early and had a couple drinks and snacks
@@cockatooinsunglasses7492The prices fluctuate. I took it this past weekend round-trip (Saturday afternoon and Sunday night) for $20 total.
@@cockatooinsunglasses7492Check their website, might be cheaper to drive, but owning the car is expensive, and the productivity lost being stuck in traffic is also important.
@@cockatooinsunglasses7492 depends on the time you take it, also, they have specials for children, or in some cases children travel free with parents, depending, also depends what class of travel, smart class or premium.
We need high speed rail ASAP! We need it throughout the US, not just within the big cities. We're so far behind people who haven't been overseas have no clue. Speaking of Miami, we need rail that goes from Homestead all the way to Ft Lauderdale with stops in between not just direct. It would be nice to have one that goes all the way to Key West as well.
High speed rail isn't city rail. It's the rail equivalent of the interstate. HSR gets you from city to city, fast. Then, you want good local rail and bike/pedestrian paths within the city to get you where you want to be so you don't need a car.
No we don’t Rail is declining worldwide and it’s a waste of time and money
The biggest problem: if you want truly high-speed rail, the costs on a per mile/kilometer can be extremely daunting. Reason: you need dedicated, grade-separated rail lines to achieve the type of high speeds you see in Japan, China and Europe. Given the high cost just to purchase the right of way, something relatively simple like the Texas Central Railway between Dallas and Houston will end up costing around _$30 billion_ .
Doesn't grade-separation become less of a problem when you get into rural areas though because not as many roads?
Focus on value even more than costs. Remember: He only knows the cost of everything, knows the value of nothing...
As someone that has able to document, and see the growth of Brightline in Florida. I am very excited to see them grow their plan in the future. They represent a very good and very well thought out business model, and should be a model for passenger rail in the United States.
brigleine isnt great either
@@NickyDwhat issues do you see?
@@NickyDStop being a total spam bot. Brightline has been phenomenal. Quit reaching for attention.
@@techtutorvideos I don't believe I was talking to you. Your whole comment is irrelevant to me. It doesn't excuse the fact that High Speed Rail roads is the way to go. It is super convenient. We are not talking about electrified!! We are talking about the needs for the people. Who are you anyway? I most certainly did not need you to add your little 2 cents into this whole commenting at me thing with your bogus lie you are telling me and everyone else. We the people are asking for more options, High speed Rail is the way to go and the way to the future. It is in fact electrified!! Please think before you start talking. You are saying that people don't need trains when they clearly do. Florida+New York+North East of USA+Chicago, Illinois, California are the only way to be getting it together. It is not my fault you would rather have the harder way of things. Having cars, buses isn't going to save those that are unable to go through the hassle with riding a car, let alone afford a car. We are talking about convenience within the community+within each state of the USA.
@@techtutorvideos EXCUSE ME YOU LUNATIC? WHO ARE YOU CALLING WEIRD REACTION?? PLEASE DO NOT TAG ME IN YOUR BOGUS STATEMENTS EVER AGAIN. YES BRIGHT LINE IS CONSIDERED HIGH SPEED RAIL GOING FROM 100 TO 125, THAT RIGHT THERE IS STILL CONSIDERED HIGH SPEED. BRIGHT LINE IS REALISTIC, JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE EXPECTING 200 DOESN'T MEAN THAT BRIGHT LINE IS NOT WITHIN THE HIGH SPEED RAIL RANGE. IT IS NOT MY FAULT YOU ARE SUPER BROKE, NOT BEING ABLE TO AFFORD A TRAIN TICKET. GUESS WHAT? AMTRAK IS KNOWN FOR BEING SUPER DIRTY+FILTHY+STINKY. TICKETS ARE NOT THAT EXPENSIVE IF YOU ARE GOING TO TRAVEL FROM ORLANDO TO MIAMI. IT TELLS ME THAT YOU ARE IN FACT SUPER CHEAP/BROKE. THIS IS NEEDED FOR THOSE THAT ARE DOING BUSINESS TRIPS TO AND FROM ORLANDO/MIAMI. BRIGHT LINE IS IN FACT ELECTRIFIED. WHOSE BEING DISHONEST ANYWAY?? PLEASE GO CHEW ON MORE SAND AND STOP STALKING ME. YOU ARE A TROLL.
Using existing roadways to build train tracks is a brilliant way to get development going.
And like they said, it's also a genius advertising move! Just imagine you being stuck in the middle of traffic and seeing a train passing by you at full-speed! You'd probably think "God, I wish I was on that train right now!"
That is so true because the bigger they make the road for more and more cars one day it will become constrained. The existing roadways between interstates is a brilliant idea.
That's true as long as there is a sizeable median. The problem is that as you get closer to cities the medians disappear. But at least as you get closer to cities there is pre-existing rail infrastructure
@@ABGA8 Medians?
@@Fixeish gg cars crashing into the train and halting the system for days
To see high speed rail become a reality in the United States in my lifetime would be a miracle, especially one that crosses state lines. My only question is how long will it take for it to become mainstream should it ever happen. The automobile and airline industries will no doubt fight hard against it and knowing how powerful and influential they are that's gonna be tough to overcome. I would love to see public transport become widely available in more than just major cities.
Maybe if successful, companies like the one running Brightline will gain a bit of power to push back? Even lobby for local transit options so people can use intercity trains without feeling limited by not having a car?... nah, that's honestly wishful thinking. Long way to go. I just hope we trend in the right direction.
It would be wonderful for the United States but there is information that it will remove the middle States of our Country.
The prime market is cities that are too close to justify flying but also a lengthy car ride away for instance the cities in the northeast corridor.
i lived in tokyo for a few months and it really spoiled me with public transportation. it was so easy to get around and i never once thought i needed a car. its so convenient.
Yeah but it also requires cooperation between a diverse set of industries. For example entertainment must agree to set up shop around the station, so does real estate, restaurant and tech.
I am very optimistic about brightline. Using existing highway corridor is a smart idea.
The big problem I usually see in the US is that they build public transport infrastructure from nowhere to nowhere. When I get of a high speed train in Europe or Japan, I step onto slow public transport for those last few miles. High speed rail is just part of a bigger solution, but on its own won't cause a real shift.
There is a reason why no one does HSR in the median of the road. For true HSR you need straight tracks, with mild curves and gradient, something roads do not need, thus do not have. If Brightline West manages to provide what they promise the average speed of their "HSR" will be 100 mi/h and their frequency 1 train an hour. At the destination you'll need a car due to lack, or problematic, public transport.
@@Hans-gb4mvFor the time being (until adequate public transport is available) we could just drive to the station and rent our car at our destination. We do this with planes, why can’t we do this with HSR?
@@AL5520I-15 is fairly straight compared to most US Highways. Most Interstates were built with few curves to cut through the landscape, not move with it.
@@AL5520 Um, you can literally get on a Metrolink at the future Brightline Rancho Cucamonga station... AND in Florida they have special Brightline passenger shuttles to various destinations like the Airport, or anywhere within 5 miles of the station. So that's two of your claims debunked. And your "100 mile per hour average" isn't anything new. The Eurostar train system from London to Paris has a 100mph speed restriction in the 23.5 mile long Channel Tunnel. Yet I see nobody complaining about that or NOT riding the Eurostar because of that fact.
Public transportation does not need to be profitable. That’s not the point of transit. It’s a public good, connecting citizen to jobs, businesses, and other people. We should all take some pride in our country, educate our people, and build world class infrastructure.
I mean to be fair, profitable transport is possible. Japan Railway Group is privately-owned and profitable. They make money by leasing out the land around their trains to business owners and corporations.
@@Kodeb8 yeah but also the JR group's profitability is kind of an exception rather than the rule. Public transit does not need to be profitable but in the case of a privately owned transportation company, then yeah, it kinda does, and since it so often isn't, it relies on subsidies to stay afloat.
That’s true, and some people cannot drive because of vision reasons, or taking medicine or they are older or other reasons, and better public transportation and rail would make that possible
That's true but this is america sir. Capitalism is everything.
@Kodeb8 yes, but you said it, it's not the rail itself bringing the profit, but the real estate, although the value of the real estate is brought by the access to rail
This type of technology and infrastructure is over due in the US, keep the pursuit going with determination, foresight, imagination, and communication.
I’ve taken Brightline from Miami to Palm Beach and couldn’t speak more highly of the product. Happy to say I’ll never drive to Orlando again.
The city of Orlando needs to expand their sunrail services. Bright line is amazing but we need to also focus on last mile transportation.
I believe Sunrail already expanding their services they’re adding more two more stations if I’m not mistaken.
@@enjoyslearningandtravel7957 yes they are expanding east to west, but they have no connections to the Orlando international airport. The closest station is the one on sand lake road which is over 7 miles away. To make the brightline that much better the city’s need to make sure they also have local infrastructure set up as well. Also sunrail on runs Monday through Friday, there have been many times I as a local would use the train but it’s not operational while I’m not working.
@@Randomcharacters_SunRail will expand to the airport and to the Convention center via the Sunshine Corridor project
@@Ven100which will be shared with Brightline
I personally don’t mind it being a private company. I’m in Orlando and have seen Brightline and they look like they’re doing a great job!
My only concern is that once these rail lines finally start meeting up, if are other companies start doing the same thing, that connections will become confusing. I'm praying with all my might that they follow suit with Japan's suica/passmo cards to make things easy and convenient between operators. We could really have something fantastic.
@@sonozaki0000 that’s a very good point. I’m not familiar with Japan’s system nor the public/private aspect of their system, but I would fully be behind some type of regulation/legislation that ensures there is no monopolistic practices of rail lines and encourages integration of the system! It’s just frustrating to see that demand is there in many areas of the US, like Orlando-Miami, SF-LA, LA-Vegas, and especially throughout the DC-NYC region and not have a great system implemented. The national interstate system in the 50s and 60s revolutionized this country and it would be amazing to see some of that progress happened in passenger rail. Also, have you been to Japan or seen any of these rail lines in person? I’ve never seen any personally other than using DC and NYC subway systems, but I’d love to see how it all works in Europe, Japan, China, etc if you have any insight or info.
@@colehowe I've never been able to afford visiting Japan! Growing up into anime and wanting to visit I've just always tried to stay apprised of interesting infrastructure developments over there (at least cursory knowledge). In Japan, rail is privatized and there are tons of companies operating together -- some city-only, some regional, some nationwide. Many have their own farecards, but there is also an overarching farecard called Suica that can be used at many railways all across the country. It is actually so cool that it can also be used as a general smartcard to pay at stores. It's a really clever idea for travelers in a hurry, budgeters, or commuters with expenses covered by their employer.
They take millions of taxpayer dollars, and will likely cost us more. All publicly-funded trains waster millions.
but they charge like $100 each way when amtrak for a comparable distance is like $10 or $15 lol
I hope they expand more i like how nice their station looks
wow it’s honestly really amazing seeing all this news coverage on passenger rail lately!
This is encouraging! Here's to hoping we see a high-speed line between San Francisco> Portland > Seattle > Vancouver BC in the future!
That would be amazing. I think putting the rail in between l 5 would work great like they are doing between LA and Vegas.
They just have to finish the line between SF, LA and San Diego first...
@@umbrastar I agrree. It would be pretty epic because you could then hop on the California high-speed rail in SF and take it as far as San Diego essentially making a border-to-border west coast high-speed rail connection.
@@Croz89can’t, half them are not finished and never get off the ground because they're set up as political cash cows, with no intention of finishing the job. Kickbacks are the real profit these enterprises, not progress.
There is a plan for HSR in the pacific northwest corridor
Milwaukee-Chicago-Detroit-Toledo-Cleveland Cincinnati-Dayton-Columbus-Cleveland Philly-Pittsburgh-Columbus-Indy Portland-Seattle-Vancouver-Vancouver Kansas City- St. Louis OKC-Dallas Louisville-Nashville-Atlanta-Jacksonville ECT
The cross-country Boston-NY-Philly-DC-Detroit-Chicago-Dallas-Phoenix-LA-SF
The mistake of the 1950s have finally caught up to people’s minds and I am so glad more and more are wanting cycle paths, better public transportation, and high speed rail. It’s about time America gets back at the car lobbyists and create a sustainable and affordable way for people to move around.
I've ridden on Brightline Florida several times. The cars are comfortable, quiet, and clean. The on-board attendants are courteous and professional. They fed me and attended to my every need.
Chicago is ripe for HSR. So many cities within the sweet zone for HSR and if we reach speeds similar to HSR in Japan and China, it could go further.
Quanto ao Japão tudo bem, mas a China é ridícula cara, a unica coisa que pode falar deles é a maior quilometragem construída sem qualquer critério, inútil em boa parte, uma porcaria, conecta lugar nenhum alugar algum, só dá prejuízos, cheia de corrupção.
I mean, that entire region was literally built on railroads so it makes sense. Not to mention that most of the terrain is extremely flat, too
After being in Europe and loving the high speed rail, I am thankful that it is finally happening here even if it is little by little.
Not once in this video is anyone mention people with disabilities or who cannot drive using their product. This product serves as a vital way to get around in a source of freedom for jobs economic growth and freedom to travel between cities for those who cannot obtain a driver's license who are disabled in some capacity that cannot drive or even people coming to this country with no license and cannot get one. Not once have they mentioned that but this definitely help serve people with disabilities.
I've been traveling to Europe and Asia and im definitely envious of their train systems. Ill get rid of my car in a heartbeat if we had a reliable train network here in the US.
Get China's CRRC to build it for you guys! They're efficient, brilliant excellent builders, and they finish their projects as scheduled. Their patented IGBT (insulated-gate bipolar transistor) guarantees a safe & stable ride. China already enjoys 42,000 km of high speed rails & has so far exported several HSR systems abroad. Look at Indonesia's new Jakarta-Bandung HSR, the pride of Jokowi's (Joko Widodo) administration. His approval ratings shot through the roof ~82% positive. The Chinese HSR builders finished the job in < 6yrs as promised!
The USA needs to revitalize Motor City Detroit into Electric City Train Metropolis.
Honestly the entire salt belt lol. Chicago is the railroad capital and all the class 1 railroads have yards here. So they should definitely use the union labor up here in Michigan Illinois Wisconsin Ohio etc.
The Midwest system would definitely use a Chicago Hub, but they need passenger specific lines, Amtrak using rail where freight trains have priority is a disaster. The amtrak service between Detroit & Chicago is just about useless and always multiple hours late and is really bested by bus services like megabus.
@@GreatLakesDrifta very true and I agree
I'd LOVE to see a train or shuttle network from DTW. There could be a route to Ann Arbor, one to downtown Detroit, and one to the northern suburbs (Royal Oak or Troy).
I mean the two technologies are close so it's a good idea to ressurect these cities
I hope Brightline builds a line connecting Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. There is a line from another company that's planned there, but it looks like it's stalled.
That's bc of TXDOT and NIMBYs challenging it legally every chance they get. I don't think Brighline will magically be able to overcome those obstacles without just as many delays. TX has to want this bad enough if triangle HSR is going to happen any time soon.
*INCREDIBLE VIDEO!* You hit EVRERY point that makes Brightline the amazing railroad that it is today, as it's funding model is the key to building higher quality passenger service at a much faster rate. Keep up the great work on rail related content, as I can't wait to see what'll be covered next. Liked, subscribed, and shared to the ends of the earth!
I live in Charlotte NC, I'd love a rail connection between here, Raleigh, Atlanta, Ect. I hope to continue to see brightline do great things. When this get to Charlotte, NC I would be very excited, I also hope my city invest in bike lanes near the rail lines so that we can travel from when ilive rural to the center of my downtownb then get on a rail.
The Brightline Florida plans seem great! Hopefully other cities in Florida will be planned to be added in the future like Jacksonville, Sarasota, Cape Coral, Lakeland, Deltona, Palm Bay, and Pensacola, and perhaps also cities in neighboring states like Atlanta and Birmingham
No. Then it will be a slow train. If they want trains stop then have to pay for quad tracking there line and grade separation
I think going up to Atlanta would be an amazing idea. I’m sure there’s a ton of people that already drive down for vacation, having a train would just add another “fun thing” for those people.
I hope they upgrade their rail into High-speed Rail in the future.
@@williamerazo3921 Express trains are a thing
Glad Cnbc has been giving HSR a lot of publicity recently. We need it! I’m tired of Florida traffic lol
I used Brightline in southern Florida quite a few times and I find it the only service in North America that is close to an actual high speed service, as those found in Europe, China and Japan. Of course the level crossings and slow tracks are rather shocking, but in Central Florida they have built dedicated tracks that make the most out of these trains’ good potential. The LA-Las Vegas route promises to be the first real, proper high speed line, running at 180 mph on an entirely new track. As it happened in every single country in the world where a REAL high speed line was introduced, no doubts users in the US will start being curious about it, enjoying its speed and service, and ultimately love it and crave for more
I think an initiative like this is exactly what could convince people that rail travel is better than cars and planes in quite a few situations.
We NEED more of this
As a Brit, the only route I'm really familiar with is the London-Paris route. The cities are roughly 300 miles apart. When I was a kid in the 1970s, flying was out of the question because it was too expensive, so my parents would drive, taking the ferry for the 25-mile sea crossing, and getting there would take a day because there were no autoroutes. In the 1980s, my dad moved to Paris with work, and being a poor student, I still couldn't afford to fly, and didn't own a car in London (no point owning a car in London because the public transport is excellent), so I used to take the overnight bus to visit him. The 300 miles took 9 hours now that autoroutes had been built and still used the ferry. In the 1990s, low-cost airlines had yet to appear in the UK, and, in any case, they build a high-speed rail to join the two cities, and the transit time dropped to 2.25 hours. Ever since, there has been NO point in flying to Paris because it takes longer to get to London airport than to take the train to Paris. So, during the period from the 1970s to the 1990s, high-speed rail reduced the transit time between London and Paris from a day, by roughly 90%. In all the years I have been travelling to Paris, I have never flown. The modern trains are 400 yards long with 28 coaches which is way more than the Brightline with 3 coaches. The French essentially invented European high-speed train travel, and it depends on a completely fenced-off railway so that nothing (e.g., farm animals) can get anywhere near to the rails and there are no street-running sections. Everything is grade-separated. The locomotives are all electric because, historically, France has no oil deposits, so it developed nuclear power, and hence an abundance of electricity. And finally, the tracks are very, very, straight with only the mildest of high-radius curves. The US has a long way to go. You are still using diesel locos, your trains are too short, and they are too slow (even in the UK, we were using 125mph trains in the 1970s - heck, we were using 125mph steam trains in the 1930s). Once you have trains travelling at 200mph, they suddenly become a viable alternative to aircraft. That should be your aim.
Trains are cheap, tracks are expensive. You are correct that grade separated and fenced tracks is the way to go. Brightline didn’t do that. They use old freight tracks and hundreds of level crossings. Result: 88 dead in just a few years.
Recently back from a business trip to US and Canada, going to a different city every day. I was really struck by how much North America needs rail. Travelling by plane and car was a real drag. Doing the same thing in Europe would have been a lot easier.
I live in Miami and I've got family in Orlando and let me tell you that I am EXCITED for the Brightline extension to open. I won't have to drive and either pay $20 in tolls on the Florida Turnpike or sit in I-95 traffic.
I want to try it! It looks nice. I really am hoping & looking forward to trying the California HSR as well when it is done. Public or private, I'm for more rail lines, as long as they're on time!
Me too, but I live in Europe, and don’t wanna fly 6+ hours to the US, bring back an electric, affordable Concorde, and then we can. Also, I’d never feel safe knowing everyone around me has a gun.
@@ncard00 Huh? I'm pretty sure California has gun control laws.
I remember when I first heard that California wanted to build High Speed Rail. I was on board (no pun intended) IMMEDIATELY!!! Hopefully, it is fully built and functioning within the next decade.
There is limited light rail around where I live, and if it's running near your place of work or during the travel hours you need, it is superb! A really wonderful way to travel and people love! My problem is we don't have enough of it or enough bus connections to the train stations. More please! And if we could connect to a HSR to visit other cities, that would be stellar.
I wish the video touched on public transport, or transport, options at either end. If you're going to need a car at your destination anyway, many people are probably going to prefer to bring their own car with them rather than hire one. I think that's one of the hidden challenges, especially in a country where transit isn't the norm in cities, with implementing rail travel between cities.
That's why the Acela Express is pretty good. The big cities it serves have decent public transit
People hate on CNBC and I am very judgmental of them as well, but they actually do a good just covering topics that should be covered. It would be really nice to see a video about improving bike infrastructure in the US.
most news agencies who do stories that aren't politics do a decent job.
@@deprogramm Transportation planning is politics unfortunately due to a the cost and all the NIMBYS
Brightline isn't the as good as these clowns at CMBC claim, it's a pretty big misdirection to cover up that we could have so much better.
@@ddd7254 they seem better than Amtrak though.
I would absolutely LOVE to have Brightline (or someone else) connect up the 3C+D corridor in Ohio!
Portman needs another decade to think about it.
That's actually one of the new lines that Amtrak's been looking at in their new ConnectsUs plan they made after getting funding from the infra bill a few years ago
I live in Miami and hate the traffic. Road rage and accidents keep me from traveling out if my area, but with Brightline I feel connected to place without the headache of traffic on I95. Wish they would connect to Jacksonville and to Sarasota then they would be perfect!!!
I have ridden Amtrak only several times and my impression is that it's slow and underfunded but clean and pleasant and much better than its reputation. The (largest?) barrier to first-rate passenger rail in the US appears to be the ownership of actual track or corridors and thus sharing with existing freight lines. As for potential market share of all trips, the US car culture is cited as a significant barrier to successful rail systems but we must remember that such a car culture exists in no small measure due to the lack of alternatives. Many sitting on the freeways stuck in slow traffic have no choice.
We need a high speed line connecting Pittsburgh to Philadelphia. Then you can stretch that into NYC, Baltimore, and DC. Pittsburgh lines to the Ohio could also work. This opens things up potentially for western PA, northern WV, and eastern OH. I'll take any rail lines at this point though, we're so woefully behind the rest of the world that places like Bangladesh are already ahead of us.
There’s already an Amtrak trainconnecting Pittsburgh and Philly that takes about 7 hrs. The tracks would need upgrading to support high speed rail.
@@vzwodb17 there are also a bunch of hills between the 2 cities, this may be an issue
Rail is literally the Swiss army knife that will fix almost all of our country's problems. - Need an alternative to driving that's faster, higher capacity, and more efficient for better land use and less traffic? *Build trains* - Need to reduce your carbon footprint? *Build trains* - Need a form of transit that's cheaper due to less demanding maintenance? *Build trains* - Need to make the cost of travel cheaper for the working class? *Build trains* - Need to better connect cities and regional neighborhoods for more economic prosperity? *Build trains* - Need more middle missing housing for affordability and less car dependence? *Build trains* - Need mixed use zoning that helps small businesses thrive? *Build trains* No matter what problem is it that we need to fix, it always comes back to trains.
Say it again for the people in the back!
It should take your organized ideas to your community, such as your representatives
I mean that's great and all, but how does that get the normal person to their job, store or school? How does that allow them to travel when they want, to the exact destination that they want? There are some areas of the country where it'd be useful, but there are enormous areas of the country where there just aren't enough people to make it worth the effort. And then once you get to the city that you're trying to get to, how do you get around? It's too spread out to walk, you'll still need a car.
@@loganleroy8622 High speed rail is just one piece to the puzzle. America needs to densify. Abolish single-family zoning and start building missing middle housing. Abolish parking minimums. Build a bike network. Tear down the highways that bulldozed our city centers, and reinvest the money that normally goes to maintaining those giant roads into local transit with dedicated rights of way. If our cities are made walkable, than your concerns are no longer an issue, and trains provide the incentive for that due to their ability to scale to capacity. This is why the few metro areas in the US with subways like New York, Chicago, Philly, Boston, the Bay Area, Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver are always dense walkable cities. There are a few exceptions like Atlanta, LA, and Miami, but Atlanta recently abolished parking minimums, and LA recently abolished single-family zoning and is having a transit construction boom.
@@gabetalks9275 I suppose that might be true, but those walkable cities are the ones that people are leaving. The cities that are growing are Dallas, Houston, Austin, Miami, Memphis, Orlando, Charlotte, and Nashville. Those cities are extremely spread out. I don''t think it would be helpful to the center of the country, which always gets ignored by the people on the coasts. The passenger train comes through my train station once every day at 2:30 in the morning.
I love this! I just hope all all the different entities can work together so that travel is seamless between them
I found the video on Brightline's high-speed rail plans to be informative and well-made. Thanks for sharing!
I was just in Tampa, but flew in from Orlando. Would've been really nice to have Brightline between the cities, definitely can't wait to see what else they build!
The next phase is Orlando to Tampa should be done closers to 2028 or 29
Not a chance. If it does. Don’t expect it for a good 10-15 years
@@SKS8080 Brightline has said it should be around between 2028 and 2030
@@DynamicHaze it will ultimately come down to politics. Do u ever believe a politician???
@@SKS8080 sounds like Brightline is privately owned, so no politics
Gros GG pour la vidéo👏👏 Ça donne envie de se replonger dans toute leur discographie ! Encore merci pour ce taf de malade !!
4:23, my literal home in the background.. Delray Beach.. I love y’all Brightline! Keep up the good work
Imagine how advanced our infrastructure would be if United States used military/war money into the infrastructure? We be number 1 🤷♀️
That was the point of the interstate highway system initially. It was to allow efficient intranational military transport.
You wouldn't have money to spend in the first place if those wars didn't happen. Do you think it's normal for a country to be able to print trillions of dollars?
Imagine if we didn't have to support illegal aliens.
@@jess_n_atx nobody would use highway as airfield now
Americans no longer care. More interested in reality tv than real life
New York to Montreal was an amazing route to try this.
Reminder that Florida governor, Rick Scott canceled publicly funded high-speed rail in favor of a privately funded high-speed rail which his friends invested money in
Awesome, can’t wait to use it!
I love seeing CNBC slowly realize the infrastructure problems that I've been learning about on KZhead for years.
I really hope that CAHSR finishes the "train to nowhere" because it will at least show us what it is capable of. The ridership will be low because of the "nowhere" part. It will, however, give us a footprint of what can be. I am routing for CAHSR and Brightline West. Also, Cascadia. What I hope is that all HSR systems follow the same standards, such as station widths, track curving, platform heights, and other features. I am thinking about future proofing, which can be 1one hundred years from now. One day, all these separate lines can connect without having to rebuild anything. If everything is set to a standard now, there will be no need to re-do everything. It is already there.
When I was Stationed in Germany in the 60's I used the trains all the time. Such a great way to travel and you could set your watch by the train schedules. They were that efficient!
I hope these new lines are a huge success and I will take them at every opportunity!!!
Depending on how well Brightline West proves the concept, building higher speed rail lines in freeway medians/right of ways could be the best path forward for US high speed rail. Follow the freeway between major cities to minimize impacts to surrounding land, then split off from the freeway to serve the existing downtown station via upgraded shared tracks, or at least have a connection to the major city's downtown station via an existing rail service that would then be improved for more frequency. Such a path forward would mean rail travel that's still slower than flying, with average speeds of probably around 100mph between cities, but considerably faster than driving. Combine that with better transit in and around the cities it serves, and that's great incentive to be less car dependent.
The government needs to openly subsidies CAHSR and Brightline more. This is literally the #1 reason why we’re being held back.
Love ur vids
They do. They just lit all that money on fire. And now they want more.
@@tomoconnell2320 I'll have to find it, but I think I saw a stat that our budget for highways for just a single year in this country is more than we've ever invested into rail in the entire course of our country's history. Of course rail would want more.
@@gamelord12 sure, the subsidies are very much weighted in favor of highways, but the incompetence shown by CAHSR isn’t excused-it will likely continue well into the future regardless of the amount of funding they get. Highways getting more subsidies isn’t a license to light money on fire building HSR in just a single state.
@@tomoconnell2320 It's gotta get done though, so whatever that takes.
from a strictly financial point of view, the train is a very lucrative solution too: clean energy, fast, and above all you travel from the heart of the city to the heart of the other city, the time saving is brilliant.
Living in Chicago for multiple year's, I gained a true appreciation for the Metra, this is even better!
Can't wait for the follow-up on this still in-progress project in 2033!
Love Brightline ride them all the time, we have to figure out a way to do it faster, like a Tampa extension
One of the biggest mistakes this country made was becoming so car-dependent. Everything built around the car not the human. Investment should have been made decades ago for rail corridors and public transit inside cities. Instead what we got were highways rammed through cities and car-centric infrastructure and zoning. Now we are paying for that decades later.
You know why though right? It's the same reason "white flight" happened in the 1960s just as freeways were being built...
i live in wisconsin. lived in the fox valley. have family in madison, milwaukee, eu clare, steven’s point, green bay; the whole state. we have enough roads to also build them just like this. I also have a lot of family in chicago. I constantly think about how much better it would be to have what we have downtown milwaukee; a platform to get on 3 different rail lines, the amtrak, the hop and a few others. It would be LOVELY to have this same port in all the other major cities in the state, as everything is usually a 3 hour drive. i love driving, but it would be so much faster and less time consuming to get on a train heading up the lake to green bay from milwaukee, the same way i can to get to chicago. There is no railway to madison besides the amtrak, but it’s a 1 time a day deal. I have spoke about how great a triangle design would be, as the amount of sports between madison, milwaukee, and green bay alone would generate enough traffic to still have traffic and said railways. it would also help with our drunk driving. i’ve looked at how our buses run, and they work, but if we had a rail it would help so much more. the drunk driving laws here are WEAK, and we drink a LOT. Long story short, if we had more or better public transit, the beer tours would be off the chain, and would help everyone here to get around tremendously. milwaukee would also look stunning again if we had less highways (they are in the sky) blocking the third ward and downtown area.
I hope both CA HSR, Brightline/Brightline West, and Texas Central are successful in establishing high speed rail in their chosen markets. Thus will spur on a national high speed rail (which will probably need $1.2 trillion in funding)
Trains will never replace the car, BUT at least it gives you another option. I do occasionally enjoy driving from NYC to DC, but the Acela or NorthEast Regional is FANTASTIC when you don’t wanna deal with traffic. Each options has their pros & cons. It’s up to preference, but at least alternative options exist.
Yeah, cars are not the problem, car dependency is.
IDK why people can't comprehend that Cars, Planes, and Trains are completely different modes of transportation for different purposes. Cars cant replace trains and Trains cant replace cars. If you want to travel 15-20 miles, a train is big and inefficient. If you want to travel 270 miles, a Train is THE WAY to go. The only reason a car would be optimal is if you were traveling with a larger group, say 4-7 people. The only reason why Americans drive from Orlando to Miami now is because the only alternative is flying (expensive) or slow amtraks.
@@Blaze6432 and that my man is what makes trains so diverse. They are actaully great for shorter journeys. Regional rail in europe is a great example. Trains here go from 0-140 km/h in about 60 seconds which makes traveling really fast by train.
It's impractical to build rails to every block in America when other forms of transportation are more flexible and do it so much better. I sometimes get the feeling that the "rail nuts" have never been outside a large city center. Or their brains just aren't wired for practical thinking.
The government may also plan a new train development between Los Angeles to Las Vegas due to both cities being close together; the company may possibly design a public transportation system
I like the idea that, at sometime in the distant future, Brightline West and Utah's FrontRunner, which runs along I-15 in northern Utah, will meet somewhere in southern Utah and greatly improve passenger train service in the West.
People will fight it though in Utah, since they don't want "Vegas types" coming up so easily to Salt Lake area. Even less so when it comes to Californians
@@Mcfunface You're right; regardless of how nonsensical it is, as the freeway already connects these places, rural Utahns really don't like Californians and really like their big-truck-supremecy. I hope that, should this idea be proposed, enough voices in favor of it will be loud enough for it to get traction.
@@potatoman7895 It is what it is. At best we may extend frontrunner to St. George one day.
Acela is an icon of US passenger rail but anyone would agree it needs a long way to go if you've ever traveled to Europe or Eastern Asia.
The thing about this, most of the US cities are not walkable, sure you can get somewhere via train, but your not walking anywhere after you get off, imagine if the train drops you in vegas at like, southpoint, good luck walking to the Wynn or something
It will probably be connected vans and other ways
I work for the railroad and passed by the Brightline in a car. In my opinion it looks GREAT
I hope that local forms of transportation are also invested near the stations. Las Vegas should extend its monorails to its new station or establish a BRT route with high frequency, linked directly to the strip. Otherwise, there'll be no purpose for HSR.
High speed rail is safer, faster, more environmentally friendly, PERIOD.
Desperately need dedicated HSR, would love one in particular to run from Chicago - detroit - toronto