High Speed Railways

1
I remember the one time I was on the railways in
Dallas with my grandmother.
2
I remember wondering if the railways go any
faster in other parts of the world.
3
It turns out that they do, and the U.S. may need
to catch up with other countries such as Japan.
4
With several bullet train projects in California,
the Northeast, and Texas, the US is testing the
high speed railway market.
5
Legal victories in California are finally
allowing construction to begin on an LA to San
Francisco high speed railway.
6
A state ravaged by six of the top fifty most
congested cities in the Western Hemisphere is one
of the most reasonable locations to start a trial
of high speed railways in the US.
7
Texas, not far behind California, has five cities
in the top fifty most congested cities in the
Western Hemisphere, and not all too surprisingly
has plans for one of the longest high-speed
railway systems in the US.
8
As the second largest state by area and the
second most populous state, Texas has both the
space and population necessary to support a
high-speed railway system.
9
The railway is to be privately funded, and has
started holding public meetings to get community
feedback, while also compiling information on the
environmental impact for federal review of the
project.
10
The high-speed railway planned for Texas
stretches from Dallas down to Houston, traveling
through eleven different counties.
11
So far two routes have been proposed, and several
locations have been planned out for both cities.
12
Meanwhile, in the Northeast, Amtrak has a 151
billion upgrade planned for its introduction into
the high speed railway business.
13
The upgrade is for the Washington-Boston section
of their track, and would cut down the commute to
forty five minutes instead of the current two
hours and thirty minutes.
14
However, they are not the only company on the
block any more.
15
Northeast Maglev, a privately funded company
backed by the Japanese government, has its sights
on a New York-Washington line that would cut the
time from almost three hours down to an hour.
16
Despite the performance benefits of Maglev
technology over other high speed railway systems,
Amtrak has an extensive pre-existing system
already established in the region, and holds a
fairly substantial lead in regards to public
opinion over the privately owned and foreign
backed Northeast Maglev.