In Minnesota, where business travel has long meant sailing along on interstates through long stretches of rural landscapes or jumping on a jetliner for a one-hour flight to Chicago, the notion of high-speed rail has always seemed exotic.
Why take trains—even if they are faster than Amtrak’s current Twin Cities-to-Chicago Empire Builder service—when driving and flying are quicker and so familiar?
| Duluth, Rochester Also Want Fast Trains |
Backers of a Midwestern regional initiative to establish a 3,000-mile network of high-speed trains, mainly along existing freight and state passenger rail tracks, say the equation has changed enough to lure business travelers from Minnesota and elsewhere in the Midwest onto the rails. Their efforts, which have been ongoing in a quixotic fashion since the mid-1990s, got a massive boost in this year’s federal stimulus spending bill, which targeted $8 billion for high-speed rail.
Just how many of those federal dollars would go to Midwest passenger rail was still undetermined as of early June. Other regional lines, some with advanced planning and some money already in place, are also seeking federal funding. But assuming that by 2013 or so work has begun on a high-speed rail link from St. Paul (perhaps through Minneapolis and Rochester) to Madison, Milwaukee, and Chicago, would enough people ride it?
Some business travel experts say the line would create a sizable new niche among those who crave legroom to use laptops and cell phones while they travel as well as among people for whom the security and congestion hassles of flying are becoming too much to bear, especially on shorter trips. At around $100 one way to Chicago, value travelers would also be attracted, as would those seeking to reduce their carbon footprint. (There have been no official ridership estimates. About 554,000 rode the Empire Builder last year.)
Would that be enough to enable high-speed trains to cover their operating costs? Critics think not. Others believe they won’t move fast enough to attract large-scale ridership. By federal regulation, high-speed rail runs at a top speed of 110 miles per hour—nowhere near as fast as, say, a Japanese bullet train, which can zoom at upwards of 200 miles per hour. (The Empire Builder averages about 50 miles per hour, including stops.)
Still, the current U.S. version of high-speed rail has momentum. Faster trains may be coming fast.
