 This video is brought to you by Squarespace, the all-in-one platform for building your online brand. Check out the link in the description, or stay tuned to learn more. Hey folks, welcome back to RM Transit, and High Speed Rail Explained. Today we have one of the most requested High Speed Rail Explained videos in the history of the channel, America. While the United States is often bemoaned as a place where high speed rail plans go to die, truth is, early in the development of high speed rail technology, the US was much less of a laggard, and even today the United States does have some fast train services, both existing and under development. And understanding them is important in considering why the United States doesn't have more high speed rail, more passenger rail in general, and how to change that for the future, especially with new funding such as from the major recently passed infrastructure bill. Let's take a look. The United States was actually fairly early to the trend of fast trains, and well before electrification was even a major consideration, high speed services were operating across various parts of the country. Alan Fisher has done excellent videos on some such routes, such as the Lackawanna Cutoff, which have long since been out of service, but things were not always the way they are today. Even in the 1960s and 1990s, the United States took steps forward, often influenced or even in connection with France, with the introduction of the high speed metro liner trains and the Accela Express respectively, both operated in the northeast corridor. Now this video might feel a little unusual if you're used to high speed rail explained, because the US does not have an extensive nation spanning high speed rail network. Instead it has a few key corridors where high speed rail is either already there or developing, and so I figured I'd give you a heads up. The last thing I really want to say is that I have a somewhat unconventional opinion about high speed rail, and that's okay, everyone sees these things differently. But I want to be more transparent going forward so that the difference in definition and terminology isn't confusing. The way high speed rail is usually formally defined is that 250 kilometers per hour or about 150 miles per hour is the required speed for new lines to be considered high speed, while existing retrofitted lines tend to qualify at 200 kilometers per hour or 125 miles per hour. I personally break things down differently, in my eyes everything at or above 200 kilometers per hour or 125 miles per hour is high speed, and I actually also think you qualify if you're getting within spitting distance of these numbers as well. I then consider true high speed rail to be from about 290 to 320 kilometers per hour or 180 to 200 miles per hour, while the latest world record beating lines go up to about 350 kilometers per hour or 220 miles per hour. Now why do I define things this way? Well I do think that whether tracks are retrofitted or not is sort of eh. If a train is going 125 miles per hour it's going really fast, twice the typical highway speed limit, so I think calling it high speed makes sense. The distinction I make between around 125 miles per hour and around 200 miles per hour systems is mainly a generational thing. A lot of earlier high speed rail systems and lines like the Intercity 125 and the Metroliners in the US maxed out at 125, and hence a lot of track was designed for those speeds, and this has meant that proliferation of rolling stock tends to be catered to 125 mile per hour operations or roughly 200 miles per hour, because few systems maxed out in the middle. Few. Anyways, without further ado, let's dive into the existing high speed rail network in the United States. The only real high speed rail line in the United States and in North America is Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, which runs from Washington DC to Boston, with stops in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore on the way. The corridor was completed over 100 years ago, and plays host to a mix of intercity rail services from Amtrak, and commuter and regional services from other operators like New Jersey Transit, Metro North, and everybody's favorite railway that's moving backwards in time, Mark. In fact, parts of the Northeast Corridor even have freight services, but the priority of various trains is basically inverted from the rest of North America because Amtrak actually owns the Northeast Corridor. Because of its age, the Northeast Corridor is totally fascinating. Much of the infrastructure and structures are shockingly old, and replacing and upgrading this old infrastructure has been and continues to be one of Amtrak's greatest tasks, with new bridges and tunnels slowly working their way along. The work of strengthening and upgrading the Northeast Corridor and its stations is really a goldmine of interesting things to talk about, so stay tuned for more videos in the future. That said, some elements of the corridor, especially its curvy alignment north of New York City, present serious barriers that can't easily be fixed, not that the various tunnels and bridges of the gateway program have come easily, to true high speed rail service from Boston to Washington DC. Another fascinating element of the corridor is the varied electrification systems. The section from New York to Washington operates at 12 kV AC, while the section from New York to New Haven, Connecticut operates at 12.5, both at different frequencies, all because of the historical original builders and operators of the railways, and the fact that they were electrified when electricity was still an awful thing. Meanwhile, from Boston to New Haven, electrification is a more standard 25 kV AC at 60 Hertz. This section was actually not electrified until the late 90s, hence the more standard electrification, and it was supposedly done fairly affordably by today's standards, something that would be amazing to get back to. The corridor is also very heavily grid separated, with crossings completely eliminated between New York and Washington, and only a handful remaining north of New York. In terms of actual speeds and services, there are two main high speed train services which operate on the northeast corridor, the northeast regional, and the Assela Express, though other routes do also operate as high speed once they enter the corridor. The Assela Express is an express high speed rail service which bypasses most stations and has a maximum speed of about 150 miles per hour. That said, speeds in excess of 125 miles per hour are mostly limited to sections of track between New York and Philly, and in Rhode Island. The northeast regional is a regional service, which stops at more stations than the Assela, and has a maximum speed of 125 miles per hour. The northeast regional is actually Amtrak's most used service, with the Assela slotting in at number two. The gap between the services isn't absolutely massive either, with only a few sections of the northeast corridor being capable of speeds of more than 125 miles per hour. Hence, the Assela gains a lot of its speed simply by bypassing stations. As an aside, the Mark Penline is also a service I wanted to mention, as its regional trains hit top speeds of 125 miles per hour traveling on the northeast corridor, respectable for a regional service even around the world. Now, the northeast corridor is great, but it only serves a segment of the United States, both in terms of population and geography, so what do we have to look forward to? The obvious first project to talk about is California High Speed Rail. I talked about some personal issues I have with the project in a previous video, but for better or for worse, the project is continuing to march forward with a lot of very impressive high speed rail infrastructure, mostly viaducts and grade separations in California's Central Valley, which will be connected to the San Francisco Bay Area as part of the initial phase of the project. That said, Caltrain's modernization project is also a stepping stone for high speed rail, which will piggyback off it to reach San Francisco's Trans Bay Terminal. Now, the lovely footage you're seeing is courtesy of John from the channel The Four Foot, which is the quintessential place to go for transit and railway construction and development in the United States. Nobody, not even massive news outlets, have the coverage John has, so make sure to go check out some of his videos, which includes stuff from coast to coast. Now, beyond the initial phase, California's High Speed Rail is set to extend down to Los Angeles, and beyond this major link to Sacramento and San Diego, on the north and south sides respectively. The line will see current world class top speeds of 220 miles per hour, though portions of the line, such as those shared with Caltrain, will be slower. Completion dates for High Speed Rail are really uncertain at the moment, but it's unlikely we see any proper services operating before 2030. Now, before we look at the next high speed rail lines in the US, I'm going to quickly tell you about this video's sponsor, Squarespace. If you're interested in creating an online presence, like I did, you won't find another platform as comprehensive and easy to use as Squarespace, which I used to create my new website. I particularly love the built-in blogging tools, as well as the powerful email campaigns I can create to better connect with everyone, and of course the in-depth analytics tools to give me insightful feedback on how this site is performing. Start building your online brand for free by heading to Squarespace.com, and when you're ready to launch, go to Squarespace.com slash RM Transit and use code RM Transit to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. The next high speed rail line is Brightline in Florida, which already exists, but is not currently high speed. Right now, services run between beautiful modern stations in Miami and West Palm Beach, and hit top speeds of 80 miles per hour or around 130 kilometers per hour. Somewhat unusually, Brightline is a privately owned railway, and is not operated by Amtrak. Brightline is quite an interesting case study, and is using a mixture of revenue streams, such as real estate, to recover construction costs, which could be a promising way of getting more intercity and regional rail built in North America in the future. More interesting is the currently well under construction, like North from West Palm Beach, and then West to Orlando, with a station located at the city's international airport. This leg of the route will have top speeds from 110 to 125 miles per hour, which will make it the second high speed corridor in the United States, by my definitions. Proud for more exciting, much of the leg inland from Cocoa, Florida, which is a 125 mile per hour capable, will be built in a highway right of way, which seems like a promising way for which we could expand North American high speed rail in the future. This will enable roughly three hour trips from Miami to Orlando, beating car travel times. Brightline also has planned extensions to Port Miami and Disney and Tampa in the future, which could connect many of Florida's largest population centers, transportation hubs, and tourist attractions. My only hope is that we someday see electrification and other improvements like more grade separations along the line. As it turns out, Brightline is also working on a line between Las Vegas and Victorville, which is the city east of Los Angeles. This project is in its early stages, but major land acquisition has already begun. Similar to the Orlando phase of the original Brightline project, Brightline West plans to run a great deal of service along a major highway corridor, I-15 in this case. Unlike Brightline East, Brightline West will be electrified and will operate trains at up to 200 miles per hour. There are also plans to integrate with California high speed rail and metro link expansion plans in the future, to bring trains to downtown Los Angeles, allowing a one seat ride from Union Station to the Las Vegas Strip, which feels really important to this project's success. The last major project I need to talk about is Texas Central, which is a planned high speed railway between Dallas and Houston, Texas. While construction hasn't started on the project, a number of very reputable international companies and organizations are involved, including Ranfe, the Spanish national high speed rail operator, and Hitachi, whose N700S Shinkansen will be used on the project, along with lots of other Japanese high speed rail standards. The project, like Brightline, is privately funded and has been moving through approvals in recent years. The roughly 90 minute service would be provided at top speeds of 200 miles per hour, and would be highly competitive with flying or driving between the cities, and an intermediate stop would be provided in the Brazos Valley. While some have questioned whether the project will ever be built, the fact that things have not completely stalled gives me some hope, and I think this has the potential to be the first truly high speed railway in North America, which would be incredibly important, and its location between two major cities, with natural future extensions to Austin and San Antonio, means that it would likely also be incredibly successful. Of course, there are also significant plans to expand and improve the northeast corridor, though these are primarily in the form of reliability improvements and speed ups coming as part of projects like per place bridges and tunnels. Beyond all of these corridors, there are also constant discussions about other potential high speed rail routes, particularly in the northwestern United States, connecting Seattle and Portland with Vancouver and Canada. That said, compared to Texas, which is fairly flat by comparison, I do wonder if many other routes would be simply too expensive to justify in North America. Now, the moment you've all been waiting for, the trains. The first train model I need to mention is the Acella Express trains, currently deployed on the northeast corridor. These trains were first introduced in the early 2000s and have a maximum in-service speed of 150 miles per hour. They were manufactured by a consortium of Alstom and Bombardier, and are an odd hybrid between the LRC coaches originally created for Via Rail and the TGV power units used on the original TGV trains, all augmented significantly to meet onerous crash safety requirements that made the trains very, very heavy, even relative to the TGV, which is already heavy in the world of high speed trains. The Acella trains are capable of operating on all three voltages used in the northeast corridor, and feature six passenger cars with active tilting as well as two power units. With the original Acella trains growing fairly old, new trains are currently being built to replace them. The new trains are also being manufactured by Alstom, and will have nine cars with two power units per train, with Amtrak also ordering significantly more trains than with the previous Acella fleet. This will enable far more service, with more seats per trip. And better yet, trains will be able to be extended to up to 12 intermediate passenger cars to accommodate growing demand, which will finally give the United States the same large high speed trains seen in Asia and Europe. Along with capacity improvements, the new trains are also significantly more powerful and efficient, while also being significantly lighter, enabling a top, basic service speed of 160 miles per hour from day one, and the potential to grow top speeds all the way to 220 miles per hour, as long as the included tilt system is disabled. Perhaps the most exciting part of the new trains is that they're part of the modern Avalia family from Alstom, which means they're much more similar to the new TGV Horizon trains than previous models of Acella have been to their respective counterparts. The ACS-64 is either the American City Sprinter or Amtrak City Sprinter, I've heard both. It's a 125 mile per hour capable locomotive based on this Siemens Vectron platform, which pulls the trains on the northeast regional and other northeast corridor services. Much like the Alstom trains for the Acella Express, these have been modified for American crash standards. The last major high speed rail rolling stock in the United States is the Siemens Charger locomotive and Siemens Venture Coach combination. The Siemens Charger is a 125 mile per hour capable Tier IV diesel locomotive, which has been ordered incredibly widely across North America, including for various commuter railways, as well as Amtrak via rail and Brightline. In total, well over 200 sets are being manufactured. These trains share significant features with the ACS-64 locomotives and have typically been ordered along with Siemens Venture Coaches, which are a modern, spacious passenger coach. The Charger has also been ordered in numerous variants, including more aerodynamic ones for via rail and Brightline, and long distance capable ones for Amtrak. It's really cool to see a modern, attractive locomotive widely deployed across North America, especially since they're more than capable of a 125 mile per hour operation, which means that with track upgrades, high speed rail could potentially be deployed much more extensively. I also want to make passing mention to the Siemens Velaro and Shinkansen and 700S trains, which are planned to be used on Brightline West and Texas Central respectively. While we haven't seen orders placed yet, it would be incredibly exciting to see world standard high speed trains finally making it to North America. The United States is also a unique and uniquely challenging place for high speed rail. As I've already mentioned in this video, strict requirements regarding crash worthiness and freight railway ownership of most rail lines have traditionally made trains heavier and hence made high speeds more difficult. Fortunately, regulations are changing to become more accepting of standard designs from overseas, which are already allowed on isolated systems. There's also a general challenge around understanding. While in Europe or Asia, you're unlikely to ever be a long distance from a high speed rail system, a large proportion of North Americans have never experienced high speed rail, and so don't understand the benefits and changes that are necessary to implement it. The construction engineering sector is also poorly adapted to providing solutions for high speed rail, which makes projects expensive and slow to complete. That said, there is significant potential in the future. For one, the standardization around top speeds and Siemens rolling stock should make design and planning much easier. At the same time, the lack of high speed rail development means a number of very promising routes remain unserved. So that's it. High speed rail in America. While underwhelming, it's not non-existent as we sometimes suggest in the transit community. Truth be told though, the future is what is most exciting. Thanks for watching.