high speed rail

High Speed Rail To…Corcoran?

The saga of high speed rail in California continues.  Since state voters approved a bond measure in 2008 to authorize construction of a system linking north and south, the California High Speed Rail Authority has faced lawsuits over its unfortunate planned route away from the population centers of the northern Central Valley, opposition from wealthy …

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How Green is High-Speed Rail?

Life cycle costs can be a buzz kill. Just when you think you’ve got a great environmental solution, such as going paperless and doing everything digitally, or installing double-paned windows to make a home more energy efficient, you find out that manufacturing these supposedly environmentally-friendly technologies can create waste that offsets some of their “green” …

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Can California handle high-speed rail?

Count me in as a high speed rail enthusiast. Who wouldn’t want to sit in a train car, sipping an ice-cold ginger ale, while traveling at speeds of up to 220 mph through the Central Valley? As Rick described last month, the potential benefits to our quality- and way-of-life, by encouraging more pedestrian-focused neighborhoods and …

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The Obama Administration’s Push for High-Speed Rail

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJhM3BpBPp8] Fresh from a State of the Union Address that focused heavily on domestic economic issues, President Obama and Vice President Biden journeyed to Tampa, Florida last week to announce federal support–and $8 billion in government funding–for high speed rail projects across the country. That’s a most welcome development. American train buffs who’ve traveled in …

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Fastrack to Nowhere?

President Obama has announced a commitment to high speed rail, envisioning a network that could: connect areas like the cities of the Pacific Northwest; southern and central Florida; the Gulf Coast to the Southeast to our nation’s capital; the breadth of Pennsylvania and New York to the cities of New England; and something close to …

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