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Re: Passenger Rail in the US vs. Spain - Brace Yourself For Where Spain Started From
Author: BOB2
Date: 03-22-2023 - 16:33
As of 2019 Spain, with a population of just over 47 million, carried approximately 640 million annual rail passenger trips. By comparison, in the United States, with a population of approximately 330 million in 2019, Amtrak carried 32.5 million passenger trips for 2019, for a record year for Amtrak.
So it's not the same starting point... They didn't just decide to "build it and they came" like we have in CA... Spain planned and built an overlay of 150-200 mph range standard gauge HSR and made similar upgrades of some of the broad gauge to HSR in in Spain, which was based upon "observed" real travel patterns and demands, using an incremental integrated system approach, choosing affordable and realistic operational speeds, at a much more affordable price tag. than CA has ever even tried to with the CAHSRA fiasco....
When I was first in Spain at the end of the Francoera, with a fairly dilapidated but still reasonably well used broad gauge passenger system (by 1970's European standards), had seen ridership stagnate, with ridership in the 200 million annual range, and with abandonments and loss of patrons continued into the 1980's.
Investments into the broad gauge, and later with the new HS AVE standard gauge routes, and the introduction of new dual gauge high speed equipment, and new services on new and/or refurbished routes began to rebuild ridership to what it is today.
The annual subsidy comes to an average of over 9 billion euros a year, since 2004. What was the annual Amtrak and State supported expenditure in the US per year over that period? And now, even with the money being dumped into the former $25 billion dollar, now this weeks 35 billion dollar, "runaway money train" HSR line from Chowchilla to Wasco?
If we could just learn to "walk" (and chew gum at the same time???) on the basics of rail pasenger services again in America, maybe someday we could learn to how to "run" a world class rail passenger system here in the US too?
So it's not the same starting point... They didn't just decide to "build it and they came" like we have in CA... Spain planned and built an overlay of 150-200 mph range standard gauge HSR and made similar upgrades of some of the broad gauge to HSR in in Spain, which was based upon "observed" real travel patterns and demands, using an incremental integrated system approach, choosing affordable and realistic operational speeds, at a much more affordable price tag. than CA has ever even tried to with the CAHSRA fiasco....
When I was first in Spain at the end of the Francoera, with a fairly dilapidated but still reasonably well used broad gauge passenger system (by 1970's European standards), had seen ridership stagnate, with ridership in the 200 million annual range, and with abandonments and loss of patrons continued into the 1980's.
Investments into the broad gauge, and later with the new HS AVE standard gauge routes, and the introduction of new dual gauge high speed equipment, and new services on new and/or refurbished routes began to rebuild ridership to what it is today.
The annual subsidy comes to an average of over 9 billion euros a year, since 2004. What was the annual Amtrak and State supported expenditure in the US per year over that period? And now, even with the money being dumped into the former $25 billion dollar, now this weeks 35 billion dollar, "runaway money train" HSR line from Chowchilla to Wasco?
If we could just learn to "walk" (and chew gum at the same time???) on the basics of rail pasenger services again in America, maybe someday we could learn to how to "run" a world class rail passenger system here in the US too?
