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It’s being planned, but projects like these are never certain: https://secretnyc.co/high-speed-train-nyc-to-boston/ https://secretnyc.co/high-speed-train-nyc-to

It’s being planned, but projects like these are never certain: https://secretnyc.co/high-speed-train-nyc-to-boston/ https://secretnyc.co/high-speed-train-nyc-to-boston/

matthewowen 2y ago
My understanding is that the problems of NYC -> Boston high speed rail are purely political, and basically come down to CT resistance to change The current track alignment is not conducive to high speed travel, and CT as a state has no interest in supporting a new alignment that is conducive because they would likely get _negative_ value out of it: as it stands, Acela trains pretty much all stop in New Haven and Stamford: why wouldn't they? If you go with a high speed link that aims to speed up Boston <> New York travel, it's more likely that you have trains that skip those stops, because additional stops are much more expensive for HSR from a speeding up and slowing down perspective, from a percentage of time added to trip perspective, and for an inefficient alignment perspective. In my view this is kind of a microcosm of the political problems of the geographically small states of the north east: states like CT/RI/DE especially have very narrow and niche concerns but because of their geographical position have effective veto power over regionally important things like "how expensive are the tolls to drive between New York and DC?" and "can you have HSR between new york and boston?"
- ciabattabread 2y ago
  It's not about skipping stops, it's about the amount of eminent domain you'd have to do to eliminate curves thru Connecticut's oldest and richest suburbs. Which is why proposals to route it via Long Island and building a 16-mile tunnel under Long Island Sound get consideration.
wkat4242 2y ago
Yeah that's true, even in the Netherlands our high-speed line between Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp was a nightmare. It cost billions, way more than budgeted, many of the bridges turned out to have construction faults (despite all the cost overruns) so the trains aren't able to actually go fast, and the high-speed trains were bought on a budget and had so many flaws that the Belgians refused to allow them. Now we're stuck with a non-highspeed train on the track that was supposed to be highspeed and cost a fortune to build. In other countries like Germany, France and Spain the high-speed network works like a dream though. Though the good stuff is all nationally focused.
- morsch 2y ago
  I'm not surprised, building a new high-speed line between the largest cities in the Netherlands must be a nightmare, that's connecting and going through some of the most densely populated areas in Europe. The German railway network (including the high-speed part of it) has loads of issues, and it's hardly working like a dream. That said, the interconnect between large cities is pretty great when it works. For these intermediate distances (around 500 km) it's about as fast as flying would be once you factor in getting to/from the airport (vs the more central train station), being there early etc; and much faster than driving by car.
  - wkat4242 2y ago
    > I'm not surprised, building a new high-speed line between the largest cities in the Netherlands must be a nightmare, that's connecting and going through some of the most densely populated areas in Europe. Well, yes and no. Most of it goes through the 'green heart' of the most populated area. There's mostly farms there. The route also goes mostly along existing highways and train tracks so it was just a matter of widening the infrastructure zones that were already there. Holland is very planified so usually these things are already taken into consideration. We don't build housing right besides infrastructure anymore. However, the environmental red tape is pretty heavy these days. The whole country is at a standstill (house building, traffic, farming) due to limits of nitrogen deposits being exceeded. So I think it was more that than actual infringements on people's living space. Some tunnels and overpasses were made, yes. Those are the ones that are falling apart already after 10 years :')

It’s being planned, but projects like these are never certain: https://secretnyc.co/high-speed-train-nyc-to-boston/ https://secretnyc.co/high-speed-train-nyc-to-boston/

matthewowen 2y ago

My understanding is that the problems of NYC -> Boston high speed rail are purely political, and basically come down to CT resistance to change The current track alignment is not conducive to high speed travel, and CT as a state has no interest in supporting a new alignment that is conducive because they would likely get _negative_ value out of it: as it stands, Acela trains pretty much all stop in New Haven and Stamford: why wouldn't they? If you go with a high speed link that aims to speed up Boston <> New York travel, it's more likely that you have trains that skip those stops, because additional stops are much more expensive for HSR from a speeding up and slowing down perspective, from a percentage of time added to trip perspective, and for an inefficient alignment perspective. In my view this is kind of a microcosm of the political problems of the geographically small states of the north east: states like CT/RI/DE especially have very narrow and niche concerns but because of their geographical position have effective veto power over regionally important things like "how expensive are the tolls to drive between New York and DC?" and "can you have HSR between new york and boston?"

ciabattabread 2y ago
It's not about skipping stops, it's about the amount of eminent domain you'd have to do to eliminate curves thru Connecticut's oldest and richest suburbs. Which is why proposals to route it via Long Island and building a 16-mile tunnel under Long Island Sound get consideration.

wkat4242 2y ago

Yeah that's true, even in the Netherlands our high-speed line between Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp was a nightmare. It cost billions, way more than budgeted, many of the bridges turned out to have construction faults (despite all the cost overruns) so the trains aren't able to actually go fast, and the high-speed trains were bought on a budget and had so many flaws that the Belgians refused to allow them. Now we're stuck with a non-highspeed train on the track that was supposed to be highspeed and cost a fortune to build. In other countries like Germany, France and Spain the high-speed network works like a dream though. Though the good stuff is all nationally focused.

morsch 2y ago
I'm not surprised, building a new high-speed line between the largest cities in the Netherlands must be a nightmare, that's connecting and going through some of the most densely populated areas in Europe. The German railway network (including the high-speed part of it) has loads of issues, and it's hardly working like a dream. That said, the interconnect between large cities is pretty great when it works. For these intermediate distances (around 500 km) it's about as fast as flying would be once you factor in getting to/from the airport (vs the more central train station), being there early etc; and much faster than driving by car.
- wkat4242 2y ago
  > I'm not surprised, building a new high-speed line between the largest cities in the Netherlands must be a nightmare, that's connecting and going through some of the most densely populated areas in Europe. Well, yes and no. Most of it goes through the 'green heart' of the most populated area. There's mostly farms there. The route also goes mostly along existing highways and train tracks so it was just a matter of widening the infrastructure zones that were already there. Holland is very planified so usually these things are already taken into consideration. We don't build housing right besides infrastructure anymore. However, the environmental red tape is pretty heavy these days. The whole country is at a standstill (house building, traffic, farming) due to limits of nitrogen deposits being exceeded. So I think it was more that than actual infringements on people's living space. Some tunnels and overpasses were made, yes. Those are the ones that are falling apart already after 10 years :')