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This is the second in a series of articles from Nate Lewis on Transit Systems. The first one "How a Real Transit Rail System Looks" can be found here: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2010-aug-what-a-real-transit-rail-system-looks-like-the-station
It is a wonderful photo essay on some of the stunningly beautiful transit stations from around the world.
Now, let's add some high-speed rail. This is the way to get from one subway/city train system to another, within about a 500 mile radius.
The original 1960s "bullet train" (the Japanese name is the "New Trunk Line" or shinkansen).
Things have moved on a bit since then.
Pretty much all the major cities outside of Hokkaido are covered.
There is of course a regular normal-speed train system as well, which covers the smaller cities and towns.
The French TGVs are not quite so sexy, but still do the trick.
This is the map of France's TGV system. You can get about anywhere you want to go at 200+ kph.
This train map of France includes the regular-speed trains as well.
Since this map was made, a few more train lines have been added. Also, this is a "schematic" map. Where there are a bunch of train stations that are "close together," that doesn't mean they are physically close together. It was something they did to fit it all in one map.
As you can see, you can get to and from about anywhere via the train. One reason for this is that -- naturally -- all the important stuff is near the train station. If you are a business or store, you want to be where it is easy for your workers and customers to get to. Residences too are better off when they are within a 15 minute walk of the station.
Sometimes you run into discussions on the Internet and elsewhere about how wonderful the Washington DC subway is, and how this should be a model for the future. These people also like to talk about Portland, Oregon a lot. This is so pathetic I don't know what to say. It is like watching people bang on pots with spoons and talk about what great music they are making. If you run into these people, please ignore them completely. Not only are they utterly lost, they also seem to have no capacity for learning. If you have read this far, you already know more than they do.
This is the train map for Washington DC. As you can see, it is an irrelevant little fart of a train system.
It is much better than nothing at all. But, it is hardly a good representation of what is possible. Getting excited about this is like getting excited about someone who stops pooping in their own pants and learns how to use a toilet. Which is fine for a three-year-old, but not so much for someone with a graduate degree in Urban Studies, which most of these people have.
I should mention also the normal-speed, above-ground train lines that are the bread and butter of a real train system, once you get out of the central urban area which is served by a subway.
The familiar orange cars of the Chuo Line, Tokyo. One of Japan's oldest train lines, along with the Tokaido Line.
Not very sexy, but it is clean, on time, runs a zillion trains a day, and works great. Like your plumbing system. It does exactly what it is supposed to with no problems whatsoever.
Nice train with nice people.
Platform of a typical station.
So, now we have all the elements of a proper train system -- the kind of system that you can ride all over the country, and never once wish you had a car instead. Once you have a system like this, cars become completely unnecessary.
If the Gakugei Daigaku area looks like too much of a hugger-mugger for you, maybe a more sedate European example is more your thing. Hey, it's up to you to design the pedestrian Traditional City of your dreams. You be the big boss! This street from Vienna certainly looks more dignified, but the Gakugei Daigaku area is more fun (trust me). Actually, when you get out of the commercial area near the train station, there are lots of stately houses and apartments on quiet streets in the Gakugei Daigaku area too. So you can have it both ways; you can live on a quiet little street, and then walk three minutes to the hubbub around the station.
If you go to a Japanese automobile exurb, you will also find that there are some parking lots around the train station, and it is not so easy to walk. The result is much the same as Westport, though typically not nearly so bad. This serves merely as another example of how not to do it. There are Japanese automobile suburbs too, and they stink in pretty much the same way as automobile suburbs anywhere else. However, in the Japanese case, there is an alternative: you could live in a place like the Gakugei Daigaku area. That's why vehicle sales have plummeted over the past few years: from a peak of 7.1 million units in 1996, they have declined steadily to 4.25 million estimated for 2009. That's a hefty 40% drop in only twelve years.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if they continued to fall, to perhaps 2.0 million or less? Giving up cars voluntarily!
That's about all you need to know about trains and Traditional Cities. As you can see, it is really quite easy to solve the problem of car dependency, and all of the other catastrophes of Suburban Hell, if you know what you are doing.
Plus, we also solved our oil dependency, and reduced our energy and resource use by probably 80%, without even thinking about it. It costs less -- because we aren't supporting an enormous amount of automobile infrastructure -- and we're having way more fun too. This stuff is a cinch.
Nathan Lewis is the principal of Kiku Capital Management LLC, which manages a private investment partnership.
He was formerly the Chief International Economist and Global Strategist for firms providing investment research to institutions.
This article was originally published on http://www.newworldeconomics.com
Intro Text by Stephen Dare
Photos by Nathan Lewis
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Garden guy
June 05, 2012, 07:03:53 AMI have such a blast on europes trains..i just dont see our conservative politicians allowing this to happen here...it's too public and republicans are anti-public..look at simple things like public schools...welcome to america..."buy a car"
Traveller
June 05, 2012, 08:44:12 AMOn the flip side, Californians may be having second thoughts about their own proposed high speed rail line.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/9310511/Buyers-remorse-for-Californias-bullet-train-to-nowhere.html
BackinJax05
July 10, 2012, 12:10:41 AMThank God high speed rail bombed in Florida, too. Before committing billions or trillions of dollars on trains to nowhere, lets make the best use of what we already have. Many of our transportation problems could be addressed with conventional rail for alot less money.
tufsu1
July 10, 2012, 11:24:59 AM^ I don't disagree that high speed rail might have been a bit too much to start with, but Tampa, Orlando, and Miami are nowhere...really?
Ocklawaha
July 10, 2012, 01:55:14 PMI agree TUFSU1, Florida certainly has the population and the density, not to mention world fame as a national recreation area. We certainly are not 'Nowhere,' because as the photograph demonstrates, 'Nowhere,' is in western OKLAHOMA!
Our distances are what bumbles up the mix for HSR in Florida, we are MUCH better suited to a system of fast (90-120 mph) conventional trains with a spreading, comprehensive collector-distributer network, feeding into a high speed rail hub in downtown Jacksonville. We are the southern anchor city of the Southeast High Speed Rail Network, from Jacksonville Terminal people could (or should be able to) transfer for:
Jacksonville - Gainesville
Jacksonville - Ocala - Dade City - Tampa
Jacksonville - Ocala - Dade City - Lakeland - Ft. Myers - Naples
Jacksonville - Tallahassee - Pensacola (Mobile and New Orleans)
Jacksonville - Orlando - Tampa - Sarasota
Jacksonville - Orlando - Winter Haven - Sebring - West Palm Beach - Ft. Lauderdale - Miami
Jacksonville - St. Augustine - Daytona Beach - Cocoa Beach - West Palm Beach - Ft. Lauderdale - Miami
The track is in place and frankly, at current track speed, the trains could start rolling tomorrow. The State of Florida's concept of a sideways "T" shaped passenger rail 'network', (Jacksonville - Cocoa - Miami / Cocoa - Tampa) is extremely shortsighted.
Nowhere? Hardly! Nowhere is in Oklahoma.
JFman00
July 10, 2012, 05:09:11 PMAnyone know why the estimate for Cali's system is 3-4x more expensive than the actual build cost of equivalent networks in Europe?
BackinJax05
July 11, 2012, 02:46:08 AMThats what I was trying to say. Start with whats already in place. Rail lines connect Tampa, Orlando, & Miami right now.