Policy Brief: Why Ohio Should Not Build High-Speed Rail
High-speed rail is an idea whose time has come- and gone. A technology that might have made sense a century ago is today merely an anachronism that could cost American taxpayers tens or hundreds of billions of dollars yet contribute little to mobility or environmental quality.Nevertheless, President Obama persuaded Congress to dedicate $8 billion of stimulus funds to high-speed rail projects. In April, the administration announced that it would accept proposals from the states to use this money to build some of the 8,500 route-miles of high-speed rail identified by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA ). Yet the FRA has no estimates of how much this will cost, who will ride the trains, who will pay for them, and whether the benefits can justify the costs.
Careful analysis reveals that the proposed high-speed rail plan will cost far too much money, will carry far too few people, and most of those subsidized riders will tend to have higher than average incomes. High-speed rail is not good for the environment and will probably use more energy and emit more greenhouse gases per passenger mile than either driving or flying.
Only a small portion of the FRA system will consist of true, high-speed bullet trains. The plan calls for very-high-speed California trains running at top speeds of 220 miles per hour (mph), but average speeds of 145 mph; high-speed Florida trains running at top speeds of 125 mph, and average speeds of 80-85 mph; and moderate-speed trains in Ohio and 30 other states, with top speeds of 110 mph, and average speeds of only 55-75 mph.
Upgrading the 450 miles of Ohio tracks in the FRA plan to run trains at 110 mph would cost taxpayers nearly $1.8 billion, or close to $200 for every Ohio resident. Subsidizing passenger trains over those routes will cost at least $33 million per year. Yet the average Ohioan will take a round trip on such trains only once every 19 years. For all these reasons, Ohio should not attempt to provide high-speed rail service.
