Boon becomes boondoggle

1 October 2010 By Martin Hutchinson

The $117 bln Amtrak estimate for the BostonWashington highspeed rail service far exceeds the $17 bln cost of China’s longer highspeed train or the adjusted costs of earlier services in France and Japan. U.S. public sector contracting may be more economic drain than stimulus.

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On Sept. 27 Amtrak released its "vision for highspeed rail in the NorthEast Corridor," which envisions 220 mph trains with target journey times of 90 minutes from New York to Washington and 120 minutes from New York to Boston. The 427mile system on dedicated track is estimated to cost $117 billion 2010 dollars with completion by 2040.

The U.S. Transcontinental Railroad, 1,777 miles long from Council Bluffs to Sacramento, was given congressional goahead in 1862 and completed on May 10, 1869; it cost $50 million ($1.1 billion 2010 dollars).

The first French highspeed rail line, the LGV SudEst between Paris and Lyon, with a running speed of 186 mph, was approved in 1976 and completed in 1983; its 409 km (254 miles) cost 13.8 billion francs (3.7 billion 2010 euros, $5 billion).

The Tokaido Shinkansen was authorized in 1958 and opened between Tokyo and Osaka in 1964; it currently runs at 186 mph. Its 515 km (320 miles) cost 400 billion yen (1.7 trillion 2010 yen, $20.3 billion).

The WuhanGuangzhou highspeed railway of 601 miles and a running speed of 217 mph began construction in 2005 and opened in 2009 at a cost of 117 billion renminbi ($16.8 billion).

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