The New York Times (October 13, 2010) asked several experts whether they thought high-speed rail wwould ever be built in the United States in their most recent edition of their on-line opinion blog “Room for Debate“. Among the commentators are Rob Puentes (the Brookings Institution), Jan Brueckner (University of California at Irvine), Robert Yaro (New York Regional Plan Association), Keith Pooled (University of Georgia), and me.
“First, the concept of a “national” network of high-speed rail simply doesn’t make sense for the U.S….. The nation is a vast geographic area covering thousands of miles of unpopulated and sparsely populated areas that are unsuitable to high-speed rail. At best, high-speed rail makes sense for very specific corridors, and these corridors will be regional, not national.”
In addition to the dubious assumptions underlying cost projections and rosy ridership scenarios, I conclude that high-speed rail projects are likely to fail under the weight of their own lack of merits.