China has in its drive to become a world leader has committed to investing over $300 billion in high-speed rail through to 2020 in contrast to the much argued invest in the US of only $8 billion. With that money China plans for 16,000 miles of new track by 2020 that will be used to carry trains travelling at speed approaching 220 miles per hour. A long with those plans the China Railway Company plans on hiring some 20,000 yo9ung engineers.

Part of the reason for this drive to modernize their rail system is the sheer number of people already using the rail system in the country. Last year saw 1.46 billion journeys by rail which was a 10.9% increase over the previous year and is expected to more than double within the next ten years.

Contrary to popular belief not all the work is being done by Chinese companies either as much of the technology for the signaling systems and 40 of the systems trains is being provided by Canadian company Bombardier.

At the same time in the US the plan to spend $8 billion suffers from bickering and government partisanship and really doesn’t even come close to what is already being requested by 40 states. States that have submitted 278 pre-applications for a number of high-speed passenger rail projects that right now amount to $102.5 billion in requests.

One of the arguments used by detractors of high-speed rail is that there isn’t the demand of ridership that the proponents might like to have us believe; but if the experience of Phoenix is any example the fact is that the demand is there especially if it is done right.

When Phoenix first started laying out plans for their modern light rail system they were only projecting some 25,000 weekly riders. It turns out that since they opened up a 20 mile line with 28 stops last December they’ve been seeing a ridership of 40,000 per week instead. this ridership is beating all the forecasts which would seem to indicate that there is more of a desire for public light rail transportation than previously thought.

- The Inquisitr – Could Phoenix show a bigger desire for public rail than we think?

hat tip to Treehugger / photo courtesy of KimonBerlin

China’s high speed rail to leave the rest of the world behind is a post from: The Inquisitr

Six months ago sixty-one percent of Peninsula, California, residents voted to support a statewide measure to pledge $9.95 billion for a high-speed rail system. It would ultimately provide high-speed rail travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco making the trip in two hours and 40 minutes. The proposed project is estimated to carry some 94 million passengers by the year 2030.

Part of the green movement is the idea of using massive wind and solar farms located in areas outside of large cities. These farms are estimated, depending on who you talk to, to provide up to 40 percent of needed electrical power in the short term.

The problem is that these efforts to make our cities and society more environmentally responsible are facing some serious roadblocks. It isn’t anything to do with the technology as in many cases we already have the abilities to pull off such projects. The biggest roadblock, once the initial flush of ‘doing the right thing’ has worn off is that old bugaboo – Not In My Backyard, otherwise known as NIMBY.

This is one of the biggest problems facing wind and solar farms. While the actual farms are in outlying areas where they are able to collect all that renewable energy without bothering most people the problem comes in trying to get that energy to its destination point – the cities. To do this means putting up transmission lines and nobody wants these monstrosities anywhere near their homes, which at some point they will have to.

Now we come to the high-speed rail project in California and find that this NIMBY attitude is starting to show its head as people start worrying about the effect the rail system will have on their property values. The people involved try and cover up much of the rhetoric with phrases like “ … no socio-geographic distinction to being on one side of the tracks.” and where the residents were given enough information before the vote.

But when push comes to shove the underlying principal behind NIMBY is an economic one as pointed out by Martin Engel in an San Francisco Examiner post by Will Reisman

“Our home values will absolutely plummet with the prospect of 200 trains a day going by outside,” he said.

The reality is that going ‘green’ isn’t going to be cheap. What is in question though is if a better environmental future is something we really have the stomach to reach for even if it means having to be in your backyard. As it stands right now we mouth the words about how important it is to go green but when it comes down to it costing us personally that all changes. It’s okay to be green as long as it is someone else’s backyard that they need to use but the moment it is your backyard, or wallet, going green suddenly needs more consultation and expensive reviews.

NIMBY, or why most green efforts will fail is a post from: The Inquisitr

So how are they going to do this?

Well they voted in favour of an 800 mile long high speed train system that will run from Sacremento to San Diego and stop in every major city along the way. As well the the construction; which is slated to begin in 2011, will create some 450,000 jobs and in the end will reduce dependence on foreign oil by about 12 million barrels a year.

You can see more rendering and videos about the rail system at the Newlands & Company site.

[hat tip to Inhabitat]

High speed rail coming to California is a post from: The Inquisitr