[sustran] Re: UK High Speed Rail: Going very fast in the wrong direction

[bruun at seas.upenn.edu]

Eric Britton:

Thanks for posting this one.

I wholeheartedly agree with John Whitelegg that the question of  
financing versus who will use HSR needs to be addressed, not just in  
the UK, but anywhere. We have the same issue right now in the  
Northeast Corridor of the US. Would it be fair to use general revenues  
to build an even faster system that only business travelers and the  
wealthy can afford to use? This is already the case with the moderate  
speed Acela Express having as it does per-unit-distance fares amongst  
the highest in the world. Indeed, with fares as high as they are and  
the limited capacity offered, there are few environmental benefits of  
taking cars off the road, either. Thus, I can't see why the general  
public should subsidize it any more than they should pay to build an  
airline and airports.

Eric Bruun



Quoting eric britton <eric.britton at ecoplan.org>:

> I would like to invite your attention and your reactions to this  
> piece  that appears in today's World Streets.  Your participation  
> and views are invited for a follow-up piece , as you will see in the  
> last section of the article.
>
>
>
>
> UK High Speed Rail: Going very fast in the wrong direction  
> <http://worldstreets.wordpress.com/2011/02/08/uk-high-speed-rail-going-very-fast-in-the-wrong-direction/>
>
>
> In the field of transport, no matter how straight-forward the issues  
> may seem to be to the busy citizen, merchant, reporter or policy  
> maker, when it comes to making wise policy it really does take a  
> certain level of time and attention to come to grips with the  
> underlying issues and priorities that shape the outcomes. The big  
> problem encumbering the mobility issues of our new century is that  
> just about everything turns out upon study to be unobligingly  
> complex, interdependent, complicated and time lagged ? no matter how  
> simple it may appear to be on the surface. In the article that  
> follows, the principle author, John Whitelegg, has a go at a lot of  
> the too-easy thinking that is the main currency of the High Speed  
> Rail discussions in places like Britain and the US, where the only  
> experience with these technologies and operations has been that of a  
> time-lagged dream machine. Let?s embrace a bit of complexity here. .  
> . .
>
> -  - - > Full text here at  
> http://worldstreets.wordpress.com/2011/02/08/uk-high-speed-rail-going-very-fast-in-the-wrong-direction/
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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