11-04-2015, 09:59 PM
(11-04-2015, 10:16 AM)ookpik Wrote: What's the demand for rail service between those two cities?
Isn’t the real question what is the demand for transportation between those two cities at various trip times?
A rail service that was faster and cheaper than the airplane would quickly take over the route especially if it had good connections to the respective airports. This might save billions in airport capital costs. Note that “faster” means less time between leaving the starting point and arriving at the destination, not the actual movement time. So all the security hassle at the airport counts against travel time, meaning that the train doesn’t have to be as fast as one might assume, especially for shorter trips.
Between these considerations, I think it’s not at all obvious that HSR cannot be justified. I still remain skeptical just because I have what I consider to be a healthy skepticism about anything that costs that much and which aligns so much with my preferences, but I think it’s clearly worth studying and should be rejected only on valid economic grounds.