American intercity passenger rail must be truly high-speed and transit-oriented

Abstract

The High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail (HSIPR) Program succeeds in proposing a truly high-speed rail route in California that will offer travelers significantly faster trips than driving on a route that is too short to conveniently fly instead. Unfortunately, the proposed routes in the Northeast, Midwest, and Northwest will continue to chug along at medium-speeds and attract few new riders from among those who currently travel those areas via highway or air. The plan does indeed succeed in calling for TOD around high-speed rail stations. The HSIPR Program must, however, encourage local planning jurisdictions to broadly liberalize land use controls to allow for compact development rather than writing new zoning codes to require the intensive land uses developers desire anyway. Trains must truly be fast, with stations surrounded by dense development, for America’s high-speed rail plan to realize its full potential.