As someone who grew up in Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, I came to appreciate how valuable high-speed rail was as a good alternative for flying between Boston, Washington and New York City. The trip from Washington to NYC is arguably more convenient at only three hours and reasonably priced to be competitive with the shuttle. Though, potentially on the docket for high-speed rail projects is a proposal to connect New York to Buffalo along the existing Empire Service route as part of the economic stimulus package. At first glance, the plan makes perfect sense: A 110 mph train cutting the trip between the cities from 8-hours down to just 5-hours.
I took a closer look at what this actually means when matched up against flying. Using two arbitrary travel dates (Monday, May 11 to Friday, May 15) the price to take the train (traditional-speed rail) is between $55 and $78 each way on a service offered three times per day. The trip on JetBlue (JFK-BUF) yields $69 each way with a 12 flights a day. The flight is about 80-minutes total vs. 300-minutes by high-speed train.
There is a fair point to be made when discussing a stress cost of not having to deal with airports and security. Though, the whole trip including the time it would take to go from the Financial District to Penn Station arriving 20 minutes before your train departs, still takes longer overall than if you went to JFK, arriving 60 minutes early from the Financial District and hopped a flight.
Price, in time and money, matters. A recent poll by travelzoo.com found that 40% of travelers would forgo using the bathroom free of charge if it meant a 50% cheaper plane ticket. Price, not stress, was the deciding factor.
Where the high-speed rail system finds its justification is in the intermediate stops between New York City and Buffalo that would otherwise be hard to reach by any other means than a car. The line would connect cities and moves goods and people between these intermediate points. This alone may serve as a good reason to build the line, though if the price is prohibitive compared to flying between the origin and end point along the line, then a high-speed rail system is only as good as it's utilized.
If the US is going to have a viable high-speed regional rail system then the proposition has to be competitive for consumers. High-speed rail for the sake of high-speed rail is no virtue.
Image credit Railfan and Railroad Magazine
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