It was a good weekend, and last week was a good week for HSR in the US!
Brian Ross has an article, that he left a link about in the comments section , about repurposing the defense spending to build HSR. While I hear this a lot and agree with it, I don’t think the world can do with out us and out huge military(Huffington Post)
Cityscapes worries about the architecture of new HSR stations in the US. (Chicago Tribune)
California Central Valley Cities are getting quite excited about CAHSR(Merced Sun Star)
A Chinese bank is tossing in money for the LV to LA Maglev.(LV Review Journal)
It was my b-day party over the weekend..and I am a little slow to recover from the party
While I was out enjoying my Birthday, it appears that the Whitehouse has released its list of “winners” for the $8 Billion for the HSR stimulus package.
Here is a rough list of who got what…
$2.35 Billion for California High Speed Rail
$600 million for Pacific Northwest rail, including bypasses (presumably Point Defiance) to help the Amtrak Cascades achieve 150mph service
$4 million for Texas, for grade crossing improvements in Austin and Fort Worth
$17 million for Iowa, for BNSF crossovers
$400 million for Ohio, specifically for the Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati corridor.
$1.13 billion for Chicago-St. Louis-Kansas City
$800 million for Minneapolis-Milwaukee-Chicago
$244 million for Pontiac-Detroit-Chicago
$620 million for Charlotte-Raleigh-Richmond-DC
$1.25 billion for Florida
$485 million for HSR in Northeast Region and $706 million for Amtrak stimulus funding, for a number of different corridors from DC to Maine to Montreal.
you can get a better look at who got what over at the CAHSR blog .
Now I need some coffee and to wake up…Birthday parties are fun.
The day after my birthday is expected to be a good day for US High Speed Rail. It is the day that President Obama is delivering a speech in Florida and expecting to announce the recipients of the High Speed Rail Stimulus money. From various news outlets it is thought that Florida High Speed Rail will get a good chunk of the money that they have ask for. Also California High Speed Rail, the Midwest HSR Hub and maybe the NEC and/or Texas T-Bone will also tap into the pot.
I wake up this morning to some good bit of news.Two sources The Transport Politic and Reuters both have stories that The Central Japan Railway Co. is tossing there bid in for Florida HSR. This, and The SNCF getting in the game shows there is a profitable feature in the US HSR market despite what some nay sayers think.
All and all its a good thing to wake up to on a rainy Monday morning.
**Looks as if the WSJ has the news as well ( WSJ ) **
I was up in Tahoe all this week, taking advantage of the epic snow. I just wish I could take a train up there and back. It would make the drive up and back a breeze.
Anyway I spotted this video and though you all might like it. It goes to explain, like I feel, use the right tool for the right job.
This will be key in the areas around stations for new HSR lines. We need to have decent density and good land use around the stations to help everything work better.
so enjoy the film, it is long…just to warn you.
one of the best excuse I have heard yet not to build HSR.. "Well everyone will be telecommuting in a few years...so we don't need it" » Twitter2010/02/04
The day after my birthday is expected to be a good day for US High Speed Rail. It is the day that President Obama is delivering a speech in Florida and expecting to announce the recipients of the High Speed Rail Stimulus money. From 
