I-69 Meets High Speed Rail

Outside of Evansville, The Entire Midwest is Preparing For Passenger Rail

progressohio.org

The following are diagrams of proposed passenger rail lines from the Midwest High Speed Rail Association. Not pictured is the current proposed route going from Chicago to Champaign to Indianapolis...

http://cee.illinois.edu/HSR_research

Notice, in the MWHSR pictures, Evansville remains only one of a few cities in the Midwest not planning for passenger rail...

Map KeyHigh Speed Rail - 125-220mph
Regional Rail - 80-125mph
Commuter Rail - 50-100mph

http://www.midwesthsr.org/projects-by-state

(Note the map of Indiana below has Evansville as a "proposed Amtrak" route. This was put in after State Senator Dennis Avery requested $300,000 for a study for a route going from Evansville to Chicago. The study was left out of the 2009 budget and has since been abandoned. The newly created map from the Midwest High Speed Rail Association leaves Evansville out once more: http://www.midwesthsr.org/network)

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Michigan

Minnesota

Missouri

Ohio

Wisconsin

Will Evansville join the rest of the Midwest?

http://www.midwesthsr.org/sites/default/files/images/map_integrated_network.gif

China High Speed Rail Stations & Infrastructure- Simply The Best

Despite China's high speed rail crash last year, which is an unusual occurrence given that Japan's 44 year old system and France's 27 year old system have never experienced a fatality, the Asian country is still investing heavily in their high speed rail system.

In recent years, China has laid almost 10,000 kilometers of HSR track, investing billions of yuan in a state of the art train network. And they're not stopping there as Chinese authorities aim to build more than 13,000 kilometers of high-speed lines by 2012 and 16,000 kilometers by 2020.



As a result, China is now producing fast trains that are comfortable and come with eye popping architecture. Let's first take a look at the trains themselves. From skyscrapercity.com...

(Posted by clkgtr)

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Leading-edge BOMBARDIER ZEFIRO technology to feature maximum operating speeds of 380 kph

Bombardier Transportation announced today that its Chinese joint venture, Bombardier Sifang (Qingdao) Transportation Ltd., has been selected by the Chinese Ministry of Railways (MOR) to supply 80 ZEFIRO 380 very high speed trains (1,120 cars) for the country’s rapidly growing high speed rail network. The contract, including 20 eight-car trainsets and 60 sixteen-car trainsets, is valued at an estimated 27.4 billion Chinese Renminbis ($4 billion US, 2.7 billion euros).[1] Bombardier’s share of the contract is estimated at 13.5 billion Chinese Renminbis, ($2 billion US, 1.3 billion euros). The first train is scheduled for delivery in 2012 with final deliveries expected in 2014.




The new trainsets will be an integral part of an evolving high speed rail capability in China, which is developing more than 6,000 km of new high speed lines to create one of the most advanced high speed rail networks in the world. The trains, with maximum operating speeds of 380 kph, are based on Bombardier’s next-generation ZEFIRO high speed rail technology, and powered by a highly energy efficient BOMBARDIER MITRAC propulsion and control system.


The ZEFIRO 380 trainsets will also incorporate Bombardier’s advanced ECO4 energy saving technologies to create best-in-class energy and operating efficiencies. Bombardier launched its ECO4 technology package in 2008 as part of an ongoing focus to extend rail’s position as the most sustainable form of transportation in the world. Bombardier is first in the industry to create a new formula for total train performance with a portfolio that can create substantial overall energy savings of up to 50%.


The ZEFIRO 380 trains will be manufactured at Bombardier Sifang (Qingdao) Transportation production facilities in Qingdao, China. Engineering will take place in Qingdao and at Bombardier centers in Europe with project management and components provided from sites in Europe and China.


Established in 1998, Bombardier Sifang (Qingdao) Transportation Ltd. is a joint venture between Bombardier and CSR Sifang Locomotive and Rolling Stock Ltd. dedicated to supplying passenger rail rolling stock for China. It has delivered over 1,000 passenger rail cars into China since its inception, including a range of high speed trains and high-grade passenger coaches.

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Here are some more high speed rail cars developed by the Chinese...

(most pictures taken from: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=174030)







Now let's take a look at the high speed rail stations the Chinese have built for their high speed rail system...

Smaller Stations-

Yanchen Station:
 

Yan An Station:


Yantai Station:


Huaihua Station:


Chifeng Station:


Yiwu Station:


Zhangjiajie Station:


Wuchang Station:



Lhasa Station:


Larger Stations:

Beijing West:


New Suzhou Central Station


Wuhan:













Fuzhou:




Beijing North renovation:




Qingdao:






Chengdu:






Nanjing South:









Guangzhou:




Shanghai West





Shenzhen North Station









New Dalian Station












Tianjin West Station.







Nanjing



Suzhou





Suzhou Industrial Park station



Wuxi







Changzhou



Danyang



Zhenjiang





The massive Hongqiao Traffic Hub (maglev, metro, HSR, airport) in Shanghai:

Guiyang new railway station.

Changsha South railway station

Hengyang East Station, the largest Class II station of the Wuguang PDL

Beijing South

The Chinese have also built some impressive high speed rail infrastructure outside of their stations...

Xixiaoping Tunnel





Taihang Mountain Tunnel West Exit (tunnel 27.839km)





Bridge/tunnel is 60% of total length



North of Yangquan County



Xichengwu Bridge (3.57km)



Driving to the other part of tunnel



Gushan Bridge, the design serves the purpose of not breaking S314 road







Yehe Bridge



Yehe Bridge and Duan Zhuang Tunnel



Kulong Peak Bridge and Miaoling Mount Tunnel





Out of Xiaopo Mount Tunnel



The only low-speed train the new rail





Taiping River Bridge (2.23km)

As a result of all of this investment, the Chinese have created hundreds of thousands of jobs with in their high speed rail manufacturing plants...

When you compare this investment to what we have here in the U.S...

Detroit Amtrak Station


Houston Amtrak Station


New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal

You see why the U.S is no longer leading the world in job creation, manufacturing, or technological innovation. It begs the question: When are we going to stop wasting billions on interstates from the 1950s and start building 21st century infrastructure like the Chinese are with their high speed rail.

Just this past year, China announced that they will be building maglev lines for Beijing which go even faster than traditional high speed rail...

Here in Evansville, we have plenty of room to manufacture high speed rail with a slack water port, we have plenty of room to build a high speed rail station in Downtown Evansville, and we would be saving money while creating jobs by redirecting highway and interstate funds to high speed rail.

We need to say Yes on High Speed Rail!