High-speed rail response

Our latest Policy Focus Report, High-Speed Rail: International Lessons for U.S. Policy Makers, continues to prompt a healthy dialogue about whether and how to invest in inter-city infrastructure in these difficult times. Co-authors Petra Todorovich, Dan Schned and Rob Lane all took the Acela up from New York for the Sept. 26 launch event at Atlantic Wharf, one block from South Station -- the kind of transit-oriented development the report cites as keys to success for stations. Japan started things rolling with the first bullet train in 1964, and Europe and China have followed -- the latter with a four-hour trip from Beijing to Shanghai, about the distance between New York and Chicago. The U.S. could sharpen its planning focus now, Todorovich said, by concentrating on markets with the best chance of success, such as the Northeast Corridor and California. The event was covered by Boston Globe transportation reporter Eric Moskowitz, who filed this story, as did Nate Berg at Atlantic Cities. The report was picked up by numerous blogs including extensive comments, at California High Speed Rail Blog, High Speed Trains, OnBoard and others. We wrote our own take in a Citiwire column, at EnoBrief, and in a guest blog post at The Infrastructurist. A short video of Todorovich talking about high-speed rail and the international experience will soon be posted at our videos page.