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While Florida Litigates, Japan Launches New “Hayabusa” Bullet Train

March 9, 2011 by 22 Comments
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While Republicans continue to rail against high-speed trains, pining for the good old days when party founder Abe Lincoln was a railroad lawyer, Japan continues to advance into the 21st century.

The latest: the thin-nosed Hayabusa (“Falcon”) bullet train debuted last week,  making its 300 kilometre per hour (186 mph) run from Tokyo to Aomori at the far northern tip of Honshu in three hours and 10 minutes.

The luxurious trip aimed at the tourist trade will cost $320 US, and treat travelers to business-class amenities as they glide through Japan’s gorgeous, mountainous north country. (And Japan East Railway even brags that they’re being environmentally friendly while they do it!)

The island nation has been building their network of high-speed Shinkansen trains since the 1960s. That puts the US nearly 50 years behind, but the current Tea Party-inspired crop of GOP governors have taken an ideological dislike to anything rail.

First it was New Jersey’s Chris Christie turning down Federal money for an improved rail connection with Manhattan; next Ohio’s John Kasich and Wisconsin’s Scott Walker rejected Federal money for high-speed rail in their states.

Most recently, Florida’s Rick Scott rejected $2.4 billion in funds for high-speed rail between Tampa and Orlando, even though the deal had been negotiated by his Republican predecessors and Republicans in the State Legislature wanted the project to happen. They went to court trying to force Scott to back off and get out of the way, but on Friday the court declined.

“Based on the limited record before the Court and a review of the federal and state law relied on by the parties, the Court has determined that the petitioners have not clearly demonstrated entitlement to quo warranto, mandamus, or any other relief,” the court said. “Accordingly, the emergency petition is hereby denied.”

So Americans will continue to toddle along at 19th-century speeds, while the Japanese fly along the tracks at 180 mph and the Chinese claim a regular speed of 220 mph and top out at a dizzying 302 mph.

It looks like California will get some of Florida’s rejected rail money, as it received some of the rejected Wisconsin and Ohio money… assuming any of it survives the current frenzy of budget-cutting. A similar slasher fate may be in store for the additional $53 billion President Obama plans to request.

Image: AFP/Getty

More on high speed rail:

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About Jeremy Bloom

Jeremy Bloom is the Editor of RedGreenAndBlue.

  • http://Web Tim Cleland

    “That puts the US nearly 50 years behind..”

    Not really, we have airplanes that go 500+ mph and they fly
    all over our country from every major city to every other major city. High speed rail is just another target for terrorism and
    the security and precautions will eventually (if not immediately)
    necessitate the same inconveniences and time delays that are present in airports.

    “First it was New Jersey’s Chris Christie turning down Federal money for an improved rail connection with Manhattan; next Ohio’s John Kasich and Wisconsin’s Scott Walker rejected Federal money for high-speed rail in their states.”

    Their reasoning in each case was that the federal funding had to be matched to some degree to build the rail system, then all operational expenses had to be paid out of the annual state budget. Christie, Kasich and Walker are just the adults that had to tell the child currently running the executive branch of our gov’t, “We can’t afford that now, sweetie!”.

  • http://Web ziv

    I guess I am one of those Republicans ‘railing’ against high speed rail, even though I support Amtrak and want them to increase their top speeds to 110 mph asap, using the already mandated Positive Train Control. The problem with Florida is that the way the feds structured the deal the State of Florida would have been stuck with the bill if the service wasn’t a hit, and if they tried to cut costs by going back to regular rail they would have to pay the feds the money they were granted.
    Also, backers of high speed rail usually ignore the fact that the US has some significant issues to deal with regarding making HSR work here. First and foremost, the population density in Japan is 873 persons per sq mile. In the UK/Germany/France respectively it is 660 pp per sq mile/593 pp per sq m/295 pp per sq m. Even huge China is 360 pp per sq mile. The US is just 83 people per sq mile.
    As energy prices go up, so will the utility of rail transport. But we should be harvesting the low hanging fruit by getting Amtrak up from a max speed of 79 mph to 110 mph and showing people how ‘Railroads are back!’
    Then we can work to build HSR lines from Miami to Boston to Chicago to Washington DC, where the population density warrants a faster rail option.

  • http://Web Carbon Buildup

    I’m not a Republican, yet I mostly agree with these two comments. I DO think HSR is important for the U.S, but we should focus on areas where it has the best chance of being financially successful. People here in the Northwest would LOVE a high speed train running from at least Eugene up to Vancouver, B.C. Amtrack already does really well here, but a faster train with reliable service would be a huge bonus. Ideally someday we’ll have a West Coast HSR from San Diego to Vancouver.

  • http://www.Insteading.com Tricia Ballad

    Here in Illinois, there was an ad campaign thanking the far-right governor of Wisconsin for sending several thousand jobs our way when he blocked the federal high-speed rail project.

    • http://importantmedia.org/members/davidanderson/ David Anderson

      lol

  • http://Web Hitoshi Maruyama

    Republicans and people who are against high speed rail are very narrow and short sighted. They should ask themselves that oil will stay in this price range forever. $100 or so per Barrel? If heir answer is NO. Then what would be their solution for high gas price? Keeping using cars even gas becomes $6 or 7 or 10 even higher and then no gas available? If they can make such future pictures, then they will not make such a short sighted statement.
    Trains consumes 1/5 to 1/8 of energy of cars to carry the same number of people to a distance. If the energy comes from solar, wind, biofuel, geothermal and other renewable, then the liquid fuel can be saved for long distant travel more than 1000 miles and food production.
    HItoshi

    • http://Web Ziv

      Hitoshi, I admire your zeal, but I think you are wrong on a few counts. First, Americans won’t tolerate the crowding Japanese train riders are subject to. Most Americans would punch a pusher that shoved the last commuter into an already overcrowded train. In Japan they would have to grin and bear it.
      http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/1/26/151954/606/travel/Japanese+%27Train+Pushers%27+Will+Be+The+Craziest+Thing+You+See+Today
      And if you don’t physically force extra passengers onto a train a decent hybrid with 3 people aboard will use fewer BTU per passenger mile. Trains are great, but don’t go door to door. Finally, there will be fluctuations in oil prices, but with a EREV or a BEV, you can always put a wind generator on the roof of your home and drive off the grid. And gas will never go away, poor people might not be able to afford it, but middle class people will always be able to afford at least half a gallon a day. Poor people may have to have burly dudes shoving them schoolyard bullies, but middle class people will just buy a Volt or a Prius and share a ride.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_efficiency_in_transportation

      • http://Web Steve F

        You obviously never traveled in Japan. The subways and commuter rails are crowded, though not always as bad as you portray.

        The inter-city bullet trains are better than any air flight, except in First Class. They sell individual seat ONLY.

        But that is ok. We will persist in ignorance in the US. It seems it is our primary attribute these days.

        • http://Web Ziv

          You are familiar with the pushers that were shown in the video? That is some serious crowding.
          I am all for faster trains. I just think that we need to start with easy wins to start with. Get Amtrak up to 110-120 mph using PTC and then start on the HSR routes in high population density areas. We can’t afford another rail failure, and the first 30 years of Amtrak has been a failure.

    • http://Web Tim Cleland

      No, you have it exactly backwards. Once gasoline reaches $6-8/gal or higher, rail may then become popular and self supporting. To do it now when gasoline is so cheap**, is wrong headed.

      **At current elevated prices, even someone driving a 15-mpg SUV for 18000 miles/yr is still only paying ~$350/month for gasoline. A more average situation with a person driving 15000 miles/year in a 25-mpg sedan is a only ~$175/month.

      • http://www.sublimeburnout.com Christopher DeMorro

        @ Tim

        So we should wait until only the wealthiest among us can afford gas before we even start laying the groundwork for a newer rail system?

        These things take years, often decades to build and get going. If we wait until gas is too costly for the average American, we’re going to screw ourselves right back into a recession (or depression.) The rich aren’t affected by high gas prices; just the other 300 million inhabitants of America.

        • http://Web Tim Cleland

          “So we should wait until only the wealthiest among us can afford gas before we even start laying the groundwork for a newer rail system?”

          In a word, yes. Why build it now when, as far as we know, gasoline could possibly stay around $4/gallon for a decade or more and no one will ride the trains? If gasoline does indeed go to $6-8/gallon, and stays there, there will be consensus among the people and there might even be interest in commuter rail from private industry. Once you have that, rail projects can go forth very quickly.

          • http://www.sublimeburnout.com Christopher DeMorro

            @ Tim

            I bet if you had told yourself circa 2000 that we’d be paying $4 a gallon for gas (back when it was 1/4 that) you’d have been demanding high speed rail.

            Indeed, many on the right were calling for high speed rail a decade ago, when good ol’ George W. was in office.

            And again, as I said, a HSR network is an effort decades in the making. By the time the first trains start running, gas could easily go from $6 a gallon to $8 a gallon.

            Then there are unforeseen issues that could drive gas prices sky high. What if Iran goes to war with Israel, and the rest of the Mid East gets dragged in? All of the sudden the spigot is turned off and gas prices jump by dollars overnight. Our entire economy is paralyzed, people can’t even afford to get to work, and we’ve literally got no alternative, and with the economy in the tank the gov’t doesn’t have the funds to build the new transportation system we so desperately need.

            And don’t go saying its impossible. If people were so able to predict oil prices, then we could probably avoid these ridiculous run ups. But America has NO alternative to oil right now, and we need it, more than ever. I already can’t afford to fill my tank, and gas prices are going up every day.

  • http://Web Jurgens

    Wow, does the author have stock in rail equipment manufacturers?

    • http://wvoutpost.com Shellee Tyler

      Um, no, I would say he’s concerned with the progress of his country, cleaning up the Planet and bringing much needed job’s to the US! But, if he was a Tea Party member,I would say he’s in it for the money.

      Most of the US citizen’s care about the hungry, homeless, our vets and the Planet, unlike the “Toilet Paper” Party.

      But we do like one product the Koch bro’s produce….Angel Soft Tissue. Gives a chance to let the Tea Party what we really think of there policies. :)

      • http://Web Tim Cleland

        Just in case you think, as most on the left do, that the Koch brothers are some evil right-wing supporters:

        They support gay marriage.
        They support drug legalization.
        They opposed the Iraq war from the start.
        They advocate substantially cutting military spending.
        They gave $20M to the ACLU to oppose the Patriot Act.
        They spend only about one tenth as much as far left-wing George Soros does on political causes.

        Advocating for less gov’t spending doesn’t make them evil. It does, however, threaten the groups who are currently getting gov’t payouts…which is why the demonization of them has reached full boil.

  • Pingback: Japan Launches New “Hayabusa” Bullet Train, U.S. Still a Century Behind – Planetsave.com: climate change and environmental news

  • http://Web D.U.

    I’d like to point out that very few Americans trundle along at 19th century speeds.

    Inter-city flights are faster and in most cases cheaper than Amtrak. Air travel will also be significantly cheaper than the projected cost of a high speed rail ticket (not counting the cost the taxpayer will bear for each ticket sold), assuming these tickets will be 2-3 times the cost of regular Amtrak fares (which are EXPENSIVE, especially considering how slow it is).

    • http://www.sublimeburnout.com Christopher DeMorro

      @ D.U.

      You’re basically just pulling this out of your hat with no basis in reality.

      The only HSR train in the U.S. is the Acela Express, and a first-class ticket on this first-class train (which is often sold out) costs a mere $209 to go from Boston to Washington D.C. That’s only a few dollars more than an Economy class ticket on Delta, minus all the hassle of getting to the airport, going through scans, and when take all of that into account the trip takes about the same amount of time.

      I hate flying. And I know I’m not alone. If I had the option of getting on a train over a plane, you’d better believe I’d take it.

    • http://Web Winston

      “I’d like to point out that very few Americans trundle along at 19th century speeds.”

      Air travel is superior for long-distance trips of 1000 miles or more. but for trips of 500-600 or less, fast rail is more than competitive. For many or a majority of trips, you spend three or more hours in addition to actual air-travel time. Add to your trip the time it takes to travel to and from airports on the outskirts – or further – of cities. Then the time waiting in lines and going through security. And, if there isn’t a direct flight available, add 45 minutes or more to your total. Also add the cost of transportation to such distant locations.

      Fast rail, by contrast, will have stations in or near urban centers, which will certainly cut down the time.

      I’ve ridden the TGV in France numerous times. The accommodations are spacious and extremely comfortable.

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