Global Best Practices for Cutting the Cost of Building High Speed Rail

Рет қаралды 2,574

2 ай бұрын

The historic investment in intercity passenger rail is an opportunity to significantly expand and improve the rail network around the country. However, one of the biggest barriers to this investment’s success is that the US has a systemic cost problem. Building rail projects, whether intercity, high speed, or urban, typically costs 2 to 4 times (or more) on a per mile basis than global peers. Deutsche Bahn is the national railway operator in Germany and is responsible for delivering large rail projects on a regular basis. In this presentation, Paul Lewis with DB E.C.O. North America will discuss global best practices for changing the dynamic and enabling public agencies to build rail projects at a lower cost and fast timeline.
Paul Lewis is a Principal at DB E.C.O. North America, where he leads the governance and project delivery practice in the United States. In this role, Paul works with public agencies to reassess their project delivery frameworks to create better strategies to achieve successful outcomes. Paul previously served as the policy director for the Eno Center for Transportation where he authored several studies on project delivery, transit governance, and rail policy. Paul has a degree in civil engineering from Ohio Northern University and a Master of Science in Transportation from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Learn about upcoming webinars hosted by the Alliance: www.hsrail.org/events/
Tell the United States Congress: It’s time to reconnect the country with high-speed and regional rail: www.hsrail.org/federal-petition/
Become a member of the High Speed Rail Alliance: www.hsrail.org/join-us/
The High Speed Rail Alliance is a 501(C)(3) non-profit, supported by individual members like you, who want fast, frequent, and affordable trains throughout North America.

Пікірлер: 14

@thetrainguy1 2 ай бұрын

I feel like Amtrak is doing their best to keep everything in house. And reduce cost of building infrastructure. Like right now they are upgrading the Catenary to support 145mph speeds. All in house.

@jalapenobomber 2 ай бұрын

A thousand thumbs up!

@P0w2you 2 ай бұрын

This is honestly what I've heard from CAHSR CEO Brian Kelly about how they are going to extend California high speed rail project. Not just to the bay or to LA, but even to Merced and Bakersfield. they are gonna split up the sections into different small contractors doing individual specialized things. Hiring more staff to move away from there large amount of consultants, and having 3rd parties in hand before. I'm gonna Miss Brian Kelly ;-;

@brucerawson5665 2 ай бұрын

The main thing seems to be eliminating consulting fees. Taking charge of the project and it's operations would help reduce over runs and litigation.

@E.B.Cefeti 2 ай бұрын

This was fantastic. Thank you for sharing.

@H3lue 2 ай бұрын

Can you build the NEC-Tor-Mon via Burlington & Pittsburgh? Yes please!

@Sacto1654 2 ай бұрын

They're going have to really cut the cost of construction on a per mile basis. Dedicated lines for high-speed rail can get really expensive fast, as the Japanese found out during the construction of the original Shinkansen line from 1959 to 1964, Texas Central Railway's increasing cost to get the right of way and China Rail High-speed (CRH) finding itself US$1 trillion in debt.

@yizhouwang3645 2 ай бұрын

Very good except for 31:34 . Indeed China does have a terrible dictatorship and close to non-existant property rights and environmental reviews, but it's still worthwhile to learn a lot of lessons from. For example their usually standardized sh*t for everything, them overbuilding the stations especially compared with Japan, their extremely complicated jubctions and etc. China and Japan build a lot of elevated and tunnelled sections to increase speed btw. Also land acquisition is also not cheap in the cities, while it could be much easier to do in the rural areas. So to summarize, their cost savings could be greatly attributed to economy of scale and the know-hows (In fact they have been building railroads for tens of years, starting with Qinhuangdao-Shenyang railroads at 2003 with 270 kph and gradually go to Wuhan-Guangzhou HSR with mostly above ground. ) and build the train stations far in the suburbs. However you can still claim that it’s good sides are basically taking the best practices around the world at that time but it’s weaknesses are pretty unique.

@davefroman4700 2 ай бұрын

Lol. There are peoples homes in china that are in the middle of highways because they refused to leave their homes. Secondly China does a much better job at protecting environments today than the US EVER has.

@LaurenLover81 2 ай бұрын

Here’s a real cost cutter, Maglev trains encapsulated going at 1,200 miles an hour. Drastically cutting travel/ commute time. And a much better plan and use of rail technology without the need for aging friction based rail tracks.

@pradlee 2 ай бұрын

Interesting... except for the weird comments about China. Vs in his own words how German projects "get the key to the kingdom" and can, e.g., make modifications to buildings without owner's approval? Or how the US has historically used eminent domain against very specific groups of people and/or for projects that really aren't for the public good. RE China not having any environmental review -- the US could do with less environmental review. Besides the fact that NEPA in practice doesn't actually focus that much on the environment, rail transit is clearly good for the environment. RMTransit's discussion of China's approach to building rail and how that's let them build SO MUCH: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/m86ErJCitry-mIE.html . Everyone else could probably learn something from them, "terrible dictatorship" or not.