Five best and five worst ideas for expanding inter-city rail service

[sharkfood]

If there is going to be a major investment in passenger rail infrastructure, let's do it right.

These are the top five routes that scream out for high speed rail service.
Yes, all of them are in the sunbelt, because that's where the most economic growth has occurred in the last 50 years and that's where the existing rail infrastructure is the smallest:

1. San Francisco - Los Angeles.
2. Houston - Dallas.
3. Washington - Richmond - Raleigh/Durham - Charlotte - Atlanta.
4. Miami - West Palm Beach - Orlando - Tampa
5. Los Angeles - Las Vegas

And these are the least worthy candidates for high speed rail:

1. Philadelphia - Pittsburgh: Listen, I'm from Philadelphia. I'm been to Pittsburgh once in my life. That says something. Pittsburghers would say the same thing. This is not a criticism of the Keystone Service, which actually connects Pennsylvania with New York.
2. Buffalo - Albany: Please.
3. Anything involving El Paso.
4. Anything connecting cities inside Ohio: C'mon. Think outside your state.
5. Northern New England.

Routes I'm on the fence about:

1. Any routes involving Chicago. Chicago is a large city, obviously. The problem is there are no similar heavyweight cities nearby to pair it with.
There's no New York-Washington or Houston-Dalls type pairing. (Sorry, St. Louis).

Ok, feel free to chime in or criticize.