Quote:
Originally Posted by Busy Bee
A midwest hsr build out long advocated by the Midwest hsr Association would be transformational. Start there.
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The Midwest doesn't need high speed rail per se so much as it needs high quality grade separated entrances into the cities. The old Ohio high speed rail plan that failed on the 1982 ballot would have built extensive tunnels and viaducts in Cincinnati and Cleveland to enable HSR trains to travel at 80-100mph unobstructed from the system's respective terminal stations into the open countryside where they'd hit 150mph+.
It's the same problem that plagues HSR in California and the Brightline entrance into Los Angeles. The majority of the engineering difficulty and expense are the city approaches, not the high speed sections.