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A new report from the Mineta Transportation Institute finds that high-speed rail could have both economic and environmental benefits for the United States.
The report, The Economic Environmental Potential of High-Speed Rail, said high-speed passenger rail systems could spur job growth and increased economic activity, create a new domestic manufacturing base, improve regional connectivity and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Focusing on passenger rail that operated at speeds greater than 150 miles per hour, the report looked at how those systems (already in use in many other countries and regions) could benefit the United States.
The report said the California High-Speed Rail Authority estimates that HSR has created between 74,000 to 80,000 job years, as well as $5.6 billion to $6 billion in labor income and between $15 billion to $16 billion in economic output between 2006 and 2022. The high-speed rail system would connect megaregions, the report said, forming corridors of housing, employment and recreation. Additionally, the report said, studies show that rail manufacturing supported 90,000 jobs in 2015. That same year, more than 750 companies in at least 39 states manufactured components for passenger rail and transit.
When it comes to the environment, one study, the report said, also estimated that high-speed rail in the United States can reduce CO2 emissions, saving up to 800 million tons from entering the atmosphere over a 40-year period, the equivalent of a typical 22 mile per gallon gas-based car traveling approximately 2 trillion miles.
Only Amtrak’s Acela system is capable of operating at high-speeds, but several HSR systems are in progress or in the planning stage across the United States, including the Brightline West system from Las Vegas to Southern California, the California High Speed Rail Authority from Los Angeles to San Francisco, the Texas Central from Dallas to Houston, and the Cascadia Project from Portland, Ore. to Vancouver, British Columbia.
The Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University is a university transportation center funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the California Department of Transportation and several public and private grants, including ones from the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017.