How to Make US Trains Faster

A new report by the NYU Marron Institute’s Transit Costs Project by researcher Nolan Hicks suggests a “suite of targeted improvements” dubbed the “momentum” framework that could speed up passenger rail service in the United States by up to 30 percent — without high-speed rail.

As Benjamin Schneider explains in Bloomberg CityLab, “Hicks’ Momentum approach achieves its time savings not so much from increasing top speeds, but from reducing the “dead time” trains spend idling at stops and getting back up to speed again.” According to Hicks, U.S. trains spend a lot of time at stops due to low boarding platforms that extend boarding time for passengers and diesel locomotives that take longer to start up and get up to speed.

“The first intervention Hicks recommends is high-level boarding platforms. This ADA-accessible design allows passengers to walk or roll aboard without alighting any stairs. It also enables a train car design with wider doors, so more people can get on and off more quickly.” More importantly, electrified trains would accelerate at twice the rate of diesel locomotives, letting trains travel at maximum speed for more of the trip.

“In effect, Hicks is calling for a national rail network built up to the standards of the Northeast Corridor — not a world-class high-speed rail line, but a popular, profitable route that dominates the travel market in its region.” These upgrades could be more attainable for U.S. rail markets, but obstacles such as shared tracks with freight lines and NIMBY resistance to electrical wires and infrastructure remain.