Indonesian High-Speed Rail May Be Too Good to Be True

Private investors are claiming that they can build a $3 billion, 220-mile high speed rail system in Indonesia by the end of 2011. But the plan may be too ambitious to pull off -- or just not a good idea in the first place.

1 minute read

January 10, 2010, 7:00 AM PST

By Nate Berg


The Infrastructurist digs into the plan to reveal questionable credentials, unrealistic cost-benefit analyses, and a generally ill-informed project.

"If built, the $3 billion 'Hydrogen Hi-Speed Rail Super Highway' (H2RSH) would shake up the transportation world, providing a material advance in the movement of both goods and people at an incredibly low cost and with few ecological consequences.

It sounds great, until you realize that the technology to be used for the line is untested and that some of the project's investors have allegedly scammed several communities in the United States with schemes to recycle garbage."

Friday, January 8, 2010 in The Infrastructurist

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

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