A 220-mph NEC? A contrarian weighs in

In competitive markets, vision and strategy are tested daily as consumers vote with their wallets, investors choose among opportunities, and competitors react – all creating greater efficiency.

Conventional wisdom in passenger rail today is high speed trains. Amtrak, for example, has a 30-year, $117 billion (or more) plan to convert the 456-mile Northeast Corridor, linking Washington D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, to a 220-mph speedway providing 96-minute trips between Washington and New York and 84-minute trips between New York and Boston. That equates to more than $250 million per mile, which, on the Washington D.C.-New York segment, would shave some 69 minutes from the current Acela Express trip that travels between 110 mph and 150 mph over 65 percent of the route and about 85 mph on average for the trip.

Read the complete column at Railway Age.