Green Options

May 9 is National Train Day, one of my favorite holidays. (Well, since it was created last year, at least.) I find trains to be a particularly great way to travel, for both short and long trips.

U.S. President Barack Obama called congressional approval of the Economic Stimulus Bill a “major milestone on our road to recovery”, but Republicans have been spreading rumors and crying foul to discredit the legislation.

In the wake of MARTA announcing a 60 million dollar budget shortfall, Atlanta got hit with more bad news for anyone hoping to ditch their cars. AMTRAK and the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) are putting the proposed system of light rail, trails, and planned development into jeopardy.

[Creative Commons photo by Brett Weinstein]

What is the BeltLine?

The Atlanta BeltLine is a solution. While Atlanta does have a rail and bus system now, MARTA, the rail portion is pretty limited and the buses are a bit unreliable. The BeltLine was going to change the face of Atlanta’s transit system, connecting neighborhoods and making alternative transportation a viable option for more folks in the Atlanta area. They describe the BeltLine:

Our vision is that the BeltLine will be a continuous, connected corridor of parks, trails, greenspace, quality development and transit - completely unique to anything in any other U.S. city. It will connect in-town neighborhoods and promising business centers throughout the city and will link directly into MARTA rail and other public transit systems. Ultimately, the BeltLine is how Atlanta chooses to develop over the next 50 years.

Why would anyone want to stop a project like this?

As if the announcement of a high-speed rail line that will go from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 2 hours and 40 minutes isn’t exciting enough, Navigant Consulting now claims that the bullet train can run with zero greenhouse gas emissions.

According to the energy consulting firm, the train’s expected usage of 3,350 GWh each year can easily be generated using renewable energy resources in California. The rail line’s energy consumption will be about one percent of the state’s total energy usage—not bad considering its speed, convenience, and potential for widespread use.

As a recent transplant to the Bay Area, I have noticed that San Francisco and Los Angeles seem worlds away from each other both physically and culturally. Now that a plan to build a high-speed train linking the two cities is moving forward, that distance will become a whole lot smaller—physically, at least.

In case you aren’t familiar with the plan, here are the basics: The California High Speed Rail Authority is in the beginning stages of building an 800-mile long high-speed train system that will serve every major city in California. The trains will be capable of speeds up to 220 miles per hour, and the trip time from San Francisco to L.A. will be only 2 hours and 40 minutes. That’s comparable to the time it takes to travel between the two locations on a plane.

By providing a viable alternative to energy-intensive car and air travel, the rail system will reduce carbon emissions up to 17.6 billion pounds per year and reduce oil consumption up to 22 million barrels per year.

Pretty amazing, right? And now the California High-Speed Rail Authority is going to get a boost with new member Thomas Umberg.

Fiona Ma was nervous about getting on a train that was about to set a world speed record. Just before Easter 2007 in the countryside outside Paris, she saw the people lining the green and flowered route. The French were flying flags, waving, and cheering. Less reassuring were those of [...]