High Speed Rail in the U.S.A.

U.S. President Obama has been a long-time advocate of high speed rail in America. In May the Department of Transportation announced it was funding 22 inter-city rail projects including $300 million to move forward a high-speed rail project between Los Angeles and San Francisco, over $400 million to reduce rail travel times by 30 minutes between Chicago and Detroit, and nearly $800 million to increase speeds from 135mph (220km/h) to 160mph (260km/h) in certain portions of the Northeast Corridor between Washington DC, Philadelphia, New York City and Boston. All of these developments are part of a larger plan outlined in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which allocated $8 billion for inter-city rail.

The folks over at America 2050 have taken things even further, sketching out a prioritisation plan for high speed rail as well as a detailed study. If Obama's high speed rail network is fully developed it would serve 80 percent of Americans and help to deal with traffic congestion and projected population increases of an estimated 70 million more Americans in the next 25 years.

At the moment, high speed rail is largely relegated to the Northeast Corridor of the US, however that $300 million in funding for rail between LA and San Francisco will most likely be the first purpose built high speed rail line in the US. The new line, with construction scheduled to start in September 2012, would operate at speeds of at least 150mph (240km/h). Phase I, between Los Angeles/Anaheim and San Francisco, is due to be operational by 2020 while Phase II, which would add extensions to Sacramento and San Diego, is due to be operational by 2026.

In many ways the US is trying to catch up with high speed rail developments in the rest of the world, with high speed rail a common feature of intercity travel in Europe, Japan, and now China. An interesting listing of global high speed rail trains is available here, take a look.

Province, State and Country Populations

It's a very busy time for most RSA members, and particularly so for the RSA office as they prepare for next year's conferences in Delft and Shanghai. Here at RSA blog HQ (an imaginary land where time stands still...) we're looking forward to both conferences and the Chinese one in particular (but we still love Delft!). With this in mind, we've been looking at recent data from the Chinese and US censuses in order to familiarise ourselves with the vastness of China. Thus, we've produced a comparison graphic showing some Chinese provinces, US states and EU countries... (click it to enlarge)

Some interesting facts emerge from this analysis, and not just the huge population of China as a whole (1.3 billion people). For example, the province level municipality of Shanghai has more people than Romania (23.0 million vs. 22.0 million) and more people live in Beijing (19.6 million) than New York state (19.4 million). Germany's population of 81.8 million is not that different from Sichuan province at 80.4 million. Shanxi province and California both have a population of around 37.3 million (as does Poland!). Click the image above for more.

This analysis is rather rudimentary but that's not the point here. Instead, we just want to provide more of an insight into the city and the country which will host one of our 2012 conferences.

Data links: 
Chinese National Bureau of Statistics, in English.
US Census 2010, also in English - and Dutch, and Chinese and all sorts of other languages...

Capital(s) of the world

The attempt to classify and rank cities according to their global influence is not new, and neither are the critiques to such attempts (see previous post). An example is the concept of 'world cities' (which usually refers to London, New York and Tokyo) that has remained influential in both the popular media and academic journals, as it elicits glitzy images of cosmopolitanism and wealth, and evokes a transnational space where the global elite (including the academic global elite) can always feel at home.

Recently The Economist (through its affiliated magazine Intelligent Life) has started a discussion to identify the Capital of the World. The interesting feature in this piece is that alongside a poll where everyone can vote, a group of journalists have each been arguing for a particular city. Besides the obvious examples of London, New York and Washington, Delhi, Beijing and Singapore have also been singled out as potential capitals of the world. Despite its subjective character, it's an interesting reflection on what makes a city relevant in the global economy and polity.

A Science of Cities?

The question of whether we are able to specify a 'science of cities' is open to debate but there is a vast literature in urban planning and geography which explores such ideas - and not just in some kind 'old-fashioned' quantitative revolution way. Indeed, some of the main journals in the field of Regional Studies have been occupied - at least in part - with such questions for many years.

So it is with great interest that we note the arrival of a new website from the people at CASA - and Professor Mike Batty in particular. The new Science of Cities website pulls together a treasure trove of information on the subject and - for those less keen on models - lots of lovely images of cities, city structure and city flows. Also linked here is Professor Batty's commentary piece from earlier in 2011 on 'when all the world's a city', about the largest city people haven't heard of (but more about Chongqing in future). For now, you might just want to check out the web site...


P.S. Did you know that Mike Batty was almost certainly the inspiration for The Beatles? Well, kind of. He was in the same class as John Lennon at Quarry Bank High School for Boys in Liverpool (UK).