One of the major observations about transport is that it's a "build it and they will come" sort of thing. Creating efficient transport links can create demand for travel (just as how if you build more roads, people drive more).
GDP is a better thing to look at then current demand because it gives you an idea of the economic capacity of the region to create demand for travel, on the presumption that demand for travel is intrinsically roughly proportional to economic activity. It's a counter-point to the common refrain that American cities are insufficiently dense and near to support high speed rail. If I can get a high speed train from Frankfurt (GDP: $220 billion) to Paris (GDP: $560 billion), distance 460 miles, why can't I get a high speed train from Detroit (GDP: $250 billion) to Chicago (GDP: $570 billion), distance 280 miles? Why would the demand for travel between the latter pair of cities be intrinsically lower than the demand for travel between the former pair?
The larger point is that while the U.S. may be too big to support HSR criss-crossing from NYC to LA or Atlanta to Seattle, it is divided into several mega-regions, each of which have economic density not that different from that of European countries.
Boston-NYC-PHL-DC, Vancouver-Seattle-Portland, Detroit-Chicago-Minneapolis, Birmingham-Atlanta-Raleigh, even Houston-Dallas-Oklahoma City all link population centers that are roughly the same size and same distance apart as major European cities.
Comments
One of the major observations about transport is that it's a "build it and they will come" sort of thing. Creating efficient transport links can create demand for travel (just as how if you build more roads, people drive more).
GDP is a better thing to look at then current demand because it gives you an idea of the economic capacity of the region to create demand for travel, on the presumption that demand for travel is intrinsically roughly proportional to economic activity. It's a counter-point to the common refrain that American cities are insufficiently dense and near to support high speed rail. If I can get a high speed train from Frankfurt (GDP: $220 billion) to Paris (GDP: $560 billion), distance 460 miles, why can't I get a high speed train from Detroit (GDP: $250 billion) to Chicago (GDP: $570 billion), distance 280 miles? Why would the demand for travel between the latter pair of cities be intrinsically lower than the demand for travel between the former pair?
The larger point is that while the U.S. may be too big to support HSR criss-crossing from NYC to LA or Atlanta to Seattle, it is divided into several mega-regions, each of which have economic density not that different from that of European countries.
Boston-NYC-PHL-DC, Vancouver-Seattle-Portland, Detroit-Chicago-Minneapolis, Birmingham-Atlanta-Raleigh, even Houston-Dallas-Oklahoma City all link population centers that are roughly the same size and same distance apart as major European cities.