Stew's U.S. High Speed Rail News January 2025 | CAHSR Brightline West Northeast Corridor Cascadia

CAHSR fights to stay alive, Brightline West fights to start construction, and Cascadia HSR fights to do another study! All this and more in the latest episode of Stew's News.
Stew's News is an examination of high speed rail news in the United States. It is meant mainly for true high speed projects, intended to meet or exceed 150mph. These currently include California High Speed Rail, Brightline West, Acela on the Northeast Corridor, Texas Central Railway, Dallas Fort Worth High Speed Transportation, Cascadia Ultra High Speed Rail, and HSR Atlanta to Charlotte. I will also occasionally cover news for higher speed rail, meeting or exceeding 110mph, such as Brightline in Florida, the Keystone Corridor, and Illinois High Speed Rail.
This is a monthly series, published one the first of the months, so be sure to check back every month for your Stew's News!

Chapters:

0:00 Hey, It's Your Old Pal Lucid Stew, Again
0:16 California High Speed Rail
5:57 Brightline West
6:54 Brightline Florida
8:12 Acela and the Northeast Corridor
10:19 Congress
11:05 A Tribute To Pete
11:40 Cascadia High Speed Rail
12:39 Stew's Boo Boos
14:05 Thanks, Superthanks, and Up Next
14:46 See You On That Big, Beautiful Freeway!

References:

#highspeedrail #highspeedtrain #train #transit #railroad

[eyezak_m]

New year. Same frustrations with California Legislature not realizing they need to consistently fund CAHSR and not rely on the Feds

[arevolvingdoor]

As a California resident who has been consistently stuck in traffic on the I-5 in the Central Valley. I would be willing to work at minimum wage for cahsr construction in order to pay off my state income taxes, because at least then I would know what is happening to my tax dollars and that they were going to a cause I support.

[TheTransitNomad]

Great video! Happy New Year to you as well! :)

[jackmehauf]

Canadian here begging for a Toronto-Montreal HSR video. I just want a lil spoonful of Stew is all I want <3

[driley]

Watching all of the progress our country has been making modernizing our passenger rail network grind to a halt over the next 4 years is going to be incredibly depressing. We were finally on a steady path to joining the 21st century and unlocking economic potential in alot of towns that have been struggling for a long time. One step forward, two steps back.

[storungz]

YAY!! FRIENDS OF P!!!! That whole album is killer! You did awesome by making it Pete's theme!! 😂

[lachezar]

Hi there! Could you please do the High Speed Rail train between Indianapolis and Louisville for the next video?

[how_to_hallagon]

Would like to see a video comparison of cost for the 1800s transcontinental railway project and the california high speed rail project. Just to see how much track was laid and for what cost and many stations were built and for what cost in the same time frame.

[ussvincent]

Tbh, I think I’d rather have the M-B ready late just to let the authority collect themselves and actually have time to re-plan for SF and LA. Caltrain still got electrified and there is an Amtrak connection to Oakland from Merced, so that will have to wait until the next time Pluto completes a trip around the sun to address lol. I think the next step after Bakersfield would be extending to Palmsdale or Burbank, which would at the very least be a little closer to the original promise.

[adityaln]

I am very excited for this all aboard bill! The US can and should once again become a rail pioneer.

[dwc]

While I would very much like to see a Cascadia HSR - seeing as my annual vacation is almost always to the Pacific Northwest - from what I've seen (e.g., a CityNerd video on the top 10 potential HSR corridors), the populations & reasonably expected ridership don't pencil out for the cost. IIRC I got the same impression from the video here, but it's been a while.

CAHSR makes *at least* as much sense to spend whatever it takes to complete Bay Area-to-SoCal in terms of ridership, relief on currently overstressed infrastructure (both ground and air), and linkage with other projects like Brightline West and whatever SoCal decides to build to take advantage (along with maybe another transbay tube and all the possibilities that would unlock?).

We lost a decade due largely to bad-faith obstructionist lawsuits by economic and ideological opponents of the project, deliberately designed to delay the project and drive up the cost, _just so_ they could proceed to call for its cancellation using the delays and cost overruns _they caused_ as the rationale. I've been watching this project since it first became a website in 1996, and I will be damned if I let those obstructionists win.

*California needs Bay Area-to-SoCal High Speed Rail* and it's time for the politicians and the billionaires who select them to pull their heads out and pony up the money to get it done.

[bjturon]

Connect those CaHSR tracks to the existing freight line and run some of those existing Amtrak California Siemens trainsets at 125 MPH.

[RVail]

Speaking of Brightline Florida, they had yet another street crossing collision, this time (Dec. 28) in Delray Beach with a fire truck. Why can't the FRA mandate crossing guard gates that completely block the intersection from cars & trucks from even the possibility of those types of accidents? There's a train cab video of the Brightline train impacting the fire truck, which will probably cost >$200, 000 to replace. Plus the damage to the Brightline engine.

[zanzaben]

In other bad news for the NEC there were 110 stranded passengers at DC Union Station on 12/26 when a train left without them. Not sure if it was specifically an Acela so this may or may not count as a boo boo.

[marlopeterson]

How about the Brightline versus fire truck collision in Delray, FL?

[垃圾谷歌-ej]

Happy 2025, this year the total length of Chinese HSR will reach 50000km milestone

[ChrisJones-gxfc]

The $536 million federal grant the two CA senators are requesting for CAHSR would go toward getting the Pacheco and Tehachapi Pass tunnels to 100% design. This would help show that CAHSR has every intention of extending beyond the Central Valley.

[jaredhardaway]

Two prospective city pairs: Chicago to Detroit, and Cincinnati- Cleveland via Dayton and Columbus

[ExtraLt]

It is amazing to see how Brightlome has been growing. I know it was mentioned about the having seven car trains this year. Have they said what the max number of cars there trains could have?

[toadtws]

7:40 Presumably that’s meant to be October 2023 with 217k BrightLine riders?