Which comes first: a great transit system or a great city that can support it? What role does high-speed rail play in an overall, effective transportation system? And is an incremental approach really possible with high-speed transit?
These are important questions with potentially complex answers. For insight we turned to Rick Harnish. He’s executive director of the High Speed Rail Alliance, the nation’s largest high-speed rail advocacy organization. The organization’s goal is to make high-speed trains “fast, frequent, and affordable.” Harnish cofounded the Alliance in 1993 (he’s also a Strong Towns member), and we’re pleased to welcome him as our guest this week on the Strong Towns Podcast.
In this episode, Harnish and Strong Towns president Chuck Marohn talk about how much of the transit that gets built is based on what places need versus what they can get funding for. They discuss the problem of thinking about transit as a “charitable overlay” to an auto-oriented system, and whether we can afford to fund high-speed transit while also funding new car infrastructure. They also talk about what the U.S and Canada should—and shouldn’t—learn about high-speed rail from countries like France, Japan, and China.
Additional Show NotesHigh Speed Rail Alliance
High Speed Rail Alliance (Twitter)
Charles Marohn (Twitter)
Confessions of an Engineer
Check out more Strong Towns content on public transit in the Action Lab
Rep. Jake Auchincloss & Rep. Mike Gallagher: How Congress Can Support Local Leaders and Get the Economy Going (Video)
Joseph Kane: Prioritizing People (Not Projects) In Infrastructure Spending
Dig Deep: What Does Democracy Look Like Now?
Richard Florida: Remote Work and "The Rise of the Rest"
Bad Bets
Allison Schrager: "The only insurance against uncertainty is resilience."
Gabrielle Gurley: For Transit, "The Cuts are Coming"
Matthew Yglesias: The Case for One Billion Americans (Part 2)
Matthew Yglesias: The Case for One Billion Americans (Part 1)
John Pattison: From Slow Food to Slow Church
Chris Bernardo: Filling the Gaps to Support Local Businesses
Just Print the Money
Stacy Mitchell: Fighting for Small Businesses and Strong Local Economies
A Time for Local Action
Blake Pagenkopf: Rebooting Our Political Operating System
Denise Hearn: The Myth of Capitalism
Ben Hunt: We're Not Going to Fix This from the Top Down
Bonus Episode: The Bottom-Up Revolution
What Are We Waiting For?
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