US HIGH SPEED RAIL ASSOCIATION

21st Century Transportation for America

 
SUSTAINABILITY


Clean, Green, Safe Transportation
 
Trains are the most sustainable & green form of transportation   

Electric high speed rail is the most energy efficient of all trains.  A national high speed rail system is the centerpiece of a sustainable America, and will significantly reduce congestion and our dependence on cars and oil, while cutting our carbon emissions by epic proportions.  The entire system can be powered by clean, safe renewable energy including wind, solar, geothermal, and ocean/tidal.  Clean electric trains are a major form of daily transportation in numerous countries, and are the single most powerful transportation choice that can solve serious mobility, energy, environmental, economic, health, and social problems simultaneously - on a global scale.


A 2006 study by the Center for Clean Air Policy and the Center for Neighborhood Technology concluded that building a high-speed rail system across the US could result in 29 million fewer car trips and 500,000 fewer plane flights each year, saving 6 billion pounds of carbon dioxide emissions – the equivalent of removing a million cars from the road annually.




"Tokyo's electric trains get 6,600 miles to the gallon."  -USA Today, March 4, 2008



Sustainable and Green
Not Sustainable or Green
 


"The world we have created today as a result of our thinking thus far has problems which cannot be solved by thinking the way we thought when we created them."  -Albert Einstein




 
Sustainable and Green
Not Sustainable or Green
 
 
 
A National HSR system is the centerpiece of a sustainable America
 

            Renewable Energy
    Green, Electric Transportation
   Walkable Urbanism

 
 
 
 
Incredible energy efficiency of high speed trains. (Chart source: www.uic.org)
 
 
 
External costs lowest with rail. (Chart source: www.uic.org)
 
 
 
Check out the Train to Copenhagen

Its the Climate Express from Brussels to Copenhagen on December 5 - a 12-hour on-train conference about transport and climate change where the aim will be to find out how we can solve the challenges posed by the transport sector with regard to global warming.  More info


 
 
 
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US HSR.  Making it happen.