US HIGH SPEED RAIL ASSOCIATION

21st Century Transportation for America

 
SUSTAINABILITY


Clean, Green, Oil-Free, 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


 
 
 
"Grid-connected traction offers the only realistic option for significantly reducing oil use in transportation over the next 10 years."  -Anthony Perl

 
Sustainable and Green
Not Sustainable or Green
 

                CNN:  How green is high speed rail?


            Urgency of Reducing Oil Consumption


 
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



"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




                       Europe Opens Solar Train
China Opens Solar Train
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"Building a new system of high speed rail in America will be faster, cheaper, and easier than building more freeways or adding to an already over-burdened aviation system - and everybody stands to benefit."  President Obama, April 16, 2009
 
 
Incredible energy efficiency of high speed trains. (Chart source: www.uic.org)
 
 
External costs lowest with rail. (Chart source: www.uic.org)
 
 
Sustainable transportation for America: 3-tiered electric rail network
 
 
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


Check out Sustainability and the California HSR Project

Analysis of the sustainability benefits of the new state wide rail project:  More info


 
 
 
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US HSR.  Making it happen.