# DC to NYC Maglev - Private investors?



## George K (Nov 3, 2014)

http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/03/news/economy/high-speed-rail/index.html



> a group of private investors is seeking to do what the federal government has been trying to pull off for years: bring super fast trains to the United States.
> 
> One working plan calls for 300-mile-per-hour train that floats on magnets to run from downtown Washington, D.C., to Manhattan. The train, faster than anything currently in operation, would make the trip in about an hour -- or nearly three times as fast as Amtrak's Acela service.
> 
> ...


----------



## Anderson (Nov 3, 2014)

I'm highly ambivalent on this project for a whole host of reasons...the main one being that it comes across as a bad use of money.

One thing that is interesting here: The segment is now being given as "Baltimore Airport to downtown DC"...so basically, this is a longer version of the Shanghai maglev to start with. That isn't a big money loser, but it's not where I would throw my money...I'd take a bond with AAF or Texas Central before I'd take one with these guys.

If the train runs from BWI to DC only, I expect it to be a marginal success: It'll do wonderfully in terms of commuter ridership, but it won't be much of a financial success. I suspect downtown Baltimore-downtown DC will be a bit more successful if that can come to pass (essentially converting Baltimore into an inner suburb of Washington in terms of commute time...it'd be quicker to get from downtown DC to downtown Baltimore than from downtown DC to Bethesda most of the time), but this line doesn't have much in the way of major success prospects unless it can get up to the Philly area or serve somewhere that it's not almost totally redundant with existing service.

One thing I have to wonder about is what the impact would be if these guys, instead of going for a mostly-redundant line like this, had a serious sit-down with Illinois, California, or another state that's been looking in this direction for a while (I'd suggest LA-SF, but they're already committed to the HSR project; with that said, LA-Vegas would be a reasonable direction to look...and frankly it would probably be a lot cheaper than trying to knock their way into Manhattan...). The NEC is horridly built-up most of the way, the Wilmington-Baltimore gap notwithstanding, in many respects.


----------

