Patrick Simmons, director of the Rail Division of NCDOT, writes this
op-ed
in the N&O that takes someone, possibly me, to task for spreading misinformation about the high-speed rail project in North Carolina. It seems he is attempting to counter my op-ed that appeared in the N&O on September 10th.

Mr. Simmons wants to change the subject by using travel time, not speed, as his measurement of success. The Federal Railroad Administration uses speed. FRA’s rail improvements “vision” for the U.S. contains 7,500 miles of?”moderate-speed” lines that will travel, even after multi-billion dollar track improvements, at speeds averaging 55 to 75 MPH, with top speeds of 110 MPH. These moderate-speed lines are the ones that will be built in North Carolina. Thus the constant repetition of “high-speed” rail is just factually incorrect.

Next, Mr. Simmons argues that train ridership in NC is increasing dramatically. “Last year 700,000 people took the train and we expect this year’s total to be nearly 800,000.” Yes, but compared to what? The traffic count on just one stretch of Highway 70 outside of Goldsboro showed 7,300,000 vehicles per year. If we assume one passenger per vehicle, that is more than nine times the train ridership and that is just one of the hundreds of the state’s highways.

One of Mr. Simmons’ more interesting claims is that the moderate-speed rail lines in North Carolina will benefit commercial rail. For those of us not familiar with train lingo, that means freight trains.

Apparently, Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific, CSX have not gotten that message. The Wall Street Journal reports (9/21/10, page A3)–on the same day that his op-ed appeared–that the Union Pacific is fighting with the California High Speed Rail Authority over its rail project because it harms its business.?Union Pacific states, according to the WSJ, “…that ‘no part of the high-speed corridor’ be located on the railroad’s right-of-way or near it. The railroad said it would fight any attempts to take its land–or that of its customers–by eminent domain. …”

The freight railroads argue that faster passenger rail will slow their trains thus reducing their competitiveness with trucking. They also note that the federal plan calls for using existing privately owned rail lines contrary to the policy in Europe and Asia where dedicated tracks are constructed for high-speed rail.

Mr. Simmons chose not to address my other complaints. The new moderate-speed rail will not improve the environment, accompanying federally forced land use controls are designed to, as USDOT Secretary Ray LaHood states, “to coerce people out of their cars” and the primary beneficiaries are higher income individuals, thus the result is “Robin Hood in reverse.”