Ben Bradford interviewed me and others (including Berkeley’s Betty Deakin) for the Marketplace story “Why can’t America build bullet trains?” I argue in a few seconds of airtime that intercity rail is not the best use of scarce public funds, which should instead be spent on urban travel. There is a related timeline at: “The […]
BI reprints my HSR article from last week: Why Covering The US In High-Speed Rail Makes No Sense At All: “When we study successful technologies and networks (e.g. The Internet, the London Underground), we see they grow from a seed, and expand outward – not from the top down. This is natural, it is risk-averse, […]
Recently published: Levinson, David (2012) Viewpoint: Accessibility Impacts of High Speed Rail Journal of Transportation Geography pp. 288-291 [doi] This paper reviews the state of high-speed rail (HSR) planning in the United States c. 2010. The plans generally call for a set of barely inter-connected hub-and-spoke networks. The evidence from US transit systems shows that […]
The Telegraph: High-speed rail: A £250m lesson for Britain’s rail enthusiasts: “The new “Fyra” high-speed service in the Netherlands — opened just two years ago — is close to financial collapse with passengers shunning its premium fares and trains running up to 85 per cent empty. The line, between Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Breda, cost taxpayers […]
MnDaily reports on: High-speed rail to Duluth gains steam I get quoted. The project’s estimated price tag is $750 million. Bob Manzoline, with the Regional Rail Authority, said that NLX is expected to carry 800,000 passengers annually. David Levinson, a University of Minnesota civil engineering professor and an expert in transportation studies, disagreed with Manzoline’s […]
San Jose Mercury News High-speed rail price tag soars again, this time on pace to surpass $60 billion : “The California High-Speed Rail Authority’s new cost estimates released Tuesday show the initial stretch of construction between Merced and Bakersfield will cost $10 billion to $13.9 billion depending on how it’s built. Project planners had previously […]
From AP Fla. scraps high-speed rail plan pushed by Obama TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Rick Scott canceled plans for a high-speed train line between Orlando and Tampa promoted by President Barack Obama, saying Wednesday it would cost the state too much even with $2.4 billion in federal help. Cost overruns could put Florida on […]
Wuhan – Guangzhou High-speed Train For all those who say since China is building high speed rail, the US should as well: From eChinacities.com Chinese Academy of Sciences: High-Speed Rail Construction Unsustainable “The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) reported to the State Council recently, urging the large-scale high-speed railway construction projects in China to be […]
Review of “Bay Area/California High-Speed Rail Ridership and Revenue Forecasting Study” (pdf) Final Report Prepared at the request of the California Senate Transportation and Housing Committee, Submitted to the California High Speed Rail Authority, Prepared by: David Brownstone, Mark Hansen and Samer Madanat, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, June 30, 2010 The Executive […]
Streetsblog New York City reports on the recent HSR conference Low Expectations for High-Speed Rail at NYU Conference My talk on Economic Development and High Speed Rail gets a prominent mention: “The most controversial comments of the day came from Professor David Levinson, a transportation engineer at the University of Minnesota. Pointing to pictures of […]
David Levinson, Transportist 
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