High Speed Rail Affirmative 1ac – Energy Module (1/4)
Economy – Internal Link: General
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Economy – Internal Link: GeneralHSR contributes to local development Jehanno 2011 [Aurélie, project manager at SYSTRA Conseil, "High speed rail and sustainability,” International union of railways. November 2011] Different studies have proved that positive impacts on local development were to be expected from HSR projects, even if these impacts are sometimes difficult to isolate and quantify. HSR appears to be a real accelerator of beneficial trends. The positive impacts on local economies are diverse, dealing with employment, tourism, congress and business activities as well as synergies with other transportation networks. Bringing along an image of modernity and state of the art technology, HSR constitutes a great asset for urban marketing. Indeed, becoming part of the HSR network enables metropolitan areas to be associated with state-of-the-art technology and are therefore attractive for people in the metropolitan area and, as well, for the area to get well-positioned against international competition for investments. HSR contributes to the image of a development vision andrepresents the opportunity to gather social and institutional support, necessary to the success of urban projects.56 In Japan for instance, interesting effects have been observed since the launch of the first bullet train in 1964. Population growth was recorded in cities served by a station compared to other, unserved, cities near the track and compared to the national average. More interestingly, Shinkansen seems to have had important economic effects on cities as shown in the following tables (Figure 47 and Figure 48). Cities with Shinkansen stations have experienced significant economic growth compared to cities withoutk. It is also interesting to note that Shinkansen seems to have a substantial impact on growth as a comparison with cities only served by motorways. HSR provides green jobs Jehanno 2011 [Aurélie, project manager at SYSTRA Conseil, "High speed rail and sustainability,” International union of railways. November 2011] As economies are currently unsustainable, transformation of activities are necessary to achieve building a new society model that meets economic, social and environmental requirements. Shifting toward sounder sustainably activities will require strong will and proactive policies in a wide range of areas including the use of renewable resources, increases in efficient technologies, changes in lifestyle, consumption habits and so on. Such deep changes in production systems have necessarily strong implications in employment and labour market organization. This issue seems particularly serious since unemployment and job insecurity is already hitting our resource intensive economies hard. Nevertheless, a low-carbon economic model could also be an outstanding opportunity to develop a new economic model with new business and employment opportunities. Shifting toward environmentally-sounder economies will have strong implications for employment in all sectors in the forthcoming decades. Within this framework, environmental and social concerns are not only seen as unbearable constraints, but raise awareness among public opinion, entrepreneurs and professionals. The growing interest of young professionals in green jobs demonstrates the need for sectors and activities that have a positive impact on the environment. Nevertheless, defining green sectors and jobs remains quite a difficult issue since most current activities have a negative impact on the environment. Thus, green sectors have to be addressed as activities that enable to shift to sustainable economies by maintaining, restoring or avoiding further damage to the environment. HSR contributes to sustainable economic development Jehanno 2011 [Aurélie, project manager at SYSTRA Conseil, "High speed rail and sustainability,” International union of railways. November 2011] Wealth and development have for long been reduced only to the GDP indicator. Social welfare or environmental aspects didn’t play a role. But things are changing; the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has introduced the Human Development Index (HDI) in order to take into account larger criteria such as education, health and life expectancy or standard of living. Also Joseph Stiglitz, the 2001 Nobel Prize winner in economics, has recently highlighted the necessity of taking into account extra criteria reflecting individual well-being and social welfare. In economic calculations the so-called externalities (costs or benefits that are not transmitted through prices) become more important. In the case of Europe there exists a strategy for revitalizing the railways as a means of encouraging modal shift against the current dominance of road transport. This is justified in terms of the lower external costs of rail transport when compared to road transport with respect to congestion, safety and pollution. Sustainable economic development requires a stable and healthy economy but also a healthy environment and social welfare. The benefits HSR brings to society, the environment as well as individuals were widely illustrated in chapters 3 and 4. Moreover HSR contributes to sustainable economic development by improving inter-regional connectivity, labour mobility, business efficiency and local attractiveness. Certainly, investments in the transport system support the economy in general; however, HSR supports a more efficient economic system thanks to lower external costs compared to its competitors. Economy – Internal Link: GeneralHigh Speed Rail works- it’s faster than other transit, costs less than major highways, and 9/11 and oil price spikes mean the time is right Brain 10 (Marshall, April 14, “How High Speed Rail Works -or- Getting between two cities faster than by car or airplane,” http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/2010/04/14/how-high-speed-rail-works/) Imagine getting on a high-speed train in downtown New York City and arriving at Union Station in Washington DC, 230 miles away, just an hour later. This is the ultimate promise of true High Speed Rail (HSR). View Larger Map Compared to driving a car, this train trip would be dream. The car ride would take about four and a half hours (making the assumption that there is no traffic or construction along the way – if there is a lot of traffic or construction, the travel time by car could double). Even compared to an airplane the train trip would be faster. Once you account for the need to get to the airport an hour ahead of time, the time spent sitting on the runway, and the fact that Dulles and Laguardia airports are a good distance from downtown, the plane trip might take nearly as long as the car trip. True high speed rail service like that does not yet exist in the United States, but it is common in parts of Europe, Japan and China. And it may be coming to America in the near future with backing from the federal government. California is actively working on a high speed rail system that would run all the way from Sacramento down to San Diego (a distance of 500 miles), and this will probably be the first installation of true high speed rail in the U.S. The closest thing that the United States has to high speed rail today is Amtrak’s Acela service running in the Northeast corridor. The Northeast corridor connects Boston to Washington DC and includes stops in places like New York City and Philadelphia. Although the Acela trains have a top speed of 150 miles per hour, their average speed is more like 70 miles per hour. So the 230 mile run between DC and New York takes nearly three hours. This is still better than the car trip or the plane ride, so the Acela run is popular – something like 3 million passengers travel between NY and DC every year on the train. So why is the average speed of the Acela train so low? The answer to this question helps clarify the difference between normal train track and real high speed track. One of the most important problems with normal track is the roads that cross the track. Many of the rail lines in the U.S. were built with “at-grade crossings” rather than bridges. Obviously it is not very safe to have a train traveling at 150 or 200 miles per hour if a car can stall on the track at an intersection. Another problem is the radius of turns. Low-speed trains can make sharp turns, while high speed trains cannot. The Acela train tries to get around this problem with tilting cars. But in some parts of the Northeast corridor, the tracks are too close together to use this tilting feature. The following video describes the type of tilting technology used on Acela trains (turn the volume way down before playing): Another requirement for high speed travel is smooth, welded track. This normally means a good concrete base for the track rather than wooden railroad ties. Also needed is overhead electric service, since high speed trains are electric. In addition, a high speed train can’t be competing for the track with slow freight trains. All these requirements mean that true high speed rail needs dedicated high speed track. Building this dedicated track can be expensive, especially in congested urban areas, so high speed rail projects cost billions of dollars. The high speed track in California might end up costing something like $100 million per mile when it is all said and done. The good news is that a high speed rail line takes less land than a major highway, and the high speed train gets its passengers to their destinations much more quickly than cars can. And a new six-lane-wide Interstate highway project can end up costing nearly as much as a high speed rail line. You might be wondering why Europe, Japan and China have thousands of miles of high speed track in service while the United States currently has none. This has to do with different decisions and different priorities. The United States placed its bets on the Interstate Highway System and airports, partly because the U.S. is so much bigger than Europe and Japan. There is also the fact that Americans love cars and airplanes, and haven’t been nearly as keen on trains until recently. But a lot has changed in American thinking since the 9/11 attacks and gasoline price spikes. The time may finally be right for Americans to get on board with high speed rail. Directory: file -> view view -> Western Europe after wwii view -> Author study: paul fleischman view -> Qpa1 7ela study Guide view -> Arctic Oil/Gas Neg view -> November 1970 Approximately 150,000-500,000 deaths Bhola Cyclone Bangladesh view -> Grade Level: 6 Unit of Study: Caribbean glce view -> Citation: Duffield, Katy view -> Table of Contents Lesson # view -> Chinese Wind Energy Disad Download 0.59 Mb. Share with your friends:
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