Custom «Innovation of Transportation» Essay Paper Sample

A planned high-speed train should connect two economically important cities in Texas – Dallas and Houston. With the ability to reach a speed of 300 miles per hour or even more, such trains are the possible solution of the transportation problem all over the world. However, to ensure that trains are safe, comfortable, fast, and quiet, they should be produced in Japan. These particular bullet trains are not the quickest in the world. They develop the speed of only 200 mph when Chinese trains can go up to the 270 mph. One may wonder why the Japanese ones are preferable. This can be explained by their safety, the ability to arrive on time, low emission and propose comfort. In relation to the above mentioned, speed does not matter most of all.

Japanese bullet trains are also known as shinkansen, which literary means “new trunk lines.” Since their introduction, they became very popular, serving over 150 million people per year in Japan. Trains should be as aerodynamic as possible in order to move quickly and comfortably. Virtually, streamlined body with tapered nose resembling the airplane helps to achieve this effect. Moreover, such tracks do not have any curves on the rails that allow to go full throttle.

The development of engineering, the search of investments and building planning take much time. Texas Central Railway Proposition to connect two cities is going through approval process now, which is expected to finish next year. In such case, the construction can start in 2017. Then train service is likely to begin four years later; in 2021. In DFW, the Regional Transportation Council, the officials attempt to find explanations to opponents why this project is necessary. The council decided to use $4, 5 million from toll roads. They researches in this sphere were conducted, and the project is expected to cost 4,5 billion. A company known as Texas Central Partners suggested to build the 240-mile Houston-Dallas line, which would cost $10 billion, without public funding. They already donated $75 million initial investment. The investors are Fort Worth fund manager John Kleinheinz, Dallas developer Jack Matthews and Houston entrepreneur Drayton McLane Jr (Dickson, 2015). The officials state that their business relies on fares, but not on earning money from parking or concessions. Texas Central CEO Tim Keith believes that this multi-billion private investment will be more than appropriate for the state, as it will influence the next few generations. Tax revenue could allow to provide schools with more teachers, build new roads, as well as to hire more police and firefighters (Wray & Nicholson, 2015). It is necessary to mention, that by 2043 the population on this territory is going to double. Thus, it is sensible to make movements inside of the state easier and provide people with full-time jobs.

To ensure that this project profitable and successful, the prices on tickets should be appropriate. Baruch Feigenbaum, a Reason Foundation analyst who supports Texas Central, expects that the company will charge between $50 and $60 per ticket. Thus, the price will be lower in 2-3 times than the cheapest airline tickets. It will make possible to travel between Dallas and Houston at a fare comparable price. The company will own and develop the territory around their stations (Lufkin, 2015). Moreover, the price will be based on the day, time, and the type of the ticket, which will make them competitive with airfare and driving expenses.

The above mentioned will be the first dedicated high-speed rail in the United States. There is only one similar in the Northeast, which goes with the speed of 150 mph, but that line is not considered a high-speed passenger (Wray & Nicholson, 2015). The Houston-Dallas train will have the same technology as shinkansen bullet trains in Japan. That is why Texas Central Railway (TCR) works with Central Railway Japan, which operates bullet railway trains in Japan. CRJ will be an adviser to US Project, helping to organize it wisely and efficiently. Starting in 2021, Texas Central hopes to have travel traversing 68 times per day, so the bullet will go every hour and even every half an hour at peak times (Marcin, 2015).

What is more, TCR has studied several options. They found Dallas-Houston corridor to be a potential market. The cities would need to connect this line with a transit line to make it workable and to provide the opportunity to transport the existing Centerpoint Energy and Oncor Electrical Delivery (Dickson, 2015). It will ease the transmission in 70 percent and enable to deliver freight by the straight route without the necessity to do it by curve roads. In such case, the speed will grow from 50-60 mph to almost 220 mph.

Travelling by car on this distance takes 210 minutes, by plane – 65 minutes, by bullet train – 90 minutes. The flight is obviously shorter, but shinkansens have several advantages. The trains are likely to have a less complicated security system thus giving the travelers the possibility to connect to Wi-Fi, networks, as well as to make phone calls the whole way. There will not be any Transportation Security as in the airport; nobody will have to fetch somebody from the airport in order to reach the center of the city; and there will not be a need to care about catching a cab or a bus (Sakelaris, 2015).

As regards safety, probably the best explanation is an absence of accidents that is passenger deaths or injuries in 50^th year’s history. The shinkansens safety records may confuse, taking to consideration Japan with all its typhoons, heavy snow, landslides, and the biggest threat, earthquakes. On March 11, Japan had 9.0 the fourth strongest quake in human’s history and the worst in Japan. At this time, 27 bullet trains were driving around the country and all of them arrived safely, without injuries or fatalities. Different measuring instruments can fix temblors deep into the ground. Before they become intensive, the train electricity supply is cut and automatically employs the emergency brakes.