Monday’s Business Headlines

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) –High speed rail is starting to get momentum in the United States, even after California’s Governor scaled back that state’s plan. 

Jane king is at the NASDAQ with more on how high speed rail could be just around the corner. 

Japan has the Shinkasen. France has the TGV, Spain has Ave. and Cchina has more high-speed rail than the rest of the world combined. 

The U.S. has the Acela Express, an Amtrak train that stops in 16 places from Washington D.C. to Boston. 

It has a top speed of 150 miles an hour while the Shanghai Maglev train reaches 268 miles per hour. 

But, things are changing, high-speed rail is coming to other parts of the country. 

California is working on a high speed train that would link Sacramento and San Francisco to Los Angeles and a few points in between.

The project is behind schedule and over budget but California intends for the entire system to run on 100% renewable energy to power the trains. Since traveling on these trains would mean fewer cars on the road and fewer passengers on airplanes, the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions should be sizeable. 

Florida has the only private passenger train company in the United States: Brightline. 

It connects Miami to West Palm Beach with plans to extend to Orlando and Tampa. 

Brightline’s owners hope to go to the stock market to raise the money it needs to expand. 

The Texas Central Railway is another private venture, this time aiming to connect Dallas and Houston in under 90 minutes. Driving that same route takes around 3.5 hours. 

While trains are expensive and enormous projects, they do have some benefits. 

They are mostly electric so they don’t use fossil fuels. 

Trains also free up people to do work, rest, and accomplish other things since they are not driving and of course, there are jobs created during construction and after. 

from the NASDAQ i’m Jane King….. with your Presidents Day business report.