Which comes first: a great transit system or a great city that can support it? What role does high-speed rail play in an overall, effective transportation system? And is an incremental approach really possible with high-speed transit?
These are important questions with potentially complex answers. For insight we turned to Rick Harnish. He’s executive director of the High Speed Rail Alliance, the nation’s largest high-speed rail advocacy organization. The organization’s goal is to make high-speed trains “fast, frequent, and affordable.” Harnish cofounded the Alliance in 1993 (he’s also a Strong Towns member), and we’re pleased to welcome him as our guest this week on the Strong Towns Podcast.
In this episode, Harnish and Strong Towns president Chuck Marohn talk about how much of the transit that gets built is based on what places need versus what they can get funding for. They discuss the problem of thinking about transit as a “charitable overlay” to an auto-oriented system, and whether we can afford to fund high-speed transit while also funding new car infrastructure. They also talk about what the U.S and Canada should—and shouldn’t—learn about high-speed rail from countries like France, Japan, and China.
Additional Show NotesHigh Speed Rail Alliance
High Speed Rail Alliance (Twitter)
Charles Marohn (Twitter)
Confessions of an Engineer
Check out more Strong Towns content on public transit in the Action Lab
Ask Strong Towns: Celebrity Edition with Community-Conscious Developer Derek Avery
Why does Strong Towns put *so* much emphasis on its members—and why is that so unusual in the nonprofit world?
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Steve Nygren of Serenbe: "I Wanted to Build a Town, Not a Development"
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Memphis’s U-Turn: Interview with Doug McGowen
Ask Strong Towns #8: April 2019
What to Expect From Strong Towns: the Book
Greatest Hits #11: Economic Gardening With Chris Gibbons (2013)
Strongest Town Contest: Championship Round
Strongest Town Semifinals: Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Strongest Town Semifinals: Guthrie, Oklahoma
Strongest Town Semifinals: Pensacola, Florida
Strongest Town Semifinals: Safety Harbor, Florida
Greatest Hits #10: John Dominic Crossan (2013)
Greatest Hits #9: Can You Be an Engineer and Speak Out for Reform? (2015)
Greatest Hits #8: Gross Negligence (2015)
Greatest Hits #7: Talking Debt and Self-Sufficiency With Mr. Money Mustache (2016)
Ask Strong Towns #7
Greatest Hits #6: Time to End the Routine Traffic Stop (2016)
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