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[quote user="schlimm"] Paul M.  "You are not going to go a constant 220 MPH endpoint-to-endpoint.  You need time to accelerate and brake the train, you are going to have restricted speed in the urban areas.  As to the CO2 saving that are in excess of the CO2 output of a fuel-efficient modern car -- just simply made up." <a href="http://www.cnt.org/repository/HighSpeedRailEmissions.pdf">http://www.cnt.org/repository/HighSpeedRailEmissions.pdf</a> Maybe yes, and then again maybe not.[/quote] This is a 2006 study.  I read the executive summary.  Several things come to mind. A lot has changed since 2006.  Over the past 24 months the Administration announced new fuel efficiency standards for U.S. road passenger vehicles.  By 2025, if they are implemented, vehicles will be much cleaner than they are today. Over time this will have a significant impact on air pollution. Recently, Airbus and Boeing announce new airplanes (A320neo and 737MAX) that will be ready by 2016-2018 or thereabouts.  They will reduce jet airplane emissions by 40+ per cent.   These two events are likely to change the inputs used for the study.  Moreover, my observations of the Trinity Railway Express operations, plus an analysis of the route information furnished me by DART, suggest that the environmental advantages attainable by most transport modes are less than the laboratory results suggest. Studies citing the benefits of one mode of transport over another or vice versa are frequently based on lab assumptions that don't square with field operations.  Actual load factors vs. pro-forma load factors, for example, can have a dramatic impact on real world results.   On the TRE, for example, the average load factor is approximately 33 per cent, ranging from a high of nearly 85 per cent during rush hours to less than 10 per cent for early morning and late evening operations.  The rush hour trains may be fuel efficient, i.e. burn per seat mile.  But the off peak operations don't appear to deliver the same benefits.  Moreover, each TRE run includes a 25 minute layover in Dallas and a 25 minute layover in Fort Worth.  During these layovers, the engines (Tier 1) continue to pump out pollutants.  I wonder if these operating conditions are factored into the studies?
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