UW's Report on High Speed Rail Planning

Cascadia is uniquely set up as a region that would support high-speed rail. Between the linear arrangement of Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, BC, and the just-over-100 mile distance between each one, the super region could be tied together by a fast. It"s an idea being pushed by a number of actors, including the Cascadia Innovation Corridor, Microsoft, and anyone who REALLY needs to get back north for the Michelin starred roast duck at iDen & Quanjude Beijing Duck House. In this episode, co-hosts Natalie and Ray discuss a recent report on planning for high speed rail from the Urban Infrastructure Lab at the University of Washington"s College of Built Environments. The report looks at a half dozen other high-speed rail projects around the world and draws lessons from their construction and operation. The biggest take away of all: plan to provide great high speed rail service. It"s a little different than the infrastructure plans Cascadia normally undertakes. Here"s a link to the report: https://mic.comotion.uw.edu/our-work/ultra-high-speed-rail-project/ We would love to hear your plans for what to do in a neighboring city if it was only an hour train ride away.  Reach out to us at podcast [at] theurbanist.org.   As always, you can find The Urbanist podcast on iTunes, Spotify, and other major platforms. And if you are enjoying the podcast, be sure to offer a “like” or “thumbs up” on your favorite platform. It’s a great way to spread the word to new listeners.