Environment, Economy, and Efficiency Poster

Talgo can provide you with solutions for your need for state of the art high speed trains and for outstanding passenger equipment maintenance service.

View our Environment, Economy, and Efficiency Poster

What is Intercity Rail?

• Customary Definition:
  Intercity Rail,also know as Regional Service, is service between major metropolitan areas in a range of about 100 to 400 miles. It uses a family of passenger rail technologies ranging from conventional cars and locomotives on freight lines through tilting cars on upgraded track to highly advanced “bullet” trains on dedicated track on either existing or entirely new rights of way, designed primarily for intercity business and leisure travel.
• Practical Definition:
  A long neglected transportation mode that can greatly reduce congestion, dependency on foreign energy supplies, air pollution and highway fatalities by cost-effectively moving people on steel highways between metropolitan areas within a regional corridor.

What Intercity is not?

• Commuter Rail
  service between a city center and an outer city or suburb on the general railroad system most ofter used by people travelling between home and work every week day .
• Heavy Rail (subway) or...
  
• Light Rail (streetcar)
  isolated rail transportation systems.generally in and around metropolitan areas.
• Long Distance Rail
  rails passenger service on the "general systems" between regional corridors.

Why Intercity Rail?

Gridlock

a.  The average driver spends the equivalent of nearly one full work week each year stuck in traffic. Congestion costs Americans billions of dollars annually in wasted fuel and lost time. Today, the average distance cars and trucks are driven equals a journey more than a half way around the earth.

b.  In 1998, cars and light trucks were driven 2.4 trillion miles, or approximately 1/10^th of the distance to the nearest star outside the solar system.

Greater Efficiency

We’re in love with our cars. We swear by the freedom and mobility they give us in our daily lives. But these benefits come with a cost.

• Transportation accounts for 2/3 of all domestic oil consumption
• In 1994, Automobiles used 39% of all transportation energy
• Light trucks (mini-vans SUVs & pickups) used 20% of transportation energy
• Americans spend approximately $100k per minute to buy foreign oil for cars and trucks

Nobody wants to replace cars and highways. But we can lessen the energy burden while increasing capacity by providing a rail alternative in short- to medium-length high density corridors.

Environmental Benefit

Our new generation of trainsets, the Talgo 250 and Talgo 350 are electrically powered and thus can require no petroleum at all.

What does it take to move one person one mile?

• Rail is 17% more efficient than domestic airline travel
• Rail is 21% more efficient than automobile travel

All measures are in British Thermal Units of energy per passenger mile

• All data as of 2005; U.S. DoE, “Transportation Energy Data Book,” 26th Edition

Improved Intercity Mobility
Rail service can be:

• Faster than air travel on a door-to-door basis in a 100 to 400 mile corridor.
• More affordable, convenient and comfortable than air travel
• Virtually unaffected by weather
• More accessible to senior citizens, persons with disabilities and
• A lifeline for millions of Americans who do not drive or do not own cars.

Part of the Transportation Solution

All of the world’s industrialized nations have evolved and embraced balance between air, road and rail in their efforts to transport their citizens– For too long, the U.S. has relied upon only the first two of those modes. As gridlock spreads and costs mount, the benefits of revitalizing the third, rail, are becoming clear.

• Augments other travel modes
• Supports commuter and light rail
• Complements services to major airports

Economic Revival

• Produces new jobs and economic growth
• Creates temporary jobs during construction, permanent jobs thereafter
• Promotes downtown revitalization
• Promotes tourism and intra-regional transfer of goods
  
• Sales Gain: Businesses realized a gain in sales three times the investment capital in trainset (e.g. : a $10M investment results in $30M in sales)
• Pulls people, jobs and businesses back to energy efficient urban centers
• Counters suburban sprawl
• Encourages further economic development

  Overall impact: Creates savings to business operations and increases overall efficiency of the economy, positively affecting business sales and household incomes.

People Want it

• 68% of Americans agree with spending public funds to build or improve rail systems to reduce traffic congestion.
• 69% of Americans favor, and 41% strongly favor, creating high speed train service to serve their communities and provide connections between major population areas
• 87% of Americans believe the US Government currently possesses the resources to build high speed rail system; 66% believe traffic congestion will not be eased by building more roads

    source 200 U.S. Conference of Mayors

What if my agency does not have the money up front?

High speed rail is the solution to many transportation problems: It reduces congestion on roads and at airports, is cost effective and convenient, improves mobility and has environmental benefits. But the implementation of a high speed project requires significant up front investments that require sizeable multi-year budgetary commitments. Many public agencies do not have the ability to meet the financial requirements needed to undertake a brand new high speed corridor. At times, the political will is not sufficient to support the development of an entire new high speed project. In these cases, the alternative a plan that takes an incremental approach consisting of reaching partnership agreements with stakeholders to attain the ultimate goal of better and faster intercity rail service, while staging the implementation process according to the availability of funds and political circumstances.

This alternative approach is particularly applicable in the USA, where the passenger rail development was abandoned in the 50's, and where private companies have always owned the track and rights of way. The freight rail companies' business is to move goods not people and many times a passenger train is seen as a nuisance allowed only because the law forces them to do so. In an incremental approach, the owner of the track, the operator of the service, the agency promoting a rail connection, the manufacturer of the equipment and the maintainer of the roadway and equipment determine what investments and improvements are necessary to cut the journey time to one that makes the travel competitive with other modes of transportation. This end can be achieved in various ways: acquiring new trains, improving the track, or more frequently, a combination of both.

Talgo has been a key player in the successful implementation of a rail service in the USA using an incremental approach. In the 90's, Washington State,Amtrak, BNSF, the Federal Railroad Administration and Talgo jointly devoted their efforts, resources and expertise to turn an idea in reality. The ultimate goal is to connect Seattle to Portland and Seattle to Vancouver (BC) in 2:30 hours. In order to do so, the stakeholders have identified a number of improvements that include:

• Improvement of grade crossings
• Enhancement of train control
• Purchase of new equipment designed for high speeds but also able to run well on existing track due to tilting capability.
• Improvment of stations
• Upgrading and addition of track to relieve congestion, improve ride quality and corridor capicity and increase train speed.

Talgo Trains exceeded the requirements and the maintenance services on the equipment also provided by Talgo allowed unprecedented levels of availability and reliability, contributing to the success of the corridor under the incremental approach. Many other states and agencies are comming to believe that Talgo equipment is the most suitable for their plans.

Talgo working with Amtrak and WSDOT utilized an incremental approach to bring Talgo Trains and maintenance services to the Pacific Northwest. We can use a similar approach to help your agency obtain Talgo Trains and Talgo maintenance services.

• Passenger Transportation and Maintenance Solutions for your agency
• How can we help you provide intercity transportation by obtaining a Talgo Train?
• How can we help you obtain superior reliability and availability with your passenger rail maintenance?
• We can team together to find the right financing options via purchase or lease
• The time is right for passenger rail let's help people in North America to get to their destination safely, quickly, and economically!

Talgo's Role in the Spanish HS Development Leading Market Position in Spain

• Leading market position
    – 50% share in high-speed 55% in intercity railroad passenger equipment
    – Lead supplier to RENFE © (40% of contracts between 2001 and 2007)
    – Sole Spanish player focused on high value-added, high-speed trains
    – Strong valuable brand with high recognition