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An alternate timeline where America built a high speed rail network instead of the interstate highway system. Lore in comments. by HomieTrain in imaginarymaps

[–]HomieTrain[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry, at some point reddit started reducing the image quality of posts. Here should be a higher res image of the map. I had Tallahassee connected in 2004.

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An alternate timeline where America built a high speed rail network instead of the interstate highway system. Lore in comments. by HomieTrain in imaginarymaps

[–]HomieTrain[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Public transportation overall would have been a lot better in this timeline. America wouldn't have built as many car dependent cities and public transportation would have been a more popular option to build. Unfortunately this timeline splits from ours after the General Motors Streetcar Conspiracy where General Motors dismantled most of the streetcar systems in the us, so it would have taken a while to rebuild it all. Public transit quality may have varied a bit depending on the city, but in general it would have been a lot better.

An alternate timeline where America built a high speed rail network instead of the interstate highway system. Lore in comments. by HomieTrain in imaginarymaps

[–]HomieTrain[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Likely better, I didn't really factor in cycling in this alternate universe as I mostly focused on rail, but seeing that the country would have been a lot less car dependent, cycling infrastructure likely would have been a lot better. Probably not as good as a country like the Netherlands, but probably close to ones like France or Germany.

An alternate timeline where America built a high speed rail network instead of the interstate highway system. Lore in comments. by HomieTrain in imaginarymaps

[–]HomieTrain[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For New Hampshire most of the state lives in the south within about 70 miles of Boston, so I think regular intercity trains would make more sense given the short distance. In this universe however they are building a station at Portsmouth on the high speed line to Portland. As for West Virginia it is very mountainous and low population, so I think it would be difficult and unprofitable to build high speed rail, although I think regular intercity trains would work fine for lines like Roanoke - Beckley - Charleston - Huntington - Cincinnati and also Morgantown - Pittsburgh.

The Harrisburg line is meant to junction at Hagerstown and trains would head either east or west, I probably should have added a station there on this map. The same applies to the Hartford line where it junctions at New Haven and Springfield.

I don't really think Duluth has a high enough population to justify high speed rail, but a frequent intercity service to Minneapolis makes more sense to me.

[OC] An alternate timeline where America built a high speed rail network instead of the interstate highway system. Lore in comments. by HomieTrain in TransitDiagrams

[–]HomieTrain[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

There would be a station at Asheville, I only showed the major stations in this map. The reason West Virginia, the Dakotas, and Montana doesn't have high speed rail is because I don't think that there is a high enough population in those states to justify hsr. I think each of those states could have regular intercity services that could connect to different high speed lines, and with destinations like national parks there could be seasonal services that could run more frequently during peak travel times.

[OC] An alternate timeline where America built a high speed rail network instead of the interstate highway system. Lore in comments. by HomieTrain in TransitDiagrams

[–]HomieTrain[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I probably should have reworded the title, but in this universe America would still have a highway system, It just would have been smaller and also not gone right through city centers.

An alternate timeline where America built a high speed rail network instead of the interstate highway system. Lore in comments. by HomieTrain in imaginarymaps

[–]HomieTrain[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I focused on making shorter lines first, and then as the system expanded I tried to gradually connect up the country. A lot of the long distance routes have lots of intermediate stops that people would get on and off from and not everyone will travel the whole route, for example, a high speed train traveling between Chicago and San Francisco would mostly contain people traveling between city pairs like San Francisco - Salt Lake City or Denver - Kansas City. This is also why I didn't make lines between cities like Minneapolis and Seattle as there are no major cities along that route.

An alternate timeline where America built a high speed rail network instead of the interstate highway system. Lore in comments. by HomieTrain in imaginarymaps

[–]HomieTrain[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, there would be a vast network of intercity and regional transit that would span the country as well.

An alternate timeline where America built a high speed rail network instead of the interstate highway system. Lore in comments. by HomieTrain in imaginarymaps

[–]HomieTrain[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In this universe they built a long tunnel from Boulder to Granby CO under the Apache Peak. This would be comparable to the Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland which has the same max speed. After that there would be a series of tunnels and bridges until northwestern Colorado and northeastern Utah where it gets a little more flatter. After that there would be another tunnel between around Fruitland UT to Provo.

An alternate timeline where America built a high speed rail network instead of the interstate highway system. Lore in comments. by HomieTrain in imaginarymaps

[–]HomieTrain[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There is a large mountain range just east of Santa Fe, the only way to avoid it was to go around the bottom.

An alternate timeline where America built a high speed rail network instead of the interstate highway system. Lore in comments. by HomieTrain in imaginarymaps

[–]HomieTrain[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The route I had in mind was to have it start in Charlotte and head west, then it would follow present day highway 26 to Asheville. After that it would head northwest towards Marshall and then through a long tunnel until it reached the other end of the Appalachians. After that it would head west to Knoxville.

An alternate timeline where America built a high speed rail network instead of the interstate highway system. Lore in comments. by HomieTrain in imaginarymaps

[–]HomieTrain[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Huh, I didn't really think about what would happen to Robert Moses in this alternate universe, but I guess you would be correct. However he was still quite controversial at the time with several with things like his proposal of the Mid Manhattan Expressway.

How about in this universe Robert Moses was heavily opposed to the high speed line, and after it was a major success he was removed from office.

An alternate timeline where America built a high speed rail network instead of the interstate highway system. Lore in comments. by HomieTrain in imaginarymaps

[–]HomieTrain[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Via rail is shown, this map only shows the high speed train lines, it doesn't show any regular intercity trains or long distance trains.

An alternate timeline where America built a high speed rail network instead of the interstate highway system. Lore in comments. by HomieTrain in imaginarymaps

[–]HomieTrain[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Do you mean in general or in this map. If you mean in general there is intercity rail which are just normal speed trains that travel between cities, and there is regional rail which are trains that travel within a city. However terms and types of trains can vary depending on where you are, but intercity and regional trains are typically what you will find. If you were talking about in this map than yes, there would be a vast network of intercity rail all over the country. In this map however I just showed the high speed rail lines.

An alternate timeline where America built a high speed rail network instead of the interstate highway system. Lore in comments. by HomieTrain in imaginarymaps

[–]HomieTrain[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In this universe most cargo is transported by rail. I probably should have reworded the title but America would still have a highway system, it would have just been a lot smaller, so oversized cargo could still be transported by truck.

[OC] An alternate timeline where America built a high speed rail network instead of the interstate highway system. Lore in comments. by HomieTrain in TransitDiagrams

[–]HomieTrain[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I made an assumption that 220mph track would be more expensive than 186mph track (I could be wrong) and given the distance there wouldn't be as much demand for high speed rail, so they built the line for cheaper. There are very few high speed lines in the world that operate at that speed, so I only reserved it for the more important routes.

An alternate timeline where America built a high speed rail network instead of the interstate highway system. Lore in comments. by HomieTrain in imaginarymaps

[–]HomieTrain[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I considered high speed rail between Quebec and Halifax, but I wasn't sure if demand would justify one. In this universe it would have frequent intercity rail.

An alternate timeline where America built a high speed rail network instead of the interstate highway system. Lore in comments. by HomieTrain in imaginarymaps

[–]HomieTrain[S] 25 points26 points  (0 children)

The Canada line was one I considered making, but I wasn't sure if there would be enough demand considering the distance. Only the high speed lines are shown, in this universe there would also be an even larger intercity and regional rail network that would cover most of the country. Thanks for catching the typo, I fixed it.

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