{"id":12465,"date":"2024-02-19T12:16:48","date_gmt":"2024-02-19T02:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=12465"},"modified":"2024-02-19T12:16:50","modified_gmt":"2024-02-19T02:16:50","slug":"recent-report-finds-most-extensive-high-speed-rail-network-works-with-a-fraction-of-the-usual-cost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=12465","title":{"rendered":"Recent report finds most extensive high-speed rail network works with a fraction of the usual cost"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A recent report published by Ineco<\/a>, an engineering consultancy, found that Spain has developed the most extensive high-speed rail network in the European Union and saved substantially more than other countries taking on similar projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report, commissioned by the Ministry of Transport, stated Spain\u2019s high-speed network had the lowest average construction cost in the eurozone. According to the report<\/a>, Spain cut costs by 61% compared with other high-speed railways in Europe, placing it third in the world with the lowest cost per kilometer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report also drew comparisons with the HS2 project<\/a> in the United Kingdom, where Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently canceled a key section of the railway because of rising costs, per Reuters. This angered many people and businesses in northern England who would have benefitted, as the rail was expected to reduce regional economic disparity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some critics took issue with the comparison of the Spanish high-speed rail project and the U.K.\u2019s HS2. They noted Spain\u2019s railway does not intersect many populated areas, while the HS2 would intersect central\u00a0England\u2019s densely<\/a>populated area. This would be a substantial obstacle, incurring more costs. Another point that factored into Spain\u2019s low cost of construction was that it has a much lower labor cost than the U.K., as reported by Electric and Hybrid Rail Technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, Spain\u2019s ability to control costs and do so productively and efficiently means the country can export the skills and experience required to budget high-speed rail projects, as RailTech.com noted<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the economic significance of this feat, the\u00a0environmental sustainability<\/a>\u00a0aspect cannot be overlooked. In the United States, transportation creates roughly 30% of the economy\u2019s planet-warming pollution, which is more than any other sector.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

High-speed rails can be utilized as both a tactic to combat carbon pollution and a tool that can efficiently stimulate the economies of urban cities. These railway systems would surround suburbs, shifting everyday drivers to trains and therefore mitigating planet-warming pollution since trains produce far less pollution<\/a> per passenger than cars do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further, it has been shown that\u00a0taking public transportation<\/a>\u00a0of any kind leads to a\u00a0decrease in depression<\/a>\u00a0and loneliness in adult populations.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thereon, new high-speed rails present opportunities for economic gain. More frequent and higher-quality transit can lead to an increase in ridership, bringing wealth to local economies and small businesses across the areas connected by railway. This may inevitably correlate to further public transit investment to sustain and expand railways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By using Spain\u2019s approach, other countries<\/a> can implement their own railways to be both more economical and more productive for a sustainable future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent report published by Ineco, an engineering consultancy, found that Spain has developed the most extensive high-speed rail network in the European Union and saved substantially more than other countries taking on similar projects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":11441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1089,49,51,47,85],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-12465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hs2","category-passenger","category-passenger-rail","category-rail-news","category-uk","tag-transport"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12465"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12466,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12465\/revisions\/12466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}