A Berkeley designer's concept for a national high-speed rail system is earning national attention this week.
Alfred Twu posted a map online Sunday showing high-speed rail lines connecting San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Miami and Dallas. The map is receiving news coverage in some of the cities it lists, including Austin, Texas and Denver, Colo.
Twu talked about his motivation for creating the map in a post Wednesday for The Guardian. He wrote that his map is "a composite of several proposed maps from 2009, when government agencies and advocacy groups were talking big about rebuilding America's train system."
"Given how much my map got people talking and dreaming, I am more convinced than ever that there is public support and demand for a true high speed rail network," he wrote.
There certainly might be some demand for high-speed rail in the Bay Area, which has the second-worst traffic in the country, according to a recent study. Twu's map shows a system that could take passengers from San Francisco to Las Vegas in about five hours. A trip from San Francisco to New York City would take about 20 hours.
