Obama aiming to improve train travel...High Speed Trains etc.

[calvino]

It was big budget disaster - may have been cancelled halfway through the premiere.

 

 

Are you implying something here?

[bjorn_skurj]

It is nice living 15 minutes from the northernmost outpost of the MTA's vast system - about a two-hour trip from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central. Cars will have to become vastly less cost-effective than they are now to really see an appreciable expansion of mass transit in this country.

[sureshot]

This is a bending of the definition of "high speed rail", which is typically understood to be 200 mph+, and dedicated, totally grade separated trackage. If you're picturing Japanese bullet trains in your head, forget it. This is nothing like that.

 

The speeds we are looking at under this proposal are 100mph. Essentially the same speeds we already had in the 1930's with the Zephyr. And in most urban areas, the speeds will still be less than that (go ahead, I challenge you to take a train through the Chicago yards at 100mph..and see if the equipment and tracks can handle it).

 

Its undoubtedly good to see the attention on this subject. However, nothing will be solved until passenger trains have dedicated trackage...they'll still be held up by freight and have their schedules dictated by the actual owners of the tracks, the freight train operators.

[calvino]

This is a bending of the definition of "high speed rail", which is typically understood to be 200 mph+, and dedicated, totally grade separated trackage..

 

The speeds we are looking at under this proposal are 100mph. Essentially the same speeds we already had in the 1930's with the Zephyr. And in most urban areas, the speeds will still be less than that (go ahead, I challenge you to take a train through the Chicago yards at 100mph..and see if the equipment and tracks can handle it).

 

Its undoubtedly good to see the attention on this subject. However, nothing will be solved until passenger trains have dedicated trackage...they'll still be held up by freight and have their schedules dictated by the actual owners of the tracks, the freight train operators.

 

I am assuming the building/laying of these dedicated tracks are part of the package. At least in Illinois, I believe the new track will run along I55 corridor.

[sureshot]

I am assuming the building/laying of these dedicated tracks are part of the package. At least in Illinois, I believe the new track will run along I55 corridor.

 

l doubt it. Grade seperation would require WAY more money than whats being talked about here. $8 billion is table scraps when you're talking about this kind of thing.

 

http://www.standard.net/live/news/168348

 

The only rail service that qualifies under America's lower high-speed standard is Amtrak's 9-year-old Acela Express route connecting Boston to Washington, D.C.

 

The trains are built to reach speeds up to 150 mph, but only average about 80 mph because of curving tracks and slower-moving freight and passenger trains that share the route. On the densely traveled line from New York City to the nation's capital, the Acela arrives just about 20 minutes earlier than standard service, at more than twice the cost during peak travel times.

 

For instance, a one-way Acela fare leaving New York at 11 a.m. is $155. The same departure on a regular train costs $72.

[Sir Stewart]

Are you implying something here?

 

Y'know, as I was typing that answer, I was wondering if it could be taken the wrong way. I was just going by my train of thought.

[PigSooie]