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A comment on Two-Thirds of Americans Would Utilize High-Speed Rail If It Was Available. Parent comment

Re:Two-Thirds of Americans Would Utilize High-Speed Rail If ... by sandworm101 on Sunday May 08, 2016 @05:20PM (#11655903)
The runway is one-dimensional, but aircraft still move in 3d. That means planes can be closer (in time) behind each other. Trains must leave room enough to stop. Planes can escape by diverting higher/lower/left/right. So planes stacked up on approach to a runway can safely be far closer together than trains on approach to a station.

Non-stopping trains are interesting, but such a solution would require the multiple parallel lines I mentioned above. And even the non-stopping trains would need some amount of space between them for emergency stopping and speed changes.

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Re:Two-Thirds of Americans Would Utilize High-Speed Rail If ... by takno on Sunday May 08, 2016 @06:02PM (#11656169)
Given that it's incredibly important that the planes don't under any circumstances stop they have their own limiting factors. high speed trains using short or ideally variable block signalling and running on segregated high speed lines can achieve spacing which is pretty comparable to airplanes coming in to land.
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