Re:Amtrak Goes Electric, Drops $466 Million on Siemens Elect...
by btmorex on Sunday October 31, 2010 @01:17AM
(#1852545)
The real problem is that the existing rail lines aren't straight enough for truly high speed rail. To build new ones, you would need broad public support (because you're going to be kicking people out of their homes with eminent domain).
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Re:Amtrak Goes Electric, Drops $466 Million on Siemens Elect...
by jnw2 on Sunday October 31, 2010 @01:51AM
(#1852582)
I see no reason you can't build tunnels 100-200 feet underneath people's homes to avoid kicking people out, but that has the problem that you need broad public support for spending that money. Then again, if we redirected 10% of our military spending to high speed rail, that would probably address the funding issues adequately.
The other thing is that greater superelevation would increase speeds possible through the existing curves. But as you increase superelevation, you potentially increase the minimum safe speed through that segment of track, and having 0 MPH be a safe speed is desireable. There may be some maglev derivative that could help with that problem. Rubber tires on concrete also have greater friction, which may allow them to tolerate a greater amount of unbalanced superelevation.