Re:Will we ever fly supersonically over land?
by LargoLasskhyfv on Sunday July 04, 2021 @05:01PM
(#27732583)
Do it as subways in a way like the new lines in Barcelona did.
edit: By that I mean something like illustrated here https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%ADnia_9_del_metro_de_Barc...
Make them 15 to 16 meters in diameter to be usable by any train, or use 2 of them side by side. Problem mostly solved.
Re:Will we ever fly supersonically over land?
by inglor_cz on Monday July 05, 2021 @02:54AM
(#27735274)
It can be done, but geology under Prague is terrible. A lot of broken layers with lots of sediments and water.
Our subway system was rather expensive to build and maintain, doing this with trains would probably be too expensive even for a fairly rich city like Prague.
There are some rudimentary plans for railway tunnels under the very center of the city, but the expected cost is eye-watering.
Re:Will we ever fly supersonically over land?
by LargoLasskhyfv on Monday July 05, 2021 @05:32AM
(#27736056)
Tap into the limitless cornucopia of the EU. For protecting the historic scenery, cultural heritage, being good for the environment, enabling shorter travel times, supporting tourism, intercultural exchange...
We're in a phase of low interest rates, resulting in easy money politics. Burn some billions before others do ;->
About a quarter of all railway passengers in Czechia take the suburban trains around Prague.
We sorely need extra sets of tracks from all directions, because the current tracks are overloaded. Especially the faster trains from other regions do not mix well with the regional trains that stop every 2 km or so.
But it is almost impossible to build those extra sets of tracks in a densely populated major city like Prague. Lots of NIMBYs, the needed land would be very expensive, many buildings would have to be torn down, plus the centre is a protected zone (historical buildings) and the protecting authorities fight tooth and nail against anything that changes the look and feel of the inner city.
As a result, we are stuck with old infrastructure even if new one is sorely needed. There might be a way, namely, to build all the new tracks underground - but that would be very, very expensive.