The transcontinental railroad was a pretty impressive feat for its day.
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Agreed. I suppose I was just being more bent on the idea of high speed transport. If you go back far enough, we were a leader in rail technology.
Itās sort of a different deal now with mag-lev, which to my knowledge we have not done in any real way here. Throw one in between Boston and NYC even, and we could say we are doing something. Bay Area to LA would be wonderful, but would cost a heck of a lot more.
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Very true. But if I can shill for just a moment, thereās an excellent bus system called the Bolt busses that go from Seattle to Portland (a few hundred miles, Iām on a phone and canāt be arsed to measure it properly) nonstop with free wifi and alloing tethered pets, and it only costs $5-$15 depending on day of the week and such.
Bolt also has a Seattle-Spokane route, which is something like 300 miles, (honestly, the best I can remember is Edmonds to Courādlane which is closer to 400 miles.)
This kind of a general problem with high speed trains. The tickets end up costing about the same as an airplane ticket between the destinations. The train station is less hassle and the seats are generally a bit better, but the airplane is faster and usually has better infrastructure around the airport (car rental, hotels, etcā¦). Itās a trade off. Iāve gotten excited about high speed rail projects in a couple of places only to have my excitement deflated when someone tells me what the tickets are going to cost.
Clearly what we need are Maglev busses.
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LAWLZ.
Maybe we should build out the bus systems till the only obvious upgrade is maglev trains
No reason? Have you never heard of the Republican Party? Observe their reaction to any topic involving trains.
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Maglev buses?
To Arnold Schwarzenegger and Pete Wilsonās credit, either could have killed off Californiaās ongoing HSR project during their terms as governor but didnāt. I suspect if either of them are still around when the project is finally finished theyāll be lining up right next to the Democrats to share the accolades.
Meanwhile, the speed record for plain steel wheels on steel track is still 574.8 km/h (357.2 mph). And that is not on a ātest trackā. (Sure, it was reached using a specially tweaked train set, and carefully tuned overhead wiring, increased voltage etc; it is not reachable by the same trains in their daily running.)
Maglev will always be more expensive and much less flexible than existing, proven, high-speed train technology. Iād even go so far to say that promoting maglev is actually against the best interest of somebody wanting high-speed trains, as maglev requires a completely new infrastructure and right-of-way. Normal high-speed trains can run on existing track, so the service can be built piecemeal.
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The extra distance makes it make MORE sense not less.
Iāve taken a gander at the proposed trans-usa high speed rail plans in the past that can also carry cargo and cars, and they seemed like a great idea. problem is who would build it, the corporations have broken the governments ability to do anything anymore, and they will only take on projects at huge profit margins making the project unfeasible, leaving no one who could possible create such a thing.
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More or less than the Iraq war?
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This is the difference between the US and places like Japan and South Korea. The governance in those countries seems to lend itself to longer term projects. I have worked at Incheon airport, which is built on a brand new island, 10km by 5 km. But to accomplish projects like that you need to think beyond the life time of your own Government.
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Mostly because they need to let the slower non-express trains run on the same lines. No point in having express trains if they canāt get up to speed due to existing trains on the track stopping in Philadelphia, et. al.
Amtrak is the worst and would totally just screw anything nice up.
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In addition to sharing tracks with other trains (which high speed trains in other countries donāt do) the Acela also has speed restrictions because for much of its route itās using infrastructure built over a century ago. Bridges built in 1910 and tunnels built in 1873 arenāt designed to withstand rail traffic going 150 mph. Significant sections of track are owned by other operators, who often give priority to their own trains, though thatās a bigger problem north of NYC.
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Proposals like Supertrain?
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A Mr Stephenson, who says heās from north-east England, says he wants a word 
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I thought this too until I traveled to Japan last month. A real high speed rail system is totally unlike air travel. With high volume, costs come down.
The infrastructure you describe isnāt inherent to aviation, itās what happens to be there now. With high speed rail, you arrive downtown in your destination and disembark in a station that also serves as a hub for regional and local train and light rail service.
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You donāt happen to have a subscribe button to a newsletter, do you?
