I just read in a Digg article that high speed rail might be on the ballot in CA this November. Super sweet. Possible routes can be found here. It's about effin' time the US got a better rail system. We're years behind the rest of the world thanks to the influence of auto makers. There should be high speed rail links from Vancouver, BC to Seattle to Portland to SF to LA to SD on the West Coast and certainly along the NE corridor (Boston to Virginia?). It would be pretty cool to go from SF to LA in less than three hours or SF to Portland in less than six especially if they price it competitive to flying.
Rail travel is the most efficient form of moving people and new trains can be pretty easy on the environment in terms of pollution, but I'm not sure I want to be on a train going 200 mph if there is a chance it might hit a deer or something.
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High speed rail was launched in Taiwan more than a year ago. Traveling at the speed of 186mph, it takes only 80 minutes (non-stop) to go from Taipei to southern Taiwan. That is quite amazing to me. The price ranges from $22-$44, depending on weekday/weekend, designated seat or not. That sounds pretty cheap. I think it's cheaper than gas, let alone time saved.
The new homes built along high speed rail have gone up, as predicted...
In late April, a first-generation German ICE traveling at 125mph hit a flock of sheep that had wandered into a tunnel near Fulda. It derailed and came to a full stop half a mile later. Furtunately, the tunnel walls prevented cars from toppling over, otherwise there might well have been casualties. As it is, only three people were injured.
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL27139780
The incident shows that high speed rail can suffer livestock-related accidents. They are extremely rare mostly because animals have an innate sense of self-preservation and shy away from busy rail lines. Herd animals normally don't enter long, dark tunnels by themselves, either. In addition, high speed rail lines are generally bordered by steep embankments and/or sturdy fences.
There have been other types of accidents involving high speed trains, but they have been few and far between.
http://www.railfaneurope.net/tgv/wrecks.html
For additional protection, French TGVs are one of several types of high speed train that are based on an articulated frame. The wheelsets are located not underneath each car separately, but in-between them. They also support a connecting frame that limits the angle the cars can make against one another, in effect creating a stiff trainset. In the event of a derailment, cars are very unlikely to jackknife or topple over. By contrast, the ICE train that crashed into the flock of sheep was not articulated.
After 25 years of operation, SNCF has not suffered a single accident-related fatality on its TGV network. A little luck never hurts, but if you pick the right trainset technology and back it up with other safety measures, high speed rail is just about the safest form of transportation available.
Union Pacific recently highlighted the possibility that one of freight trains might seriously derail and foul an adjacent HSR line - possibly setting the scene for a horrendous accident. To some extent, their concern was overstated because dedicated HSR track - exactly what is being proposed for California - features surveillance by a network of video cameras as well as a network of earthquake sensors where appropriate.
Potential hazards identified by human operators or computer software at HQ are immediately communicated to the engineers of affected trains via in-cab signaling. Worst case, operators can exercise positive train control, i.e. initiate an emergency brake maneuver from HQ. All this sophistication is necessary because a train running at 186mph requires 2 miles to come to a full stop, a distance it otherwise covers in just under 40 seconds.
The German ICE was running on legacy track at the time of its accident.
Yeah, I was joking about the deer. I think most animals are smart enough to stay away from high speed rail. However, I wonder how easy it would be to keep people out. It seems like an inviting target for terrorists, but the setup you describe where the train cannot jack-knife should keep people pretty safe.
I also forgot to mention that it's fun to ride the train. You get to move fast, but you can see more than in an airplane and you can move around more easily.
Union Pacific has pretty much killed the passenger service on the West Coast. The law says that freight trains are required to yield to passenger trains, but apparently that never happens.
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