4 ms·

Unless someone figures out how to bulldoze the Rocky mountain range, high speed rail as a replacement for coast to coast air travel is a non starter.

rm_-rf_slash 10y ago
The real transit corridors are Boston-Atlanta and New York-Chicago, as well as Seattle-San Diego on the west coast. Coast to coast would be nice but even just those would be an enormous boost to our transport infrastructure and potentially a huge emissions cut (depending on where the power comes from).
- Gibbon1 10y ago
  The high speed part of the California high speed rail is mostly to relieve congestion at the coastal airports. Idea being that passengers flying between the Bay Area and LA/San Diego will instead take the train. Hardest part of that is it'll require a number of tunnels, one 14 miles long, through the mountains into the LA Basin.
ojbyrne 10y ago
I'm curious about why you think the Rocky Mountains would preclude this (as opposed to the distance, where ~ 500 mph via air vs. ~250 mph by train seems like a larger obstacle). Tunnels, and picking a relatively flat route seems to alleviate any concerns about the Rockies. A route roughly following the I-80 corridor would top out somewhere below 9000 ft[1]. The California high speed rail is already being designed for what I would guess are similar elevations (and perhaps steeper grades)[2]. You could also route through southern Arizona and New Mexico, completely avoiding significant mountains. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_80#Wyoming https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_80#Wyoming 2. http://articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/12/local/la-me-bullet-mountains-20121113 http://articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/12/local/la-me-bullet-m...
jcranmer 10y ago
Actually, it's when someone can figure out how to make meal service on trains profitable. Most Amtrak routes without meal service makes operating profits, and only one or two routes with meal service might make an operating profit. Given current train speeds, that comes out to around 500-700 miles being the upper limit of viable HSR. This is roughly the distance between Chicago and DC and also roughly the distance of the largest axis of most European countries.

rm_-rf_slash 10y ago

The real transit corridors are Boston-Atlanta and New York-Chicago, as well as Seattle-San Diego on the west coast. Coast to coast would be nice but even just those would be an enormous boost to our transport infrastructure and potentially a huge emissions cut (depending on where the power comes from).

Gibbon1 10y ago
The high speed part of the California high speed rail is mostly to relieve congestion at the coastal airports. Idea being that passengers flying between the Bay Area and LA/San Diego will instead take the train. Hardest part of that is it'll require a number of tunnels, one 14 miles long, through the mountains into the LA Basin.

ojbyrne 10y ago

I'm curious about why you think the Rocky Mountains would preclude this (as opposed to the distance, where ~ 500 mph via air vs. ~250 mph by train seems like a larger obstacle). Tunnels, and picking a relatively flat route seems to alleviate any concerns about the Rockies. A route roughly following the I-80 corridor would top out somewhere below 9000 ft[1]. The California high speed rail is already being designed for what I would guess are similar elevations (and perhaps steeper grades)[2]. You could also route through southern Arizona and New Mexico, completely avoiding significant mountains. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_80#Wyoming https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_80#Wyoming 2. http://articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/12/local/la-me-bullet-mountains-20121113 http://articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/12/local/la-me-bullet-m...

jcranmer 10y ago

Actually, it's when someone can figure out how to make meal service on trains profitable. Most Amtrak routes without meal service makes operating profits, and only one or two routes with meal service might make an operating profit. Given current train speeds, that comes out to around 500-700 miles being the upper limit of viable HSR. This is roughly the distance between Chicago and DC and also roughly the distance of the largest axis of most European countries.