4 ms·

The car strength requirements only apply to mainline rail, not rapid transit like BART which runs on dedicated rails. And even on mainline rail, the FRA now acc

by gok 3y ago

The car strength requirements only apply to mainline rail, not rapid transit like BART which runs on dedicated rails. And even on mainline rail, the FRA now accepts Europeans rolling stock as of a few years ago.

bobthepanda 3y ago
That being said, change is slow, and very few agencies have taken advantage of the new rules
jajko 3y ago
If US doesn't accept say Swiss products/designs then there is some serious flaw in that process (probably stemming from protectionism/corruption)
- gok 3y ago
  Swiss trains from Stadler are in fact selling rather well in the US recently (Caltrain, e-BART, New Jersey Transit, Austin, Dallas, and most recently Metra in Chicago)
  - ac29 3y ago
    That Metra project looks interesting, they are buying battery powered trainsets: https://metra.com/newsroom/metra-buying-battery-powered-trainsets https://metra.com/newsroom/metra-buying-battery-powered-trai... 45-65 miles range, and 20-30 minutes to charge 20->80%. Better than I would have expected, and certainly could work well on shorter routes where full electrification is impractical. Sounds like it will be built in the US as well.
- dibujaron 3y ago
  There's more to it than that. Our freight trains are much larger, heavier, and longer than swiss/European freight trains. It's not unreasonable to think that a passenger train sharing track space with North American freight trains would need to be more heavily built, if withstanding a collision is a goal.
  - bluGill 3y ago
    There are other options. Positive train control is better than strong cars - train control means the trains can't crash in the first place (they can still derail, but you can't run into a slow/stopped train in front of you as the train will automatically stop if it cannot verify there is no train on the track in front of it). This is now mandatory in the US (with a lot of fine print exceptions).
    - EricE 3y ago
      Yes, because PTC systems never fail. Ugh.
      - bluGill 3y ago
        PTC generally is designed to fail safe, so it will stop the train if something might be wrong. Nothing is perfect, but everything has a compromise and strong trains have a lot of negatives - they cost more, use more energy (read global warming as it there is normally some non-clean energy in the mix).
  - wbl 3y ago
    The hierarchy of controls suggests preventing collision
- huytersd 3y ago
  Trains in Europe don’t have one engine pulling 200 cars stretching back for more than a mile.

by gok 3y ago

bobthepanda 3y ago

That being said, change is slow, and very few agencies have taken advantage of the new rules

jajko 3y ago

If US doesn't accept say Swiss products/designs then there is some serious flaw in that process (probably stemming from protectionism/corruption)

gok 3y ago
Swiss trains from Stadler are in fact selling rather well in the US recently (Caltrain, e-BART, New Jersey Transit, Austin, Dallas, and most recently Metra in Chicago)
- ac29 3y ago
  That Metra project looks interesting, they are buying battery powered trainsets: https://metra.com/newsroom/metra-buying-battery-powered-trainsets https://metra.com/newsroom/metra-buying-battery-powered-trai... 45-65 miles range, and 20-30 minutes to charge 20->80%. Better than I would have expected, and certainly could work well on shorter routes where full electrification is impractical. Sounds like it will be built in the US as well.
dibujaron 3y ago
There's more to it than that. Our freight trains are much larger, heavier, and longer than swiss/European freight trains. It's not unreasonable to think that a passenger train sharing track space with North American freight trains would need to be more heavily built, if withstanding a collision is a goal.
- bluGill 3y ago
  There are other options. Positive train control is better than strong cars - train control means the trains can't crash in the first place (they can still derail, but you can't run into a slow/stopped train in front of you as the train will automatically stop if it cannot verify there is no train on the track in front of it). This is now mandatory in the US (with a lot of fine print exceptions).
  - EricE 3y ago
    Yes, because PTC systems never fail. Ugh.
    - bluGill 3y ago
      PTC generally is designed to fail safe, so it will stop the train if something might be wrong. Nothing is perfect, but everything has a compromise and strong trains have a lot of negatives - they cost more, use more energy (read global warming as it there is normally some non-clean energy in the mix).
- wbl 3y ago
  The hierarchy of controls suggests preventing collision
huytersd 3y ago
Trains in Europe don’t have one engine pulling 200 cars stretching back for more than a mile.