Fastest freight speed

[jsanchez]

I was wondering what is the fastest freight train speed in the USA and Canada? I was reading how the English, Welsh and Scotish railroad is planning 125 mile per hour freight train service between Southern England to Scotland, imagine how much of a help this would be to the US economy if we had freight trains that fast. Twice the speed of trucking at a lower cost to shippers. Why didn't UP or CSX think of this....

[dmoore74]

While the idea of moving freight at twice the speed of trucks is commendable it is doubtful it could be done at a lower cost. Among other things the track would have to be maintained to FRA Class V standards, new cars would be required that were certified to run at these higher speeds and you would also need new high speed locomotives. Most current freight diesels are geared for a top speed of 70-75mph. To run a really efficient high speed freight service would require a dedicated and electrified right-of-way.
The cost of building and maintaining such a roadbed would certainly contribute to the economy but it is doubtful any major railroad would be able to finance such an undertaking. On top of that it would probably take 10 or more years just to get permission to even start building (Lawsuits
and environmental review must be taken care of first). Logically a good idea but financially a bust.

[Anonymous]

Amtrak runs a mail and exxpress only train between Springfeild and Washington (I forget the train Nos). It consists of boxcars and some baggage and no passenger cars pulled by an electric at up to 110mph. I would consider that a high speed freight, (I hear it may get discontinued) and it is similar to the way those hi-speed freights are in Europe. Some are more hi-tech I supose. I don't ever see running freights that fast as an economical way to move the vast tonnage like the real freights handle. England runs 75mph coal trains, but not to be economical in itself but to get out of the way of passenger trains. What alot of wind to push just to move coal.

[eolafan]

James, I believe BNSF runs some intermodal trains in the Western US at up to 79 mph but no faster. In the urban and suburban areas around Chicago 55-60 mph is about the fastest you will see, but when you're standing trackside or on a suburban METRA platform, that's pretty darned fast!

[mudchicken]

Those trains now restricted to 70 MPH or 55 MPH as an economy move.....The ATSF "Super-C" was as fast as it got, but nobody like UPS wants to pay the premium. The test trains that BNSF/NS and BNSF/CSX ran recently (LA-Chicago-NYC)could go faster than they did, but where do you start adding up the delay to other trains cleared out of the way for these hotshots ???....

[Anonymous]

If you could run a railroad where all trains ran at the same average speed the rail line would have big capacity. It's the difference in speeds of trains that reduce capacity on single or double track lines.

[wabash1]

on the ns the speed is 60 intermodel and 50 for freight

[Anonymous]

The reason the speed is lower is because of fuel consumption. BPtrainwreck

[favuprailroadfan]

BNSF does not run their intermodals at 79mph. They thought about it for a while but deemed it impractical because all the other trains don't run that fast. Like one of the others here said, Delay to other trains. Yes it is double track but there are few sidings in between so so of these could get out of the way. I have been beside the Trascon from Amarillo TX to LA. There isn't very many sidings period. There might be more than what I saw also. But most of it is jsut simple double track CTC. They have recently started putting in crossovers along this stretch between Winslow AZ and Victorville California.

Dru

[Anonymous]

James, On the BNSF there are 2 diffrent speeds. On the BN side. 60 is the top speed for trains. Most dog trains run 55. If they are over 90 TOB 50mph. Coal trains loaded 50 mph empty 55 mph. On the Santa Fe side. 70 is the top speed for trains. 55 for dog trains. Coal trains loaded and empty 55 mph.

[Anonymous]

This is a good thread!
I kinda find it Ironic how we had smaller trans like the Hiawatha gunnin' 110 thru the heartland in the 30-60's but now we dont realy make the effort. Yes I understand $ is most of the problem. But still in the country where Bigger is better We had muscle cars and vettes that could do 150 mph. Yet we resticted speeds to 70 mph althogh the Autobaun has parts of the system w/o restrictions. It seems the govenment never seen a way to justify the risks of high speeds.
Q. what is your definition of High speed?
Again we are afraid to do more then 80 mph due to loosing our licence.
just a thought!
Icemanmike2-Milwaukee