Passenger Trains in 2050?

[Anonymous]

What do you think the state of railroads and passenger trains will be 45 years from now. Will everyone travel the rails or will the passenger train be a memory like Zeplins, canalboats, and stage coaches.

If Amtrak is around I bet they will still have baggage cars dating from the New York Central.

[dldance]

Here is my guess:
- more passenger trains - not less due to energy efficiencies
- hi density lines will still be running at about 125mph
- but moderate density lines will be upgraded to about 100mph
- about 25% of the moderate density lines will have been converted to electric operation
- more attention will be paid to feeder lines and short hauls than long distance lines
- the two bag limit will have eliminated the need for baggage cars completely but museums will have a few

dd

[Sterling1]

-Don't count on it with the 2005 status quo right now.
-I do hope that some people can jump the idiots running this polit. junk about passenger train reform.
-On moderate or light density lines maybe some dual mode diesel/electric units.
-More high speed interurbans instead of clogged and congested accident prone interstates.
-Possible use of multifueled trains (to prevent power outages on the Northeast Corridor).
-Use of Fuel cells in long and medium distance passenger trains.
-In creased speed per traffic density.

Will think about it more when I get a little more practical in ideas!

[daveklepper]

Alll the above answers seem sensible. But I will bet that somehow VIA will manage to patch up and keep runnning the classic Canadian, and that Amtrak will finally realize that nostalgia can be part of tourism, and that either working with a private operator or doing the job itself, there will be a weekly genuine California Zephyr, with dome cars, and cable car room, and round-end dome observation, possibly even extended east from Chicago to Washington DC.

Also, I think that there will be even better coordination between buses and rail, on the California model, and that every town in America will again have some public transportation connection to the national system.

[Anonymous]

"Trains Daily 23 Apr 2050"

Main story: "Namibia-Ethiopia HSR line built - 200 mph trains join international grid which moves 80% of world's commercial passengers"

"Russia - Transsib brought to 250 mph - Czar Putin says "300mph is possible, feasible and soon achievable""

"USA - Amtrak President D.W. Cannonn says: AEM7 will surely last another 70 years. Meanwhile we will soon manage to get almost 30% of our trains within 1 hour of their arrival times. Unless national freight operator - Union Pacific - delays us more that is."

[Hugh Jampton]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dldance

Here is my guess:
- more passenger trains - not less due to energy efficiencies
- hi density lines will still be running at about 125mph
- but moderate density lines will be upgraded to about 100mph
- about 25% of the moderate density lines will have been converted to electric operation
- more attention will be paid to feeder lines and short hauls than long distance lines
- the two bag limit will have eliminated the need for baggage cars completely but museums will have a few

dd

us limeys have this now... come on,, catch up.

we're focusing on 3 main areas;
Reliability. trains need to depart and arrive at the times given in the timetable.
Line capacity. Increasing the number of trains thst can be run on a given infrastructure means better service patterns.
Passener information & comfort. A well informed traveller is a happy traveller. Wi-fi is already installed in some trains here and however the technology develops it will have to be installed in trains.

And another thing; more speed does not result in more capacity because trains have to be seperated by more than braking distance, which goes up with the square of the speed. This means that if the speed is doubled the trains have to be spaced 4 times the distance apart, which means less trains per hour.

[Anonymous]

Hugh - on Paris-Lyon LGV trains are spaced by 3 minute intervals - which is about the same it is on regular lines.

That is 20 trains per hour or throughput of 14000 passengers per hour.

[Leon Silverman]

I do not share the optimism that the California system will become a model for the rest of the nation. The reason is virtually all of the California's political power, along with its' population, is concentrated in its urban areas. The urbanites have the power to translate their needs into accomplishments. Many other states have relatively small population centers separated by vast rural areas that see no reason to subsidize (spend money on) the urban centers.
Case in point: In Pennsylvania, the South East Pennsylavania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), which covers the Philadelphia Metropolitan area, has never been able to get reliable funding from the State Legislature. SEPTA has had to beg, borrow, and get the governor (a former Phialdelphia mayor) to steal from the highway fund just to get operating funds.
The funds formerly available from federal infrastructure grants are drying up. California financed its transportation program with local funding. The prevailing attitude in this administration and congress is that this is way Amtrak should continue. The problem is that most other communities do not have the tax base to finance the kind of improvements and operating subsidies that California put in place.