ontheBNSF Murphy Siding ontheBNSF Maglev can better adjust to lower population concentration through different vehicle configurations and can travel at higher speeds than HSR thus enabling better adaption to US demographics. The only maglev project that seems to have suffered from a lack or ridership or cost over runs is the linimo maglev in Japan. Awesome! So, when the Maglev goes through an area where the rider density, is for example, 10% of what it is the big cities, the Maglev trains, track and infrastructure can shrink to 10% of the size and 10% of the cost? Maybe your underground tube wasn't such a goofy idea after all. The majority of Maglev traffic, if shrunk t0 proportionally match the conditions, could be sent through a garden hose. I was more referring to creating lower capacity vehicles.
Murphy Siding ontheBNSF Maglev can better adjust to lower population concentration through different vehicle configurations and can travel at higher speeds than HSR thus enabling better adaption to US demographics. The only maglev project that seems to have suffered from a lack or ridership or cost over runs is the linimo maglev in Japan. Awesome! So, when the Maglev goes through an area where the rider density, is for example, 10% of what it is the big cities, the Maglev trains, track and infrastructure can shrink to 10% of the size and 10% of the cost? Maybe your underground tube wasn't such a goofy idea after all. The majority of Maglev traffic, if shrunk t0 proportionally match the conditions, could be sent through a garden hose.
ontheBNSF Maglev can better adjust to lower population concentration through different vehicle configurations and can travel at higher speeds than HSR thus enabling better adaption to US demographics. The only maglev project that seems to have suffered from a lack or ridership or cost over runs is the linimo maglev in Japan.
Maglev can better adjust to lower population concentration through different vehicle configurations and can travel at higher speeds than HSR thus enabling better adaption to US demographics. The only maglev project that seems to have suffered from a lack or ridership or cost over runs is the linimo maglev in Japan.
I was more referring to creating lower capacity vehicles.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
ndbprrHow well will mag lev operate when lightning hits or the power goes out?
"The large majority of railroad infrastructure is woefully outdated" is a strange statement in the sense that road infrastructure, e.g., has been around longer than railroad but tax money kept upgrading it despite the land grabs needed (compare double-track rail capacity to 24-lane highway). Railroad right-of-way predates much city development, whereas highways (and maglev) have to demolish it.
parlordome "The large majority of railroad infrastructure is woefully outdated" is a strange statement in the sense that road infrastructure, e.g., has been around longer than railroad but tax money kept upgrading it despite the land grabs needed (compare double-track rail capacity to 24-lane highway). Railroad right-of-way predates much city development, whereas highways (and maglev) have to demolish it.
In all fairness, part of what he means is that a significant amount of railroad infrastructure was optimized for things very different from modern high-speed transportation. For example, it may have excessive curvature to minimize grades or to follow watercourses; it may wander to access then-important communities or resource areas that may no longer be relevant; it may have inadequate subgrade or maintenance. Those things often will make it 'woefully' inadequate for high-speed service, even with careful track-geometry upkeep, tilting trains, etc.
There are relatively few examples of railroads explicitly designed from the outset for high speed, and most of them did not succeed. The Chicago-New York Electric Air Line Railroad comes to mind; I was told that there is an abandoned near-'air line' grading in Louisiana and Mississippi for high-speed north-south service. The 'catch' is that any high-speed railroad is inherently a bridge line, and bridge lines that are newly constructed need VERY deep pockets the whole time they're being built, and then until sufficient traffic develops, and then to cover any period where traffic drops for any reason. Even nominally high-speed railroads like the PRR New York Division had a number of very slow sections and other compromises; a couple of great common-sense improvements like the electrification of the Middle Division and the tunnel under the Horseshoe Curve were (for a combination of reasons, admittedly) not implemented despite the great increase in capacity they would have provided.
I do have to say that I wish this thread would move beyond Daryl Oster.
Thanks, and I do get all that. But roads were not that different and in some ways worse off (e.g. trains had and had to have precedence wherever the two crossed, and were and are less energy-consuming and less pollution-producing per ton or person moved). Tax money and shenanigans such as the auto industry's destruction of the interurban network made the difference in significant ways, again despite the 24-lanes (versus 2 tracks re capacity) of aerial Interstate removing everything in its path or making life under or near it only acceptable by the poor, of necessity.
chutton01In other news, one of the first commercial Maglev systems built, a people mover at Birmingham UK airport, was replaced by A CABLE CAR system a decade ago (AirRail Link) :)
had a top speed of 26 mph
narig01The reason light rail can go 30 million a mile is the build happens in built up urban areas. The costs add up very quickly when you have to relocate utilities, repave streets, and build structure to accommodate existing infrastructure. With steel rail on open Terrain the cost comes down considerably.
Patrick Boylan
Free yacht rides, 27' sailboat, zip code 19114 Delaware River, get great Delair bridge photos from the river. Send me a private message
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