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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by Lotus098 So is freight viable on a short corridor run? Can a line really fit in a freeway median, without being elevated (or would that not help), what about passing sidings? Or junctions, would the line lift up and over one lane of traffic, then back down? What about emergency vehicle turn arounds on the freeway would these cross the tracks; nothing worse than waiting for a train while someone is dieing. Thank you, Jiminy Cricket. [:)] [/quote] The reason today's freight railroads prefer long haul to short haul is simply an outgrowth of the railroads' marriage to the carload/classification yard mentality. Yards eat up profits, having to make up trains eats up profits, so they try to make up for that by going long. That doens't mean short haul railroading can't work, HSR or no HSR. The advent of the unit train actually makes shorter haul corridors more profitable, because once you eliminate the need for yard work, you are left with simply running from point of origin to destination and back, e.g. it's all in the cycle. If you count intermodal as a form of the unit trains concept, you can see how the short haul can work there too. There are several 3PI's in Washington State running short haul intermodal from Eastern Washington to Puget Sound, with runs averaging 100 to 300 miles point to point, and they are making good money doing so. For HSR it can work the same, because the profits are all dependent on the number of cycles per year, not the length of the haul. 10,000 revenue ton miles per year is 10,000 revenue ton miles per year, whether it is in the form of a few hundred 100 mile cycles per year or ten 1000 mile cycles per year. And on the shorther hauls you can usually charge a higher per ton mile rate than on the long hauls because in the short hauls you are siphoning market share from the truckers. Regarding freeway medians, obviously it won't work everywhere, but I have driven thousands of miles worth of our Nation's Interstate Highway System out West here and there are quite a few long stretches where rail access to the median would be unencumbered by anything, e.g. overpasses with no median-situated support pier. The rails would need an entry overpass or underpass to get to and from the medians, that is true. But the cost savings of running down the literal middle of the freeway would go a long way toward making the concept viable. If you are from Southern Idaho, next time you drive I-84 east out of Boise take a notice of the space available in the median. Or if you are from the Great State (of mind) of North Idaho, take in I-90 if you ever travel to Seattle. Plenty of room in that median. So what if the cops can't play speed trap in the median? There are also quite a number of abandoned railroad grades out West where there are long tangents and/or gradual curvatures that could also be converted to HSR at less than prime cost. Much of the Milwaukee ROW west of MIles City MT and along the Clark Fork River in western Montana is ideal. The ex-Milwaukee ROW and SP&S corridors in Eastern Washington are also good expamples.
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