Phillips tells a couple of stories in regard to this issue. One was an unflattering nickname the French engineers had for the modified overweight test train that led to Acela. The other was how a TGV derailed at speed, but because of very strong solid connections between cars, they all stayed upright and aligned and nobody was killed.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
In effect, yes. In theory, yes. But will North America give up on its heavy guage is another question. An Alstom VP several years ago told me several years ago there is a lot of technology being used around the world which cannot be used in the US because of how heavy and virtually overbuilt our equipment has to be. The idea Phillips alludes is that in Europe they work toward preventing accidents while in North America they work at making accidents safer. Could such thinking be overcome here?
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The January Phillips column pointed this out in the PNRP:
"Going forward, PTC, in combination with other technologies and strategies, can offer levels of passenger protection that can be incorporated into new equipment design standards." page 26, PNRP.
Phillips says this technology means the FRA will be able to drop the overly heavy construction standards for passenger cars and move toward the lighter Euro/Japanese designs standards.
What, if anything real, does this really mean? Could our passenger stock be lighter weight and thus perform at higher speeds more easily and cheaply?
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