Neanderpundit

As was touched upon by others in the comments yesterday, there are some very good reasons High Speed rail will not work here.

One of them, and the biggest of them, is the infrastructure, or lack of it. The existing rail that Amtrak shares with freight is not smooth enough for high speed transit. Ever watch freight cars rock back and forth as they go over a turnout or grade crossing? this type of motion is fine for a heavy freight car moving along at 45 mph, but it would derail a fast moving, light passenger train.

As Ed pointed out, the rails get welded together (yes, thermite is the commonest method) and the individual pieces of rail are sometimes as much as a mile long. A mile of continuous welded rail will grow in summer and shrink in winter- that mile long piece of steel will be 101″ longer at 100 degrees than at 0 degrees! To prevent the rail from just leaving the track it is secured to plates, which hinder it’s growth. And consequently the rail will weave and buckle all up and down the line.

The only meaningful method of making high speed rail is to use a maglev or Monorail approach, using non contact type bearings that will allow the train cars to ‘Float. Any contact type rail will naturally involve wear and require replacement, which over any distance will be expensive, and cannot be shared with other types of transport.

The Maglev type systems now in use in mainland China are excellent examples, and work well, but as other commenters have pointed out, our very automobile driven western society does not lend itself to train transport. If trains were parked on commercial air routes, then it might make sense to travel by rail instead of air- and personally, the idea of getting on a train and going cross country at speed appeals to me a GREAT deal, because I LOVE trains. I used to get on the City of New Orleans on a friday at the Homewood Illinois station and ride down to baton Rouge to visit with friends on a weekend, then ride it back up to be home in the wee small hours. Would I use high speed rail? Certainly! Even if just to say I had. Is it a grand idea whose time has come? Not even in the Won’s wet dreams.

I haz it.