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Test run: Amtrak passenger train to hit 110 mph
(full disclosure: i elided -- with malice aforethought -- a mention that scamtrak's fastest trains briefly hit 150 mph on the northeast corridor line, between philly and new york.)
1: well, my Right Way involves spending even more money on even fancier gear, but the capital cost BOTEC is jaw-dropping.
By Jon Hilkevitch Tribune reporterfundamentally, the problem with scamtrak's approach is that we're trying to provide "high speed" rail on the cheap. the right way to do it requires dedicated rights-of-way; large-radius, banked turns; and ideally better trains.¹ assuming, of course, we really want faster trains, and not just more pork-barrel spending.
8:36 a.m. CDT, October 19, 2012
Boosted by two locomotives, an Amtrak test train is scheduled to hit 110 mph today for the first time while carrying passengers in Illinois in the modern era.
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The time spent traveling at 110 mph will be relatively brief, lasting for only 15 miles on new rails and new concrete ties between Dwight and Pontiac along the 284-mile Union Pacific Railroad corridor from Chicago to St. Louis.
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High-speed rail travel isn’t entirely new in the U.S. More than 70 years ago, coal-burning locomotives were clocked going as fast as 124 mph on part of a route between Chicago and the Twin Cities, according to records. In the 1930s, trains often exceeded 100 mph in southern Wisconsin as well.
(full disclosure: i elided -- with malice aforethought -- a mention that scamtrak's fastest trains briefly hit 150 mph on the northeast corridor line, between philly and new york.)
1: well, my Right Way involves spending even more money on even fancier gear, but the capital cost BOTEC is jaw-dropping.