I'll die on the hill that the Water Level Route should've been electrified and turned into a high-speed corridor.

@qjtvaddict

4 ай бұрын

???

@MrCateagle

4 ай бұрын

​@qjtvaddict Water Level Route is the New York Central Railroad. This is the trackage over which the NYC ran the fastest railroad vehicle ever in the United States. They took the jet engine pod from a B-36 and installed it on top of Budd RDC M497 and test ran it over a stretch of trackage from NE Indiana to NW Ohio. It achieved a speed of over 160 mph.

"....now you may ask, "Why is this?" Well, it all starts with the Alco 244 prime mover...." Great vid Mr. Alco!

Don't forget that a major element of the Northeast Corridor is the Hell's Gate Bridge on to Long Island and it, like the PRR tunnels is over a century old.

Of course, the Norrheast corridor relies on century old electrification efforts that still needed completion by Amtrak between New Haven and Boston. The construction of the PRR's tunnels into NYC is an engineering triumph and would still be such today.

In 2016,I was on holiday in Europe. French TGV trains ran at over 220 mph, EVERYWHERE IN THE COUNTRY. But I shouldn't be so hard on you yanks. As we had a prime minister here, a few years ago, in Australia, that stated the technology for high speed rail didn't exist, anywhere. This was the same goose who chowed down on a raw onion, skin and all, on national TV. He's working for the British government now. They can keep him. All these problems are due to polluticians trying to do things best left to engineers, smart people.

@InventorZahran

4 ай бұрын

"Polluticians" that's a new word for me, and a good one!

@qjtvaddict

4 ай бұрын

Look closely at the routes

@qjtvaddict

4 ай бұрын

Notice how stupid former British colonies are

@AL5520

4 ай бұрын

One correction, TGV does not run train at speeds of over 220 mph. Most lines are made for such speeds but the operation speed on most TGV lines (and most other HSr lines in the world) is 300 kph (~186 mph) and very few (including one TGV line in France) with 320 kph (~200 mph). It is possible to go faster, the record was made by the TGV in France (a modified lighter model with the 2 power cars and one car between them) is 574.80 kph (357.2 mph) but this was not viable. more than 320 kph the power consumption is too high to make it worthwhile for the added speed. This is changing as 350 kph is viable with newer more efficient trains but it's still not widely spread. There are a few sections in China and the new (and currently short) HSR line in Indonesia and in what is left of the under construction speed HSR2 in the UK.

Again a very informative video. The limitations of the NE Corridor explained understandably.

This was a common issue all over the world. Older railroads are limited in how fast they can be made. It’s why countries built entirely new lines for their high speed services.

@OriginalBongoliath

4 ай бұрын

It helps that a massive world war happened in Europe and Japan where their infrastructure was bombed to oblivion so they could rebuild to whatever modern standard they wished with American Marshall Plan money meanwhile the American taxpayer is shafted again stuck paying for the rest of the world while we get shit all. I'm sick of my government caring about other people in other countries rather than its own!

@denelson83

4 ай бұрын

Something North America cannot do because of much stronger private property rights.

@AL5520

4 ай бұрын

​@@denelson83Apparently those "stronger private property rights" only applies to rail, as from the start those right did not help all those property owners that were relocated and their houses demolished (it "helped" that they were mostly minorities - predominantly black) and this also happens today whenever more lanes are added. Even the Us has eminent domain and, although might be a bit harder to use, they work just fine when political will exist.

@denelson83

4 ай бұрын

@@AL5520 Apparently you need money to enforce private property rights. And money is something the ultra-rich and big corporations have in abundance. They fight for highways and against public transit.

A regular passenger on NEC trains, I find there are about 3 stretches of rails where one can hit higher speeds. Sadly, one of those-Trenton to Metropark-dies (as you said) from Metropark to Newark at Elizabeth. With no dedicated lines, this looks to be forever the case. Maybe the B&O is having its revenge as the NEC, former PRR, crosses over the CNJ/B&O at Elizabeth!

HSR is not new to the US. In the 1930's, North Shore Electoliners averaged 60 mph with stops and hitting 90 mph between stations. If the North Shore right of way is still available, this might make a good starting point for a HSR test facility.

The old Prr congressional limited ran a little over 3 hours between the two cities now it is little better

TLDW: No minimum curve radius, meaning a lot of sharp curves that require slower speeds.

Building a high speed line through urban areas would cost 10 billion plus

You didn't mention the United Aircraft Turbo Train, which ran from New York to Boston from 1969 to 1976.

Amtrack still gets its money from the Gov. and we know what they feel about trains and why.

Everyone wants high speed rail. How about first we get reliable rail service to all of the contiguous states, with a decent connections. Tou shouldn't have to go from Denver to Chicago or Sacramento to connect with a train to get you to Seattle.

High speed trains are a boondoggle. In China they call high speed trains are called Bureaucrat Express because it's so expensive compared to regular trains. Too expensive for working people.

@rogeriomonteiro760

4 ай бұрын

Wrong, in Europe the actual prices are relativly low. For example it is easy to book a train in a real High speed train (TGV) from Paris to Bordeaux (about 380 miles) for just 45 Euros (50 Dollars). And it just takes slightly more than two hours.

@frankmarkovcijr5459

4 ай бұрын

@@rogeriomonteiro760 Europe is small compared to the US. From Boston to Washington you would go through 3 countries. Plus you have lots of Mass transit there. You would not take a high speed train from NYC to LA. You would fly there. Comparing apples to oranges.

@rogeriomonteiro760

4 ай бұрын

@@frankmarkovcijr5459 Iam not talking about going from NYC to LA, in this case I would take the plane. From Boston to Washigton DC we have a distance of about 450 miles. A nonstop real High speed train would make it in 3 hours. Between NYC and Washington DC it would be just two hours. What the Northeast Corridor needs is a real dedicated highspeed line where the trains run at 200 miles per hour as it happens in Europe. And I assure you that it will have so much use that it will be cheaper than a flight.

@qjtvaddict

4 ай бұрын

@@frankmarkovcijr5459Europe is not small. China has them and they are well used unlike Amtrak that is a laughingstock

@qjtvaddict

4 ай бұрын

@@frankmarkovcijr5459NO HSR is La-NY long give it a rest already

High-speed trains are not that applicable to a country the size of the United States save in limited corridors. As for speed, look at Brightline in Florida where full speed is possible only on their trackage, not on what they share with other roads. On the other side, you have California's HSR boondoggle.

@qjtvaddict

4 ай бұрын

Yet India is building them and China has 75% of the HSR trackage reality disagrees with your primitive thinking

@MrCateagle

4 ай бұрын

@@qjtvaddict How much of that trackage is brand new as opposed to using existing rail lines? It's the old track shared with other railroads that slows Brightline down in Florida. The electrified portions of what was the New Haven between New Haven and NYC clearly show the age of the supporting infrastructure (been there, seen that). I suspect Amtrak and Metro-North are working to upgrade that, much like NICTD is working to upgrade, improve, and extend the South Shore trackage in northwestern Indiana. Too, HSR still makes for a much longr trip if you are travelling between, say, Houston, TX and Los Angeles, CA. At 200 mph, it would still take over three times as long to take a HSR as to take an airliner. I will grant you that California's HSR effort is spectacularly mis-manage, but ticket prices have to match the $50 prices between any LA-area airport and San Francisco and with the cost of land acquisition, construction, new units, etc., that's going to be difficult. I would like to see more HSR in this country, the Dallas - Houston corridor for one as well as a Dallas/Fort Worth - San Antonio corridor and both of those could be extended north to Oklahoma City and perhaps to Wichita, KS. On the south ends, there could be an extension from Houston to Galveston for the one and to the US/Mexico border (Brownsvill, maybe?) for the other.