Running On A Rail

[kevin_standlee]

Much of the news about High Speed Rail in California is about the legions of NIMBYs who want the trains to run anywhere but where they live, or just to go away entirely. Despite a majority of voters passing the down payment bond measure, there has been precious little in the way of active support for the plan. Of course, it's always easy to oppose something -- most of the NIMBYs are actually BANANAs -- Build Absolutely Nothing Anywere Near Anything. I'm happy to see that Californians for High Speed Rail is forming up to make a greater effort to advocate for building California High Speed Rail. I've signed their petition and signed up for the mailing list. I hope to do more once I have more time to think about anything other than shipment databases at work.

Comments

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Both our systems are covering areas that people routinely drive between.

That's becuase the definition of "driving distance" has grown considerably. In the early 1900s, the idea that you could live fifty miles from where you worked was absurd. Commuter railroads changed that. But when you got to the destination, you would ride a streetcar to your final destination.

Heavy commuter rail is, generally speaking, characterized as traveling longer distances at higher speeds, and with fewer stops (thus longer distances between stations). Light rail/trams/streetcars are slower speed and have much closer spacing between stops. Also, heavy commuter rail is inter-compatible with the national rail network and can thus share facilities, but you wouldn't want to run an LRV on the main line any more than you'd want to use a streetcar to drive from Minneapolis to Chicago, even though in all cases, the track gauge (distance between the rails) is the same.

Then you have hybrid cases like the Electroliners, which could run on the national network (as long as there was an overhead wire to which they could get their power) and then changed to the streetcar (Loop) in Chicago. That led to some interesting engineering challenges, as a typical heavy rail vehicle could never handle the tight curves of the Loop.

To put it another way: My minivan could run on the racetrack at Indianapolis, and so can a Formula 1 racer, an Indy Car or a NASCAR vehicle. Technically, all of these vehicles could also run down the city street or on the highway (baring legalities; I'm talking about physical compatibility). However, You wouldn't want to commute to work in an Indy car or Formula 1 vehicle any more than you'd want me entering my Astro in the German Grand Prix.