Autonomous vehicles, planes and high speed rail

[FlyerInHi]

[quote=mike92104]I think there will always be a combination of all of them.[/quote]

I’m my opinion, technology will make dense urban living more attractive. Everything within walking distance.

[FlyerInHi]

[quote=spdrun]Why not build the HSR using the I-5 ROW for significant portions?

PS- Vive la France:

What I learned today about SNCF and California HSR

[/quote]

SNCF is cool. China Railways is even more impressive. I remember first visiting China before they had high speed rail. Now they have an awesome system.

[spdrun]

China is having some teething problems with the same. SNCF is an established operator with a record of success. Wouldn’t be the worst idea to give them the contract to build/run CAHSR.

[FlyerInHi]

[quote=spdrun]China is having some teething problems with the same. SNCF is an established operator with a record of success. Wouldn’t be the worst idea to give them the contract to build/run CAHSR.[/quote]

Kinda unfair.
China Railways has a better on-time record, and they manage systems around the world, including Denmark, I believe. They’ve come a long way.

And the Chinese system is clean — more than can be said for France.

I hope they build the system between DC and Boston. Once people experience the lifestyle, they will love it. I love it that in Asia, you can just take the train to large shopping complexes. The stations are air-conditioned and connected to commercial centers. China does urban planning well. The central town square has a transport hub, hotel, bank, city hall, shopping, etc…

[spdrun]

I don’t mind grit and dirt — I might have been happier in the corrupt NYC of the 1970s.

DC-Boston could be sped up significantly in 4 years if they wanted to. Build a parallel set of tunnels to NYC from NJ, which would allow more trains to pass. Run some express trains between DC and Boston, with only a few stops. DC, Philly, Newark, NYC, New Haven, Boston come to mind, with none of the podunks in between. Get rid of the 30-minute stop in NYC, which has no good reason for existing.

The US doesn’t need high-speed rail. It needs highER speed rail not run in a retarded fashion.

[svelte]

Public transportation has a long life ahead of it. autonomous vehicles will never be as inexpensive as public transportation.

Similarly, high speed autonomous vehicle roadways won’t happen anytime soon. At least not in great numbers. Most all roads will continue to share the roadway between driver and driverless cars, and ya can’t have super fast speeds with that combination.

What I’m waiting for is the super-traffic-jams when all autonomous vehicles decide to take the same path, get in the same lane, etc. Yeah sure they can program things otherwise in the long run, but in the near term I bet we see some really weird phenomena out there.

[FlyerInHi]

[quote=spdrun]I don’t mind grit and dirt — I might have been happier in the corrupt NYC of the 1970s.
[/quote]

That’s not high tech. You want gleaming air conditioned stations connected by shopping passes to commercial centers, hotels, residential complexes, and intermodal transport hubs where passengers can catch their Uber autonomous vehicles.

Think how advanced the sarineen terminal at jfk was when it opened in the 60s.
We need high tech, innovative stuff for the 21st century.

[spdrun]

You’re assuming I give a flying motherfuck about “high-tech.”

[FlyerInHi]

It’s sad that Americans don’t care about “high tech” anymore. Look at the space age central building at LAX that opened in the early 60s. We once had the best transport in the world. Now we are content with ordinary second best.

High tech is inspiring.

[FlyerInHi]

So China recently unveiled a second generation HS train just 6 years after starting the Beijing shanghai line. The train in clean, modern, and staffed with uniforms attendants like on airplanes.

[ucodegen]

Here are some interesting numbers:
TMPG – mpg to move 1 ton, or how many miles can you move 1 ton using 1 gallon of fuel.

Hybrid car:

[SK in CV]

[quote=ucodegen]Train:

TMPG: over 400 tmpg – note, most rail runs around 80mph outside of cities.

[/quote]

I don’t think this affects the efficiency one way or another, but I just drove close to half way across the country and back, mostly on US 40. Probably saw 30 freight trains. Didn’t see a single one much over 60 MPH. None were close to 80.

[ucodegen]

[quote=SK in CV][quote=ucodegen]Train:

TMPG: over 400 tmpg – note, most rail runs around 80mph outside of cities.

[/quote]

I don’t think this affects the efficiency one way or another, but I just drove close to half way across the country and back, mostly on US 40. Probably saw 30 freight trains. Didn’t see a single one much over 60 MPH. None were close to 80.[/quote]
And you probably saw them near towns where the rail goes through..?? They do slow down on grades or when they have to pass. Most rail is single track, with sections that are dual to allow passing. They have to slow/wait on the passing sections. You can see that behavior down at the Sorrento Valley crossing. There are multiple tracks at the crossing, but outside of the crossing – the track drops to single track. Some of the recent work at the Sorrento Valley crossing was to add an additional track (in the event that two trains need to pass and there is a Coaster at the station loading) as well as making the paired track section longer (easier for freight passing).

There is also a requirement to drop speed on tracks that don’t have certain types of crossing and collision avoidance systems. See “Track classes” under this section:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_speed_limits_in_the_United_States

[SK in CV]

[quote=ucodegen][quote=SK in CV][quote=ucodegen]Train:

TMPG: over 400 tmpg – note, most rail runs around 80mph outside of cities.

[/quote]

I don’t think this affects the efficiency one way or another, but I just drove close to half way across the country and back, mostly on US 40. Probably saw 30 freight trains. Didn’t see a single one much over 60 MPH. None were close to 80.[/quote]
And you probably saw them near towns where the rail goes through..?? [/quote]

No, in the middle of f’ing nowhere. Which is pretty much the entire distance between Winslow, AZ and Oklahoma City.

[ucodegen]

[quote=SK in CV]
No, in the middle of f’ing nowhere. Which is pretty much the entire distance between Winslow, AZ and Oklahoma City.[/quote]
You mean Interstate 40 vs old US-40? US-40 is north of I-40 – both run east/west.

Any town – even a little pip-squeak, ghost of a town can cause the rail to have to drop speed. Realize that if the train is going 80 in the same direction as you, you will probably not pass it and it will not pass you (if you are near 80 too). If in the opposite direction, it will be more of a blur, and passing a 2.6 mile long train would take less than 1 minute. Here is the info on passenger trains, note they try to run near max and the higher speeds to bias the results of the average.

https://www.amtrak.com/national-facts
see 4th bullet:

More than half of Amtrak trains operate at top speeds of 100 mph (160 kph) or greater.

https://www.quora.com/How-fast-does-a-passenger-train-travel-in-the-US

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