Mexico eyes high speed rail

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/ ... 2#continue

Mexico City and Guadalajara will be connected to a HSR if proposal is approved. 186 MPH for a two hour run. Comments?

Comments?

Well, it's a sad day when Mexico can boast more progress on high-speed rail than the US.

South Korea has HSR before the USA. I'd fully expect Mexico to have it, even despite having gotten rid of their traditional passenger rail service in its entirety.

RATS! Too fast for JetTrain. Woe is me..............

JetTrain hasn't been cut up yet?

Last I heard, BBD isn't even bothering to market the thing. And with oil prices going up up and away, the big question is, who the heck would buy it, especially NOW?

I'm expecting oil to be closer - a LOT closer to $100/barrel this time next year. And, by closer, I don't necessarilly mean double digits, either.

China's demand is just starting to grow. They'll pass us soon. What's that old proverb- "May you live in interesting times..."

I suspect Mexican HSR is a bit premature. They've got amazingly high urban transit ridership, but, uh, who the heck travels intercity in .mx?

The first TGV was also a "Jet Train" - but the was the 1973 oil crisis. And HSTs in Europe becomes electric....

Chile has some reasonably fast trains. At 140 km/hr (87 mph), I believe they are the fastest in Latin America.

http://trenes.4t.com/pasajeros/e269/

http://trenes.4t.com/pasajeros/uts444/

From another forum

The Mexican government plans to build a 180-mph "bullet train" between the capital and the city of Guadalajara, and is already starting work on a separate, state-of-the-art suburban train system called the Ferrocarril Suburbano de la Zona Metropolitana del Valle de México. It's part of a multibillion-dollar effort to revive passenger train service in Mexico.

Read the full story by Chris Hawley, Arizona Republic Mexico City Bureau, at http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... in06.html#

Glad to see Mexico is thinking about bringing their rails back! An international rail would be even better, not only to the US, but to Guatemala too. I doubt it'll happen though because the US isn't too happy with Mexico, and I'm sure Mexico isn't too happy about all the Guatemalteco's and Salvi's comming across the border on the trek to the US. Still, it doesn't stop the buses, so why not.

I guess the hopes to build it to the border is good enough for now. I actually will not be surprised to see this happen, as opposed to projects of this type in the US. It's sad that Mexico is going to beat the US in high speed rail so easily. There's so much open space in Mexico that trains can really open it up.

The real mystery is why is the US the only "developed" country that doesn't have any high speed rail (ACELA doesn't count.)

Is KCS involved in this? Just curious.

Not likely. KCS is all about freight. Mexico's HSR is all about pax.

Irish Chieftain wrote:I'd fully expect Mexico to have it, even despite having gotten rid of their traditional passenger rail service in its entirety.

Maybe that's a sign that the U.S. should scrap what we have, and start with a clean slate?

If you're suggesting that the USA should actually follow Mexico's lead, I would advise that you step back for a second and think about that.

None of the rich countries that have HSR ever did such a thing, i.e. scrap the whole system and start over. They rely on their legacy systems pretty heavily; and they have invested in them to get their operating speeds on the passenger end as rapid as possible. (Non-tilt trains in France and Germany operate at a maximum speed of 137 mph on traditional corridors; tilt trains in Germany operate at maximum speeds of 143 mph.) Investment in freight rail for the express purpose of getting trucks off the road also proceeds apace and continuously.

Hi,

I'm trying to track down a group of ex-MILW/SOO steel, bay window, cabooses rumored to have gone to the NdeM in the late 1980s or early 1990s.

Are there any websites with equipment rosters for NdeM or other roads in Mexico?

Thanks, Roger