zoom314 wrote:I think 220Mph is much better than 110Mph, You aim high, Not low, Amtrak is already capable of 79Mph now,
I'd like to see more of that 79 MPH in practice. That DC-Chicago train I noted? 17 hr, 40 min for 780 miles. 45 MPH? Building true 90 MPH or "110 MPH" lines would get that train moving. Or how about the closer 234 mile Chicago to Toledo part of that trip? ~4 hours scheduled makes that part 58.5 MPH average speed. It is a 2hr plane flight - so there would have to be a lot of ground time or a faster train to make Amtrak fully competitive on the Chicago-Toledo part of the run.
Shooting for 220 MPH is too high. Get the network of 90-110 MPH trains up and running. Prove to the general public that trains are competitive ... then reinvest the profits in further improvements to reach 220 MPH on the longer runs.
Amtrak takes 1 Day and 19 hours to go from Los Angeles to Chicago according to Google Maps right now and that's at around 79Mph,
43 hr, 30 min per Amtrak. 2265 rail miles. 52 MPH average. Going back to my previous post, I'll ask the question again. How many miles of HSR would one get for the cost of "higher speed rail"? How much would it take to bring Chi-LA up to an average speed of 79 MPH (28hr 40min)? or 90 MPH (25hr 10min)? A system where trains would be pegged at max speed (110 MPH?) where they could to bring the average trip time up. Then take that cost and spend it on 220 MPH or 500 MPH rail and see if you can make it out of Illinois!
"Higher speed rail" of 90-110 MPH provides a competing service to airlines on shorter trips. I mentioned Chicago to Toledo above, how about Chicago to Detroit in currently 5hr 30min vs 1hr 20min flight time? Add the two hour airport time and one is still spending longer on the train. So lets fix that. Do what the government is doing and upgrade that line to nearly full Amtrak ownership and "Higher Speed Rail". Cut a couple hours off of that trip and make it fully competitive.
"Higher speed rail" is obtainable and competitive. I'd rather support the obtainable than some pie in the sky fantasy rail.