Backers of high-speed ‘maglev’ train to Washington DC claim $5 billion in funding
50 replies, posted
[QUOTE=Silence I Kill You;45938959]What's stopping either of you from going out and building a high speed rail? You could go out, do the research, find some backers to provide you with capital, acquire the property, build a high speed rail, and do whatever you want with it. You could be the Elon Musk of high speed rail.....[/QUOTE]
I'm pretty sure automakers have been lobbying against the construction of large-scale high speed rails here in Congress because it'll "hurt their business", which is why we haven't seen any built here not to mention that most Americans prefer to use their cars as their primary mode of transportation which make investing in it very risky.
[QUOTE=Bbarnes005;45939009]I'm pretty sure automakers have been lobbying against the construction of large-scale high speed rails here in Congress because it'll "hurt their business", which is why we haven't seen any built here not to mention that most Americans prefer to use their cars as their primary mode of transportation which make investing in it very risky.[/QUOTE]
Except that wherever it's introduced, public transit by rail is very popular.
Chicago has an amazing metra and metro rail system in the greater chicago metropolitan area. I used to use it all the time when I lived there.
Where I live now (Florida) just got Sunrail but it's pretty limited. I can't wait to see it develop a hub and branch out
[QUOTE=Telepethi;45939027]Except that wherever it's introduced, public transit by rail is very popular.
Chicago has an amazing metra and metro rail system in the greater chicago metropolitan area. I used to use it all the time when I lived there.
Where I live now (Florida) just got Sunrail but it's pretty limited. I can't wait to see it develop a hub and branch out[/QUOTE]
But those are relatively local systems, by "Major" systems I mean ones that may cover a large area like a high speed rail system/line going from NYC to Chicago or Chicago to St. Louis, which often face both Political and financial barriers.
The only local high-speed/light rail system I can think of around here(Missouri) is the Metrolink system that St. Louis has, but I have no idea how well it does because I don't live in St. Louis. Kansas City might have a similar system, but I've only been through Kansas City once and didn't see anything like that.
But the main barrier to large-scale multi-state high speed rail systems is America's heavily entrenched car culture. I would love to see a national high speed rail system, but I just don't see it happening in the near future. There's actually any abandoned railway that I know that could possibly serve as a good base for a high-speed railsystem between St. Louis and Kansas City: [url]http://www.abandonedrails.com/Saint_Louis_Subdivision[/url]
[QUOTE=TheAdmiester;45936579]My city's metro system is still using carriages from 1980.
[img]http://stepupxchange.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/metro-sunny.jpg[/img]
EDIT: Here's a picture of the same kind of carriage from August 1980:
[img]http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/l/longbenton/longbenton%28alan_young8.1980%2910.jpg[/img]
At least yours looks like it's from this side of the millenium :v:[/QUOTE]
It's actually charming.
[QUOTE=TheAdmiester;45936579]My city's metro system is still using carriages from 1980.
[img]http://stepupxchange.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/metro-sunny.jpg[/img]
EDIT: Here's a picture of the same kind of carriage from August 1980:
[img]http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/l/longbenton/longbenton%28alan_young8.1980%2910.jpg[/img]
At least yours looks like it's from this side of the millenium :v:[/QUOTE]
Same here.
[img]http://hirportal.sikerado.hu/images/kep/201109/metro_jar.jpg[/img]
Last time i took the Budapest metro i felt like i travelled back in time to the 80s communism.
[QUOTE=TheAdmiester;45936579]My city's metro system is still using carriages from 1980.
[img]http://stepupxchange.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/metro-sunny.jpg[/img]
EDIT: Here's a picture of the same kind of carriage from August 1980:
[img]http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/l/longbenton/longbenton%28alan_young8.1980%2910.jpg[/img]
At least yours looks like it's from this side of the millenium :v:[/QUOTE]
Our national railway uses marshmallows.
[t]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/DSB_IC3.jpg[/t]
[QUOTE=Sableye;45938822]No, there's a limit to how fast a train can go before passengers start turning into mush, the real problem with u.s. high speed rail is its just too good for us, like universal healthcare its something 99% of people agree is a good thing but obviously we aren't qualified to discuss it[/QUOTE]
Much like Telepethi has mentioned, its the acceleration that kills you and not the velocity. Serious, scientifically backed proposals have been made in the past to construct a vacuum tube maglev that would cross the Atlantic connecting the US and the UK that would go in the range of 5000 miles per hour. The space station goes like 17000 mph it hasn't killed anyone yet. Frankly it's not like the technology doesn't exist, it's just absurdly colossal in scale and expense.
Now this whole deal with a hyper sonic train is a joke, but I was bored so I decided to mash out some numbers on a theoretical 15 minute train from Baltimore to Washington state. The train can't actually instantaneously accelerate to 10688mph without turning into a nuclear fireball, so for this half assed model I assumed that the velocity of the train during its trip is a parabola. Given a working distance of 2672 miles (~4.3e6 m) and a 900 second travel time, the peak velocity of the train would actually have to be 16031.9 mph (7166.9 m/s). Surprisingly enough, peak acceleration and deceleration is a very survivable and [i]relatively[/i] comfortable 31.853 m/s^2, or roughly 3.25Gs, which tapers down linearly, going down to 2Gs by around the 3 minute mark, and 1G at a little over 5 minutes in. At peak the G force is similar to a Space Shuttle on take off, and while that isn't exactly comfortable, it isn't remotely near fatal.
v(x) = -0.0353922*(x-450)(x+450) is the equation if anyone seriously cares (why do you care)
The real problem would be getting a train to go so stupidly fast. The first step would be to build a 2672 mile long air-sealed tunnel from Baltimore to Washington in an absolute straight line. Then you put a maglev rail in it. Theoretically given a sufficient vacuum and some mlg pro maglev design using voodoo bullshit like super conductors, you could achieve near 0 friction inside of the vacuum tunnel.
Now I'm not sure why exactly the trans-Atlantic rail proposals only topped out at around 5000mph, whether it was a safety concern, a realistic G-force passenger comfort concern, or some strange limitation of maglev propulsion. Since this hypothetical train doesn't give a shit about any of those things, there should be nothing stopping a 16032 mph train from existing, asides from reasonable safety/comfort concerns and the unimaginable cost.
You know the more I think about it, the more I think this train should be built. Fuck all these stupid transport infrastructure projects, what people really need is a trans-American transport land missile.
[QUOTE=Riller;45939192]Our national railway uses marshmallows.
[t]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/DSB_IC3.jpg[/t][/QUOTE]
[t]http://myldretid.dk/busbilleder3/dsbse19_valby.jpg[/t]
[editline]10th September 2014[/editline]
comes with free graffiti too.
[editline]10th September 2014[/editline]
i do remember the marshmellows though.
[QUOTE=Riller;45939192]Our national railway uses marshmallows.
[t]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/DSB_IC3.jpg[/t][/QUOTE]
Cool we use the same ones
[img]http://www.railwaygazette.com/uploads/pics/tn_il-isr-ic3.jpg[/img]
That design lacks any aerodynamic design whatsoever :v:
[b]WHY[/b]
$5 billion is nothing.
Vancouver's SkyTrain (uses the whole maglev thing for propulsion but still rolls on wheels because it's cheaper) is just under 70km long and cost $4 billion. Maglev costs a fuckton more for a quarter of the distance.
I think they stole line pieces from tetris, then added wheels. Thats why they are all cuboids!
Also, didn't germany / japan make maglev trains at some point? I haven't heard anything for quite some time about them.
[QUOTE=Bbarnes005;45939009]I'm pretty sure automakers have been lobbying against the construction of large-scale high speed rails here in Congress because it'll "hurt their business", which is why we haven't seen any built here not to mention that most Americans prefer to use their cars as their primary mode of transportation which make investing in it very risky.[/QUOTE]
You don't have to go through the political system. You can make it private. Stretch from one side of the country to the other with 2 to 3 stops per state. Have an economy class (like a more spacious airplane), then have business class (individual rooms with amenities for working), and private class (rooms that seat up to 4 like older trains). You could also put "smoking" cars with ventilation on there for business and private classes so smokers could be comfortable as well. You would generate so much revenue from it that it's not even funny.
@vacuum tube train:
The real fun of it starts when a part of the tunnel is breached near your train, leaking huge amount of air in it, and all those air molecules hitting the train... it will be fun
@maglev train:
It is possible to levitate without using any superconducting shit: [url]https://str.llnl.gov/str/Post.html[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inductrack[/url]
[QUOTE=Zarconite;45940008]I think they stole line pieces from tetris, then added wheels. Thats why they are all cuboids!
Also, didn't germany / japan make maglev trains at some point? I haven't heard anything for quite some time about them.[/QUOTE]
Germany gave up. Japan is currently building a maglev line connecting Tokyo and Osaka, and they're pretty big on them, as their techonology is far more advanced than the german versions were, reaching much higher operating speeds.
To anyone that doesn't know (I had to look it up), Baltimore to Washington, DC is ~50 minutes by car.
We already have the MARC, and while a reduction of travel time from ~45 minutes to 15 would be nice we already have a way to get from Baltimore to DC.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_eT4zq8eO0[/media]
holy shit that's loud
[editline]11th September 2014[/editline]
there's something amusing about japanese business men in a train going 500 kmh
[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;45938651]It's really quite ridiculous that the US doesn't have high-speed trains running all up and down the east coast. I guess it just makes too much sense...[/QUOTE]
Train travel isn't very popular in the US compared to other places.
[QUOTE=Bbarnes005;45939067]But those are relatively local systems, by "Major" systems I mean ones that may cover a large area like a high speed rail system/line going from NYC to Chicago or Chicago to St. Louis, which often face both Political and financial barriers.
The only local high-speed/light rail system I can think of around here(Missouri) is the Metrolink system that St. Louis has, but I have no idea how well it does because I don't live in St. Louis. Kansas City might have a similar system, but I've only been through Kansas City once and didn't see anything like that.
But the main barrier to large-scale multi-state high speed rail systems is America's heavily entrenched car culture. I would love to see a national high speed rail system, but I just don't see it happening in the near future. There's actually any abandoned railway that I know that could possibly serve as a good base for a high-speed railsystem between St. Louis and Kansas City: [url]http://www.abandonedrails.com/Saint_Louis_Subdivision[/url][/QUOTE]
Yeah, no, that's probably never going to happen in America just because of how big our country is.
It takes off well in the UK and Japan and other European and Asian nations because the countries over there are much smaller. But here where a good deal of our states are larger than those countries, we can't seem to find the ability to start setting it up because of the vast distances involved.
[editline]10th September 2014[/editline]
[QUOTE=Shogoll;45939270]16,000 mph land missile[/QUOTE]
11/10 would ride
[editline]10th September 2014[/editline]
[QUOTE=Abaddon-ext4;45940675]@vacuum tube train:
The real fun of it starts when a part of the tunnel is breached near your train, leaking huge amount of air in it, and all those air molecules hitting the train... it will be fun[/QUOTE]
Just build the vacuum tube out of a strengthened poly-carbonate alloy, sheath it in steel, then cover it with re-bar reinforced concrete sections.
That or build it under ground.
You people and your rail systems and public transportation. My city used to be a major rail hub. Now we only get the occasional passing freight and everything has gone right to hell. We had factories centralized on those rail lines. All shut down now. Where once there were thriving businesses now there are only heroin dens and discarded disposable needles littered everywhere.
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