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Never mind the economics, or demographics, how do you run a train from Denver, CO to Green River, UT at 220 mph? A 200-mile long tunnel? Outside the major corridors, my opinion is that we should try for an average speed (not top speed, average speed) of about 75 mph. That's as fast as one can legally drive in most states, and would be competitive with driving. No need to stop for the night, and less stressful. Obviously, some places one can't do that (Marias Pass, MT?), but there are a lot of places where 100 mph would be practical (most of eastern Montana and North Dakota?), so it would work for long-distance trains.A 100-mph passenger train wouldn't mix well with slow coal drags, but would do fine on the same track as 70+mph freights, not uncommon on the western routes.
Pretty much finished up the body of Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee car #154. Shapeways body on a Tomytec TM-21 mech. Need to add lights and perhaps an encoder at some point. This is based on a photograph of 154 when it ran at the Ohio Railway Museum in Worthington, Oh in the 1970's. Tamiya paints (NATO black for the roof), MTL Z couplers. Need to trim off the air hoses. Greeting card protective plastic for windows. Spent many hours in this car. Right off the south end of the Ohio State Rt 161 bridge, the motorman would kick it and in a few seconds it would be doing 50-60 mph.
I don't think trains will ever compete with planes for long-distance business travel, because time is the driving factor for businesses. But, I think that auto-trains could compete well for leisure travel, where cost, convenience and the ability to take along a carload of stuff is a big advantage, especially when traveling with kids.
All of a sudden, that 1 hour flight is actually five hours dedicated to JUST traveling.
5 hours of productive work time on the train
It's great if you can be productive; still tho that's a long time to be stuck in a seat. My back would not be very happy coming out of that.
I don't know when it comes to business travel. Sure, time is one factor, but it's not just time between places. It's also "time that can be spent working". It's one of the reasons why we used to take the train to DC from Baltimore even though we could drive "cheaper". When you're driving, you're driving, even if you're a passenger. There's no down time. No focus time. Just driving.Flying is even worse.Lets say you need to go from DC to Albany NY. Sure, that'd be a nice quick hour (or so) long flight. Right?But it's full of time you can't be doing anything other than traveling.1 hour to the airport - Driving, parking, shuttles, etc...2 hours inside the airport - TSA, getting to the gate, finding a seat at the departure lounge, lining up to board, boarding, etc...)1 hour flight time - No time to get your laptop out and do anything productive on such a short flight1 hour at the destination airport - Getting from the gate to transportation, renting your car, etc...All of a sudden, that 1 hour flight is actually five hours dedicated to JUST traveling.Meanwhile, I think it was a five hour train ride. .75 hour to the station and onto the train - no TSA, no huge airport terminal, no parking issues5 hours of productive work time on the train.25 from the more convenient station to your destinationI'd tell my people to take the train every time.
Spent many hours in this car. Right off the south end of the Ohio State Rt 161 bridge, the motorman would kick it and in a few seconds it would be doing 50-60 mph.
AND...if you are a consultant like I was for a few years, if you're not working, you're not billing. So in Ed's scenario above, I can only bill 1 hour if flying and 5 hours if training. Traveling is on your time as a consultant.
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Topic: Weekend Update 8/7/22 (Read 6568 times)
