HIGH SPEED REMINDER

NEARLY CARBON FREE, AND ALREADY AS FAST AS PLANES...

Articles on High Speed Rail here and there, all over the USA, saying nothing which could not have been said 30 years ago. Many European governments have been aware of this sort of things for so long that thousands of miles of very high speed rail are already built in Europe.

Mr. Florida from "The Atlantic" wrote an article explaining that High Speed Rail would helpt the megacities of the USA (as a good American, he used the occasion to underestimate the French and British GDPs...)

Mr. Florida expects speeds much lower than the ones already deployed in France (320 kmh = 200mph on the TGV Sud Est and TGV Est). Latest High Speed Rail lines in France are built for 250 mph = 400 kilometers an hour(8 kilometers radius curves).In normal operations Siemens Valero has reached 400 kmh (250 mph) in Spain.

Maglev has strictly no advantage on steel wheels. Tests on TGV at 575 kmh (~ 360 mph) have shown that air resistance is the main problem. Steel wheels trains can go anywhere a train can, and that a Maglev cannot do. In France, on many lines TGV go faster than normal trains. Normal trains on the mainlines go at 125 mph (200 kmh). Also Pendolino type TGVs, bank to take turns at higher speed than normal trains on normal lines, are made for intermediate speeds. Russia ordered plenty of those).

A Maglev, being very lightly built, burns and gets destroyed very easily (the experimental Japanese Maglev burned, and a German Maglev crashed, killing 23, and severely injuring 10).

High Speed Rail should not be restricted to the mega regions. The latest AGV is supposed to cruise more economically than the TGV at 225 miles an hour. Cruising speeds of 250mph should be no problem, giving EFFICIENT and CARBON FREE travel for the masses between Los Angeles and New York City in ten hours, faster than a plane when all is included, city center to city center (once going to the airport, security, and crawling on the runways is taken into account).

The carbon efficiency, safety and reliability of High Speed Rail are its biggest advantages. Another advantage is that HSR is high technology, and the USA could learn to make advanced stuff (the Tesla electric roadster is has a carbon fiber body built in France, the AGV uses carbon fiber; TGV brings regenerative braking to the world's highest heights, the speeds are too high for thermal braking.)


Patrice Ayme
http://patriceayme.wordpress.com/