Re: Why is ada dead?

[Stefan Skoglund <stetson@ebox.tninet.se>]

James Rogers wrote:
> I will be surprised if the US ever develops a train that can
> compete with the French TGV. In the West the population is too
> sparse to support the cost. In the East the cost of acquiring the
> right of way would be too expensive. Current rail lines could not
> be converted because they contain too many sharp turns to support
> high speed rail travel.

Ok i will numerate the areas of the US which i think has
potential:
Illinois (Chicago-St Louis, Chicago-Mpls, Chicago-Detroit)
Washingto-Boston (fixing a number of nasty curves along the corridor)
NorthWest (portland-vancouver)
Florida
California

The Acela train could be competitive in the East and also
California. And then we have the tilting TGV version.

The North-East corridor can be improved by eliminating a number
of nasty curves but it would mean investing maybe 1 bn dollar
while fighting the nimby's.

The problem is getting people onboard in sufficient numbers
and also US citites is usually much more decentralized than european
ones and they also usually has a much worser commuting system
(LA is prob the worst one)
Chicago is bad too due to the rapid expansion west into Illinois
farmlands.

Colorado could be interesting too.
Col Springs-Denver

A worse problem is US railways disbelief in electrification but
they have part-good reasons to dislike it.