Discussion: Efficacy of Long Distance Trains

RandallW wrote: ↑Fri Sep 15, 2023 3:25 pm Brightline is not using highway medians anywhere. It is renting property south of a toll road from an authority separate from FDOT that happens to own a ROW 2-3 times the width of the toll road itself. This is in contrast to places like most of the I-95 north of St Petersburg in VA, or almost any highway in a city, where private property (or non-DOT property if public) is < 20 feet from the shoulder of the highway.

It will be; the Brightline West project will be built in the median of I-15 through the desert to Las Vegas.

markhb wrote: ↑Mon Sep 18, 2023 9:38 am
It will be; the Brightline West project will be built in the median of I-15 through the desert to Las Vegas.

That’s going to be interesting West of Yermo Road. Please note the azimuth of I-15 is tilted so you can see Google maps distance tool for accurate measurement.

eolesen wrote: ↑Tue Sep 05, 2023 5:49 am "We've now invested in all of this equipment, we may as well use it somewhere..."

NO doubt that was on their mind when they cut the RFP and subsequent order, but we've seen the legacy roads and Amtrak reconfigure cars plenty. Check this map out - Every state but five has a corridor possibility that could get a Amtrak funding stamp on it. Now the elected reps have some bacon to bring home. And, these are actually very useful networks that could move lots of passenger miles.

Color coding doesn't mean much other than separate services, it's not a great idea to have run-through.

John_Perkowski wrote: ↑Thu Oct 19, 2023 2:40 pm That’s going to be interesting West of Yermo Road. Please note the azimuth of I-15 is tilted so you can see Google maps distance tool for accurate measurement.

So what was the shortest measurement of the freeway's median here?
Photos are nice, but that detail is missing in the photos.
To add, there will be locations where Brightline West will be single tracked. This location might be one of them.
If not, there is the possibility that one, or both, sides of the freeway will be relocated to make more room in the median there.
So why will there be any difficulties building Brightline West in the median there?

Really, the only details I know of the Brightline West project have come from the Brightline forum here, and this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb1JJgEpOi0

electricron wrote: ↑Thu Oct 26, 2023 5:16 am
So what was the shortest measurement of the freeway's median here?
Photos are nice, but that detail is missing in the photos.
To add, there will be locations where Brightline West will be single tracked. This location might be one of them.
If not, there is the possibility that one, or both, sides of the freeway will be relocated to make more room in the median there.
So why will there be any difficulties building Brightline West in the median there?

Who do you propose pay for relocating an interstate highway? One rough order of magnitude estimate is $4 million per mile of new 2 lane single direction road in a rural area.

Remember, the contractor will have to include housing and meals for his employees in the bid. Barstow probably doesn’t have enough heavy construction capacity to do this project and the normal workload in the city.

John_Perkowski wrote: ↑Fri Oct 27, 2023 2:11 pm Who do you propose pay for relocating an interstate highway? One rough order of magnitude estimate is $4 million per mile of new 2 lane single direction road in a rural area.

Remember, the contractor will have to include housing and meals for his employees in the bid. Barstow probably doesn’t have enough heavy construction capacity to do this project and the normal workload in the city.

Why limit the contractors for this project to just being from Barstow?
A project this huge and big will be getting bids from contractors from around the world.

Given that Brightline is largely reusing the environmental documentation from the former XPressWest project, I am going to make the assumption that the track geometry has been fully vetted and no freeway relocation will be necessary. They have the advantage of owning the rail corridor and not having any freight interference, so they have full control of meeting locations and therefore siding needs.

electricron wrote: ↑Sat Oct 28, 2023 5:48 am
Why limit the contractors for this project to just being from Barstow?
A project this huge and big will be getting bids from contractors from around the world.

I think that was exactly his point, that it couldn't be limited to just a local (ie Barstow) contractor. That's why he said the cost would need to include provisions for workforce lodging. A Barstow contractor wouldn't need that provision, but the likelihood is that it would be some further away group getting the job.

I'm creating a "mash-up" of LD Topics going back over the life of the forum.

The recent FRA-route map envisions quite a few LD routes; this author thinks Amtrak is, to state the essences of the article, 'once again' missing the point.

Here's the article and some snippets: BenjaminSchneider.Substack.com

Amtrak is still riding the nostalgia train

Small towns and neglected regions deserve passenger rail service. But long-distance trains aren't the best way to do it.

Oh Amtrak, you beautiful contradiction. With one hand, you’re bringing about an American rail renaissance, investing in new high-demand routes and reinvigorating old workhorses like the Northeast Corridor. Yet with the other hand, you’re laying the groundwork for more of the nostalgic, transcontinental train services that have held passenger rail back for decades.

The progress that Amtrak and the Federal Railroad Administration have made during the Biden Administration is well-publicized, especially in this newsletter. But now America’s passenger rail bureaucracy is showing another side of itself.

Last week, the FRA released a Long-Distance Service Study envisioning 15 new routes of between 750 and 2,000 miles criss-crossing the continent. If implemented, this plan would more than double the long-distance routes and track mileage that Amtrak currently operates.
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