by neroden
villager wrote:Last I checked, they are, however, *grading* the route for a double-track ROW, and are making it single-track largely to save money on bridges, which will all be single-tracked. Double-tracking would then involve building second bridges in a lot of places -- they're going to do the grading for those bridges, but not the actual bridge-building. They're also placing the tracks so they don't have to be moved to add a second track. (Bridges over the tracks will be wide enough to accomodate two tracks).David Benton wrote:i was just wondering if the capital cost of a single track would be alot less tha double . and if it would be possible to offer a reasonable service , based on good timekeeping and properly spaced crossing loops .The Southeast HSR corridor is more or less taking this approach. The plan is to build a primarily single-track railroad in old S-line corridor between Raleigh and Richmond, with 3.5 to 5-mile long sidings every 10-11 miles or so.
Thus, the answer to your question is YES, as long as you don't plan for much heavier levels of service beyond your initial plan. In this case, the plan calls for about 10 HSR trains each direction each day, as well as a number of freights (at least 10 daily).
This avoids most of the potential waste: the cost of upgrading to a double-track system will be exactly the same as the difference between building a single-track system now and building a double-track system now, except for inflation and track access. In contrast, grading for single track and then later having to widen the ROW is a major duplication of expense.
