by cloudship
But the needs are still there. And so is, in some cases, low speed track.
I think that in the public consciousness there is a lot more to high speed rail than the actual achieved speed - it's the imporession of speed in a comfortable train. Something Amtrak is far, far away from delivering.
Talgo offers the XXI. No, it hasn't been built on our shores, but it is possible. It is able to achieve 110 mph. But it is also possible to run this at slower speeds as well.
Just because there are no funds now to produce a high speed rail line, doesn't meant that you have to give up completely on the idea. There are several routes where even a relatively fast train, if it felt modern and capable of running at a decent speed, would do well. Why not, for instance, purchase the XXI diesel and run it on the tampa-Orlando-Miami route for now? No, it's not going to run at high speed, but it will run comfortable and modern. And when high speed upgrades do become available, then it can run on those as well. You have to create the demand for it, and his might do that.
I think that in the public consciousness there is a lot more to high speed rail than the actual achieved speed - it's the imporession of speed in a comfortable train. Something Amtrak is far, far away from delivering.
Talgo offers the XXI. No, it hasn't been built on our shores, but it is possible. It is able to achieve 110 mph. But it is also possible to run this at slower speeds as well.
Just because there are no funds now to produce a high speed rail line, doesn't meant that you have to give up completely on the idea. There are several routes where even a relatively fast train, if it felt modern and capable of running at a decent speed, would do well. Why not, for instance, purchase the XXI diesel and run it on the tampa-Orlando-Miami route for now? No, it's not going to run at high speed, but it will run comfortable and modern. And when high speed upgrades do become available, then it can run on those as well. You have to create the demand for it, and his might do that.