The seats are/were nicer on the Acela and I would say on most standard Amtrak trains as well, (regionals, superliners, etc). The Acela seems more roomy but the Eurostar is faster both in top and average speeds. For me a trip from Boston to NYC is not as exciting as a trip from London to Paris. Scratch that, yes it is! I just don't get to Europe as often. Much past that, the food was about equal but there was a slightly wider variety on Amtrak. For alcoholic beverages I give the Eurostar an edge. Amtrak trains appear to be more heavily staffed. It is cool to blast past other TGV trains but you can get the same effect for the most part on Amtrak.
Isn't Siemens making a concerted effort to bid? I've been hearing their ads on the radio for a couple of months touting their Spanish HSR equipment a perfect for the US HSR.
I was in Europe in September 2008 traveling with my brother. We had intended to travel on the Eurostar through the Channel Tunnel, but a fire in the tunnel shut down service so we ended up taking a ferry instead. However, we got lucky on one of our TGV trips within France and got a Eurostar set being used for regular TGV service! Here's a video I shot from that train...
True, but what about the Alps? The Lötschberg Base Tunnel in Switzerland is 21.5 miles long and allows speeds of up to 155mph.
Why on earth would they want to do that. Even the Swiss would not do something like that. :unsure:
The highest of the original railroad tunnels in the alps are at lower elevations that downtown Denver, which is at the foot of the rockies. Regardless of teh Alps, Europe has nothign in the way of mountains compared to the western US.
:blink:
Denver is at 5000' elevation, but is still in the plains. Except for the city's "mile high" nickname and noticing how you huff and puff heading up stairs or carrying luggage, there are few clues coming into Denver from the east that would suggest you are at that elevation. The divide in Colorado is at about 12,000 to 14,000 feet, and Moffat is at just over 9000'. The climb from Denver to get over the divide on US 6 (Loveland Pass) is about 7000', and under the divide at Moffat is just over 4000'. Some of that, and most of the mountains, can be avoided by heading about 200 miles north into Wyoming. I suspect the Alps crossings are comparable to Colorado, and more severe than Wyoming.
A very good point. I was thinking exactly along those lines. But then again I am exceedingly jaded I suppose, since after having spent quite some time exploring the Himalayas and crossing it twice by road, almost anything else seems like an overgrown hill.
There are serious technical reasons why no railroad has ever been attempted across the Himalayas yet, and there are only about half a dozen stable motorable roads across it in its vast stretch of over a thousand miles from the Pamirs to Namche Barwa and the Hump. But that may be about to change, what with two to three lines being discussed.Indeed the rise from the coastal plains to the peaks of the Sierras presents a much bigger challenge than any of the crossings of the Rockies.
Your humor made me smile, Ed. Maybe I was the only one, but then what's a minority for anyway?
