If Brightline's Orlando extension and Brightline West land on their feet, I would bet these guys are going to look hard at this for their next opportunity. They have the team and expertise to build this unlike anyone else in the US. Could be as close to a plug and play situation for Brightline if they pick up where TC left off.
Good point. Who says the line has to be electrified. CAHSR is apparently holding off catenary and going Hydrogen FLIRT trains. No reason why a capable company like Brightline could not resurrect the project and drastically cut costs.
I thought it was the existing regional trains that were FLIRTing with hydrogen, not CAHSR.
Agreed--you don't need this train to hit 200mph to be a success. The Shinkansen wasnt built in one sweet, it was built and gradually upgraded. If you ran it using dual mode Chargers (like Amtrak just ordered) and ran it at 125mph for the entire route (but keeping the route designed for high speed turns), you would need much less capital to get that project started and could add electrification later on once you are having success. If you can beat a car by an 1.5 hours on a 3.5 hour drive, you have yourself a market for a product.
I was only able to find one test order of four hydrogen trains with an 80MPH speed limit and no obvious connection to CAHSR.
Maybe we should wait for Brightline to turn a profit or build something outside of Florida before we start awarding them unproven accolades.
To reach 125MPH in the US you would need Class 7 track and by the time you're building that the additional cost to reach Class 8 or 9 is negligible. Locking this project into diesel-electric power for the next two or three decades is likely to dissuade the very people who are most open to using a train over a car.
I should have clarify the FLIRTS, which are replacing some of the San Joaquins which will be using CAHSR track.
Right now they are capital limited. I don't think we will see them expand outside of brightline west and flordia service for a while. Unless states and or feds given them money for new lines.
because the only way you break 125mph cheaply is with wires.
they are not, the service will be truncated.
brightline west uses weird state issued private company bonds and cheap state owned ROWs.
Yes it is. There was an article, apparently now removed that stated the Amtrak SQ was going to use the completed portions of the CAHSR. Its now removed. Now I guess the plan is to meet at Merced and change trains.
be careful around LA times and CAHSR Ralph Vartabedian wants the project killed and lies about it often
Sure, but if they are able to show profitability on 2 active train lines, their ability to borrow will increase dramatically. In addition, if the first two ventures prove successful, fortress is likely to keep funding their expansion.
I was saying that you might not need to break 125 to be initially successful as long as you can hit that speed throughout and avoid slowdowns. They would want to average 120mph or so, and if it’s a dedicated line that should be possible if well designed with max superelevation etc
I would agree if Texas Central went downtown-to-downtown. Stopping out in the Houston suburbs is a bit of a hiccup.
I mean, Brightline (in FL) mostly uses a "cheap" privately-owned ROW (combined with access to two publicly-owned ROWs with a small patch in the Orlando area when you take the general scope of the project as a whole), since the owner of FEC decided that passenger business was worth bringing back (even if only to make a killing in real estate with).
Remember brightline and FEC are no longer owned by the same company, they just are using a bunch of existing agreements.
UP seem to be willing to do a 50 if not 100 year lease if you build and maintain your tracks and you don't interfere with them. at least to counties and state goves.
Yes, there are so many of them!
Taking Texas Central into downtown Houston would require an awful lot of eminent domain and cause huge costs plus delays engendered by endless legal disputes. This is the sort of thing a government-run railroad might do, but a privately operated railroad might be more cautious about.
Are there any freeways that have enough unused ROW?
Unfortunately building elevated ROWs with pillars even in very narrow freeway or other main thoroughfare medians are looked down upon in the US apparently. That is how a preponderance of new Metros are built in Asia.
Let guv'ment build it then sell it and it's debt to a private company for pennies on the dollar.
Yes, but they were executed under common ownership at the time. The break-up occurred after things were worked out between what I believe amounted to two divisions within the same corporate parent.
This is largely true. My point is that this still creates an issue in terms of "selling" the trip to folks.
