De Train Boss, De Train!
Tuesday, 21. August 2007, 22:12:50
Ok, so i was just listening to the news on my way in to work and the focus was pretty much on how crappy air travel has been in the USA this last summer - pretty horrible. i won't go into the "why" but i will go into my own personal solution. Like a lot of my ideas, it is a grand-scale scheme with very little chance of actually being implemented, but if it were, could change the world. Basically, we need an alternative to flying, right? because airspace is limited and the solutions to the specific problems the airlines face are well-defined and lie on a very long time scale so there is very little i could give for input there. But, if i can circumvent the problem altogether, i might be able to say something useful.
And that something is: build a continent-wide Maglev train system built specifically for passsengers with an option for freight if conditions permit. The maglev approaches jet speeds and has a greater passenger capacity and can be fueled alternatively (wind, solar, biomass, whatever is appropriate to a particular power station). Obviously, we're going to keep it on the grond and stay out of the water and away from the geologically active areas as much as possible, but connect the major urban centers - put one line from Vancouver or Seattle to LA or San Diego. Run another line from NYC to Miami with lots of branches to DC, all the towns along the seabord with connections to the major cities in the midwest - Chicago, St Louis, etc. Run another line in the south from Atlanta to LA. Granted, the mountains present problems, but they can be dealt with and the typical problem with trains is the number of stops they have to make. Well, build two tracks next to each other so that different trains can switch out which is going to stop and which is going on to the next stop. I'm also pretty sure some ingenious engineer could figure out a way to build cars so that a separate train doesn't need to run each route and each train doesn't have to stop at every single station (i.e. detachable cars capable of operating on their own and with the passenger capacity to get the job done and done safely)
now the only trick is to keep the idea from being squashed by some big airline or oil company
And that something is: build a continent-wide Maglev train system built specifically for passsengers with an option for freight if conditions permit. The maglev approaches jet speeds and has a greater passenger capacity and can be fueled alternatively (wind, solar, biomass, whatever is appropriate to a particular power station). Obviously, we're going to keep it on the grond and stay out of the water and away from the geologically active areas as much as possible, but connect the major urban centers - put one line from Vancouver or Seattle to LA or San Diego. Run another line from NYC to Miami with lots of branches to DC, all the towns along the seabord with connections to the major cities in the midwest - Chicago, St Louis, etc. Run another line in the south from Atlanta to LA. Granted, the mountains present problems, but they can be dealt with and the typical problem with trains is the number of stops they have to make. Well, build two tracks next to each other so that different trains can switch out which is going to stop and which is going on to the next stop. I'm also pretty sure some ingenious engineer could figure out a way to build cars so that a separate train doesn't need to run each route and each train doesn't have to stop at every single station (i.e. detachable cars capable of operating on their own and with the passenger capacity to get the job done and done safely)
now the only trick is to keep the idea from being squashed by some big airline or oil company
WIDGETIZE