[electricron]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

The argument against this happening on a large scale isn't the theoretical practicality of it -- it's that the capacity of the full HSR is unknown at this point because they haven't ordered the trains.

The Parsons-Brinkerhoff study from around 2008 projected 4 trains per hour to SF and at least 2 more that will terminate at San Jose. But the problem is that they are limiting the station platforms to 800 feet, not 1600 feet as exists in France and Japan. So each train will be limited to about 400 passengers, not 800.

That means many if not most trains will sell out far in advance. The big advantage of the 1600-foot trains is that few trains sell out, so ticket prices can be lower, which incentivizes people to take the train instead of fly or drive.

CHSR hasn’t ordered any trains yet. Suppose they order double level TGV HSR train sets - wouldn’t they transport the same number of passengers as a twice longer single level train?