Quote:
Originally Posted by electricron
The new Avelia trains will only be going faster than 125 mph over a short distances where there are mostly straight tracks; the 25-30 miles between Trenton to Brunswick in NJ, and the 20 miles between Providence to North Kingston in RI. That's just 45-50 miles of the NEC that is 453 miles long, and they are going no faster than 160 mph (257 km/h) No one in the world considers it a true High Speed Rail service (300 km/hr and faster).
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According to the info, the technology is supposed to allow for up to 160 mph (260 km/h) for regular operating speed, 186 mph (300 km/h) maximum operating service w/ tilting, & 220 mph (350 km/h) maximum speed w/o tilting. If the trains couldn't go faster than 125 mph, then I don't believe that the manufacturer (Alstom, makers of the famed TGV trains in France) constructed them for use in America plus what's the purpose of replacing the Acela if the trains can't go faster other than bringing in brand new rolling stock.
It remains to be seen what will be the speed once the Avella Liberty trains come to revenue service after this year. The reason why the Avella Liberty won't go faster than 125 is because of the amount of stations between Boston and DC, in which there is a lot between the Northeast Corridor. It wouldn't make any sense for the trains to operate 150 mph between stops
all the time, as the train sets need to speed up, slow down, or brake and come to a complete stop depending on the circumstances as well as how close they are to a station.
The true test would be to place those types of trains between cities where the distance is about 100 miles, meaning it could be ideal for Chicago-Detroit, Chicago-St Louis, Portland-Seattle-Vancouver, and even San Diego-Los Angeles-San Francisco service, where the distances between cities are much greater than in the East Coast. You're not going to get the 150 mph effect between Boston and Providence, NYC, Newark & Philadelphia, and Baltimore & DC, albeit, traveling 125 mph is a lot better than the 75-80 mph that the now older Acela trains used to operate on.
Quote:
Originally Posted by electricron
If you want 300 km/h and faster trains you need to completely rebuild "all" the curves in the railroad right-of-way.That adds costs as new right-of-way needs to be pruchased from neighboring land owners, not a cheap thang to accomplish.
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When it comes to the East Coast, I wouldn't want it that fast, as the Acela trains did their job at going at what we considered high speed rail here (80 mph). It's best to once again place the Avella Liberty where distances between major cities are much longer than 100 miles.
I can understand redoing the trackage and making the ROW as straight as possible, but the trains do not have to go 186 mph (300 kph) just to have the best service. I'm pretty sure if the Canadian project would go 150 mph during the relatively straighter Cornwall-Oshawa segment, so long as the ROW is grade-separated.
The distance between Montreal & Cornwall and Toronto & Oshawa only needs up to 100 mph due to the shorter distances while the Kingston-Ottawa & the Ottawa-Montreal segments do need to be considered as that's the curviest segment in the project and I'd restrict the speed to 100-120 mph just because of the frequent curves.
Hopefully, once the Toronto-Montreal is built (if if gets built that way), then that would open up service between Montreal-Quebec City, Toronto-London-Windsor, and hopefully services between Montreal and Boston/New York, Toronto-Detroit, & Toronto-Niagara Falls-Buffalo-Albany-NYC.