- Joined
- Feb 11, 2007
- Messages
- 17,547
Many of the current tracks have too many bends/curves to employ higher speed trains, additionally, there are too many stops on the main lines. IMO there should be two lines, a high speed for between major metropolitians and key locations and secondary trains that transport individuals between majors for connections.
This is why the Acela (and the proposed-but-mostly-dead JetTrain) were developed, to apply tilting technology and allow for maintain speeds while making the turns without teaching passengers about physics. But there are still too many places where that can't even be done. At one point - don't know if it is still true - CT refused to upgrade or allow to be upgraded the tracks/catenary in some areas, preventing the Acela from reaching speeds it otherwise should have been able to reach in the area.
People want new, new features, new technology, the cars that are currently employed do not offer the same level of comforts as modern trains in Europe and Asia, they also do not offer the same ride comfort.
One of the biggest problems is that even though there are existing train designs that would work over in Europe, they don't meet FRA regulations for passenger traffic over shared passenger/freight lines, which is a great majority of the intercity lines, so you can't just take off-the-shelf trainsets from Europe and use them. They must be designed from scratch.