[Novalug] OT: High speed passenger trains

cmhowe@patriot.net cmhowe@patriot.net
Wed Apr 14 13:00:52 EDT 2010


> List,
>
> I have an idea which, if successfully implemented, would, to the best of
> my knowledge and belief, constitute a first in high speed train travel.
> Here is the core idea.
>
> Visualise a train travelling between Richmond and Jacksonville, an area
> without large population centers. But a train has to stop at a lot of
> places, causing the average speed to drop. Visualise the people in Hardee,
> SC, who are to embark getting into a sort of capsule. They are all in and
> the capsule sealed a minute in advance. At the same time, the people
> disembarking are also ready to leave at the same time. Gear (luggage)
> also, of course. It is headed south.
>
> The train slows but does not -- DOES NOT -- come to a full stop. In some
> fashion the disembarking capsule is separated from the moving train and
> put on some kind of track. It slows and stops so that people can
> disembark. At the same time (later, actually, I guess), the embarking
> capsule starts to move. It drops into the space made empty by the
> disembarking capsule. The train accelerates. The net result is that the
> average speed over the entire journey is measurably less.
>
> What I am hoping is that a handful of people will buy into this notion.
> The product of this group would be a short video -- a minute might be
> enough -- that would be shown to the appropriate people in the Department
> of Transportation. The desired result: starting to design that component
> of a high speed surface transportation system for the North American
> continent. Yes, it could take a century to design and implement. Why not
> start now?
>
> Charlie
>

List again (the ones interested; needs to be moved),

A few thoughts on the response. Nowhere near as many as I would like to
make, but no time. I shouldn't even be doing this little bit.

With the advent of power from fusion -- two apparently viable, don't know
about the other two -- we can assume that enough power will be available
to do anything. That is my perception. Feel free to think blue-skies type
thoughts.

Maglev isn't for a "local" -- 8 hours from Portland,Maine, to Homestead,
Florida, with maybe as many as fifty stops is a local. It's for city
centers to same -- Boston to NYC to Philadelphia to Washington to
Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill to Jacksonville to Miami. Nothing against
Maglev. It's just that it's a different iron horse.

There weren't as many ideas as to how to do it as I hoped. If I had the
time I would love to play with them. I'm talking about transfer pods (I
just made up the phrase; disembarking transfer pods -- DTPs -- and ETPs)
having their own engine and energy source, for example.

What I heard more than anything else about how obnoxious plane travel is.
You make the case for the concept.

I say, sell it as a national challenge/goal, like putting a man on the
moon or, better, an open-ended one like the Interstate Highway System.
Perfection: disembarking/embarking accomplished with no slowdown at all
and 200 mph.

The first three tasks: characterise a Boston to Miami route and produce a
one minute viewpoint: say a Red Sox -- Marlins World Series, with fans
traveling between the two via whatever it's called a given. Then getting
it adopted, which might be fairly quick, given the current president, but
is more likely to be a five-year job. Don't count on me to be around even
that long. I will be 84 in a few days and I will be placed in the archives
fairly soon.

Charlie





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