Ground was broken today on what is said to be America’s first high-speed rail. The project, which is designed to connect Los Angeles and Las Vegas via a 218-mile stretch of track that will be built across the Mojave desert, will be completed within the next four years, its backers say.
The proposed infrastructure project will stretch from the California city of Rancho Cucamonga to Vegas and is being headed by rail construction firm Brightline. In its description of the project, the company notes that the new route will be traveled by “all-electric, zero-emission trains” that will be capable of “reaching top speeds of 200 mph, getting passengers from Las Vegas to Rancho Cucamonga in about 2 hours and 10 minutes (2x faster than the normal drive time).” The project was helped along by $3 billion in federal funding supplied by the Biden administration, the Associated Press writes.
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I was going to bitch that they’re not HSR, or even our first, because their top speed (140 mph) is lower than the Acela (160 mph), but I just checked and now Brightline West is claiming their train will be capable of 200 mph. Can someone clarify if this is some kind of marketing gimmick (ie. The trainset is literally capable of 200 mph but will never achieve those speeds because the top speed of the track is 140), or did Brightline change their plans?
Edit: math says it’s a gimmick. Google shows the trip at 230 mi, which means that even accounting for accelerating and the whole track not being 200 mph rated, the trip should still be damn close to or under 90 minutes at 200 mph; instead it takes two and a half hours, which puts it at an average (not top, average) speed of ~90 mph (230 miles / 2.5 hrs = 92 mi/h). If they were actually hitting 200, I think it’d drag that average higher up.
Okay, so, yes, bitching is back on the menu, plus a little extra for the lying marketing MFs. Brightline West is more properly Mid-Speed Rail, which is fine, actually, we could do with a lot more MSR where HSR doesn’t make perfect sense, because it’s still faster and more convenient than driving and much cheaper than building HSR alignments. I wish they’d say it loud and proud, MSR is a good thing. But America’s first HSR my ass; they’re slower than the Acela.
Granted, I’m no trainologist, but I’d assume some of the additional time could be due to driving through areas where a 200mph train would be likely to obliterate cars and bodies operated by morons in higher density areas.
I mean, yeah, I’m not a train doctor or anything, but I do know that top speeds are set by FRA rules and those rules lean much, much, much more heavily on the design of the track than they do on the engine and rolling stock. Last I heard, they were engineering the track to the FRA standard that caps out around 140 (IIRC), and that’s not exactly something you can just change on a whimsy, because each higher grade requires a lot tighter rules and regs to be followed. That’s part of what’s taking CAHSR so long; they’re at the top FRA speed bracket, and there are a lot of very specific rules to follow there. For example, if you want to go through an urban area at speed, you need grade separation, which is something that they’re doing. I could be wrong, but I really think they’re saying that the train set is on paper capable of 200 mph (and it is, IIRC), not that the actual ride will max out at 200 mph.
Not a train doctor, shhh
I see your point, but this is the first one and they’re testing the contractors and the ability under relatively low stakes. They still want to be safe and that boring ass trip to Vegas can be done on a train.
Oh, absolutely, my bitch is framing this as America’s first HSR when it isn’t. I’m definitely glad it’s getting built, regardless.
Acela
I had no idea they had one since 1994, crazy. Thanks for talking about it.
Of course! There’s debate among urbanists/foamers about whether Acela really counts as HSR (conventionally, HSR starts around 180 mph IIRC), but it’s definitely the fastest train in the US ATM, so it’s been allowed to slide. But yeah, a lot of folks don’t know about Acela outside of the area it serves. Amtrak has sort of been a red-headed stepchild for decades, so a lot of folks just don’t think about Amtrak at all, and, I mean, it’s hard to blame them, unfortunately.
