High-Speed Rail

Sadly, one of the unfortunate side-effects of the Conservative tub-thumpers being sent packing, as they were last election, is the Democrats think they won.
We see this in the reemergence of High-Speed Rail as a siren-song across New York State.
Obama is a Democrat in name only; more a statement against politics-as-usual, the old Democrat-versus-Republican waazoo.
And the High-Speed Rail touted ain’t the high-speed rail of Western Europe.
The Europeans build completely new railroads, but high-speed rail in this country is throwing bazilyuns of dollars at an existing railroad.
The old New York Central Water-Level Route, now CSX, is capable of sustaining high train speeds, but I don’t know about 200+ mph.
The old Water-Level threads numerous cities, and dog-legs up the Hudson before it heads west.
Its alignment wasn’t built with the latest grading technology, the kind used to grade interstates.
Its alignment has been around way over 100 years.
High-Speed Rail advocates show us videos of Acelas whizzing on the Northeast Corridor — another joke; perhaps even worse than the Water-Level.
No mention of the tiny tunnels in Baltimore, or 40 mph at Zoo Tower in Philadelphia.
And no mention of the height and size restrictions in the tiny Hudson Tunnels, opened in 1910.
And, of course, the Corridor trains are electrically powered.
Electrifying the Water-Level would cost a fortune.
I don’t know as it’s possible to get 200 mph any other way; I doubt a diesel could do it economically.
And even if it’s electrified, it’s still the Water-Level; a route laid down in the 1800s.
The advocates wanna parade glitzy show-trains; glittering icons that outshine the average train.
This isn’t high-speed rail; it’s just a public-relations gambit.
Just another hyper-expensive boondoggle, much like the Buffalo Subway.
The Subway cost a fortune, mostly because it was tunneling through the rocky Niagara Escarpment, and it’s little used.
The cars are essentially high-speed trolley cars, and in downtown Buffalo on the street they trundle at a walk.
The current speed-limit on parts of the Water-Level is 79 mph.
A High-Speed Rail project might get it up to 100; and that won’t be point-to-point.
What’s forgotten in this High-Speed Rail schtick, is that the main economic advantage of a railroad is moving vast quantities of freight for peanuts.
A railroad can’t be portal-to-portal; that is from your garage to the door of your office.
Railroading passengers was okay until the automobile came along, which can do portal-to-portal.
The daily trek to work is into your car, or out to the bus-stop, and then cart yourself to your place of employ.
Ya might hafta walk from a parking-lot, or a downtown bus-stop; but railroads don’t get there.
Railroads in Philly or New York City might get you close to your employ, but ya still gotta get from your garage to the train station.
High-Speed Rail is only a viable alternative to -a) taking the jet cross-country, or -b) driving cross-country.
High-Speed Rail across New York state isn’t your daily commute — it’s cross-country.
High-Speed Rail (passenger cross-country rail) is just another bloated boondoggle.
And if Obama has any sense at all, he’ll quash it.
A better investment is to build a completely new railroad comparable to the new Paris-Lyon route. —An alternative that would actually draw cross-country travelers outta their cars, or off of jets.
Acela on the Northeast Corridor is a viable alternative to the east coast jet shuttle, or I-95, but still there are those tunnels in Baltimore, and 40 mph at Zoo Tower.
It’s only an alternative — it ain’t superior.

All my siblings are tub-thumping Conservative REPUBLICANS, but I’m not, so I’m of-the-Devil.

I’m a railfan, and have been since I was a child.

“The Water-Level” is the old mainline of the New York Central Railroad across New York State, now owned and operated by CSX Transportation. Called “Water-Level” because it followed river-courses, and thereby avoided mountain grades. (The topography of New York State, north of the Allegheny Mountains, made west-east transportation easier.)

“Hudson” River.

The “Northeast Corridor” is the old Pennsylvania Railroad’s electrified line from Washington D.C. to New York City; since extended to Boston over the alignment of the old New Haven Railroad. It’s fastest trains are the “Acela” trainsets. —Everything is now operated by Amtrak, a government corporation promulgated in 1970 to take over rail passenger service. It mainly runs passenger trains over the independent railroads with its own equipment, but it also owns and operates its own railroads; e.g. the old Pennsy electrified line from New York City to Washington D.C., the so-called “Northeast Corridor;” although the Corridor has been extended to Boston over the old New York, New Haven & Hartford line. I.e. Amtrak owns and operates the “Northeast Corridor.”

“Zoo Tower” is the old Pennsylvania Railroad interlocking in Philadelphia between the lines to New York City, Washington D.C., and Harrisburg PA to the west. So named because it was next to the Philadelphia Zoo. A central tower (“Zoo Tower”) controlled everything, setting switches, signals, etc. It’s now part of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor. (An “interlocking” is where crossover switches, or switches, connect adjacent tracks. Everything was interlocked so that switches couldn’t be thrown in conflict, or without a signal indication. “Interlockings” are now called “Control-Points;” and used to be switched by lineside towers. They can now be switched electronically from a distant central location.) —Zoo interlocking still exists. The curves and switches in the interlocking can’t be negotiated safely over 40 mph.

The “Niagara Escarpment” is a long ridge of hard dolomite rock Niagara Falls goes over. It goes both east and west of the Falls; even as far east as Rochester.

Nearly all railroad locomotives are “diesel”-electric; that is, electric traction motors between the wheels driven by a large diesel engine and generator. The Northeast Corridor (and high-speed rail in Europe) is straight electric — electric locomotives that draw electricity from an overhead wire. (—Although electric trains can be powered by a ground-level energized third rail; but the Corridor is overhead wire.)