I am old by now, I know, but I consider 200 km/h to be high-speed rail. Do I enjoy an ICE3neo barrelling down the (French) tracks with 25 kV/50 Hz overhead power at 320 km/h or 200 mph? Yes. I do. It's a highlight in the life of a European train nerd.
I wonder what battery trains for Brightline would look like? Long term I’d say just go for powerful electric locomotives, an 8000HP loco can replace 2 chargers and still out perform them!
I do hope that if Brightline as a company dies, Amtrak buys up the service. Would be difficult to manage funding in Florida, but it should be better to hand it over to the public rather than a private enterprise.
If the alternative is zero train service, for sure. All things considered, the Northeast Corridor Amtrak runs is pretty good, its main issues are ancient infrastructure which Brightline doesn’t have to worry about. And since the service itself is extremely popular and well used, I see amtrak running it well, potentially making it be a second northeast corridor (or more accurately, southeast corridor!)
Fair enough. I just worry the Brightline company itself will put the rail service in jeopardy considering the debt. I want Brightline to do well, so I just worry the way it’s managed today might need to change in order to keep their good rail service running.
I think that is the wrong way around. The way it should be now is Brightline buying out Amtrak and putting the service upright with the feet down, while it is currently running upside-down. I have not been to Trumpistan recently, and I won't go there in the near future either (I am not crazy), but from what I understand and can relate to from personal experience and reports from friends, Brightline is running a reasonable service, while Amtrak services universally appear to suck.
Amtrak service is generally solid, but the reliability of the rails can be entirely dependant on host railroads. Amtrak has made a lot of mistakes, but they generally strive to provide a good service. The Northeastern Corridor is great!
The whole concept of "host railroads" is stupid. Amtrak needs its own tracks, and they need to be built to passenger-service standards. You can't run good passenger service over freight tracks.
On the rolling stock side, I’m not sure that EMUs are needed for Brightline’s express intercity service, at least today. 200kmh powerful electric intercity locomotives like the ACS64 in the Northeast, among the many other examples worldwide, work great for express intercity service with few stops. With less moving parts per train, locomotives and coaches cost less to operate than EMUs when the time savings when using EMUs are negligible or nonexistent. It also allows Brightline to just swap the charger locomotives for electric locomotives and cab cars without a massive fleet replacement. However, if Brightline does ever want to add more stations in the Miami area and run regional intercity services, this is a perfect place to purchase EMUs, where acceleration/braking in and out of stations matters, unlike on express intercity service where push-pull trains will work indefinitely. Long term, retaining locos and coaches for express trains, and EMUs, preferably based on the Siemens venture/airo design for good economies of scale and swappable coaches with today’s fleet, for regional trains should be a good solution.
On the operations side, I just worry that a private company will prioritize profits and shareholders over providing public train service. As of now, Brightlines service is doing well, but when the pandemic happened Brightline was entirely halted with no money coming in, and my fear is with the impending debt, Brightline will be forced to shut down and leave Florida without the good intercity service they have today. It almost feels verbatim of what happened when forming Amtrak in 1970; private passenger trains were losing money, and the alternative was to let the passenger trains go extinct if Amtrak didn’t exist.
Okay, that makes sense. I mean, there is probably a reason why high-speed rail systems predominantly use EMUs, generally speaking. But as a transitory measure, maybe electric locomotives are a good solution.
Well, yes. Maybe Brightline and Amtrak should merge. Obviously, regulation is needed to keep passenger rail running.
Don't say "washrooms" when you mean "toilets". Say "toilets". That is already a euphemism of what we are really talking about. A "toilet", from French "toilette", is literally a small cloth. It is a cognate of, which means it shares the origin with, the term "towel".
Nevertheless, it is understood in many if not all Western languages to mean the facility where we can relieve ourselves of what our body considers surplus to requirements.
So just use the word "toilet" whenever you want to mention a toilet. That is what the word is for.
I have worked for a Canadian company for a few years, so I know the word "washroom" and what it means, and it may be understandable to other speakers of English, but why risk it when the word "toilet" exists?
What’s the risk here? The audience is primarily Canadians and he typically writes about transit in Canadian cities or from a Canadian perspective.
For what it’s worth Atwood does the same in THT. The world over people adapt themselves to different regionalisms. I’m sure you can manage as well.
I am old by now, I know, but I consider 200 km/h to be high-speed rail. Do I enjoy an ICE3neo barrelling down the (French) tracks with 25 kV/50 Hz overhead power at 320 km/h or 200 mph? Yes. I do. It's a highlight in the life of a European train nerd.
But 200 km/h is high-speed rail.
For sure, Its fast
I wonder what battery trains for Brightline would look like? Long term I’d say just go for powerful electric locomotives, an 8000HP loco can replace 2 chargers and still out perform them!
I do hope that if Brightline as a company dies, Amtrak buys up the service. Would be difficult to manage funding in Florida, but it should be better to hand it over to the public rather than a private enterprise.
Do you really think Amtrak would manage it well?
If the alternative is zero train service, for sure. All things considered, the Northeast Corridor Amtrak runs is pretty good, its main issues are ancient infrastructure which Brightline doesn’t have to worry about. And since the service itself is extremely popular and well used, I see amtrak running it well, potentially making it be a second northeast corridor (or more accurately, southeast corridor!)
I just don't think I'd agree. The NEC is only good by American rail standards. There is loads of things Brightline already does better.
Fair enough. I just worry the Brightline company itself will put the rail service in jeopardy considering the debt. I want Brightline to do well, so I just worry the way it’s managed today might need to change in order to keep their good rail service running.
I think that is the wrong way around. The way it should be now is Brightline buying out Amtrak and putting the service upright with the feet down, while it is currently running upside-down. I have not been to Trumpistan recently, and I won't go there in the near future either (I am not crazy), but from what I understand and can relate to from personal experience and reports from friends, Brightline is running a reasonable service, while Amtrak services universally appear to suck.
This my impression; feel free to adjust.
Once the stupid current régime has been overcome, one would hope that federal and state dollars pay for
- separate tracks for passenger trains distinct from freight on all main corridors
- electrification of everything, to a reasonable standard (25 kV AC @ 60 Hz is probably what you want, given that you are in North America)
- new rolling stock to make use of that, especially replace all Diesel equipment with new overhead-power EMUs.
Amtrak service is generally solid, but the reliability of the rails can be entirely dependant on host railroads. Amtrak has made a lot of mistakes, but they generally strive to provide a good service. The Northeastern Corridor is great!
It's ok some of the time, they still get a lot of stuff wrong that is entirely within their control. Seems to be run by old fashioned railroaders.
The whole concept of "host railroads" is stupid. Amtrak needs its own tracks, and they need to be built to passenger-service standards. You can't run good passenger service over freight tracks.
On the rolling stock side, I’m not sure that EMUs are needed for Brightline’s express intercity service, at least today. 200kmh powerful electric intercity locomotives like the ACS64 in the Northeast, among the many other examples worldwide, work great for express intercity service with few stops. With less moving parts per train, locomotives and coaches cost less to operate than EMUs when the time savings when using EMUs are negligible or nonexistent. It also allows Brightline to just swap the charger locomotives for electric locomotives and cab cars without a massive fleet replacement. However, if Brightline does ever want to add more stations in the Miami area and run regional intercity services, this is a perfect place to purchase EMUs, where acceleration/braking in and out of stations matters, unlike on express intercity service where push-pull trains will work indefinitely. Long term, retaining locos and coaches for express trains, and EMUs, preferably based on the Siemens venture/airo design for good economies of scale and swappable coaches with today’s fleet, for regional trains should be a good solution.
On the operations side, I just worry that a private company will prioritize profits and shareholders over providing public train service. As of now, Brightlines service is doing well, but when the pandemic happened Brightline was entirely halted with no money coming in, and my fear is with the impending debt, Brightline will be forced to shut down and leave Florida without the good intercity service they have today. It almost feels verbatim of what happened when forming Amtrak in 1970; private passenger trains were losing money, and the alternative was to let the passenger trains go extinct if Amtrak didn’t exist.
Lots of private rail companies work around the world, the shareholders are happy when you are moving more stuff!
Okay, that makes sense. I mean, there is probably a reason why high-speed rail systems predominantly use EMUs, generally speaking. But as a transitory measure, maybe electric locomotives are a good solution.
Well, yes. Maybe Brightline and Amtrak should merge. Obviously, regulation is needed to keep passenger rail running.
Don't say "washrooms" when you mean "toilets". Say "toilets". That is already a euphemism of what we are really talking about. A "toilet", from French "toilette", is literally a small cloth. It is a cognate of, which means it shares the origin with, the term "towel".
Nevertheless, it is understood in many if not all Western languages to mean the facility where we can relieve ourselves of what our body considers surplus to requirements.
So just use the word "toilet" whenever you want to mention a toilet. That is what the word is for.
I have worked for a Canadian company for a few years, so I know the word "washroom" and what it means, and it may be understandable to other speakers of English, but why risk it when the word "toilet" exists?
Just call a crapper a small cloth. It's fine.
What’s the risk here? The audience is primarily Canadians and he typically writes about transit in Canadian cities or from a Canadian perspective.
For what it’s worth Atwood does the same in THT. The world over people adapt themselves to different regionalisms. I’m sure you can manage as well.
Is that so? I don't know. Reece may know.
I try to write in a way that is natural to me, but I will take your comments onboard.