Airplanes vs High Speed Electric Trains

[80watts]

Instead of having just airplanes, what about high speed trains between major cities?

Is it viable?

 

[Ray]

Horribly expensive.

US $89million/mile in relatively flat terrain in California.
To go east from Vancouver, you will need elevated tracks through the Rocky mountains. Costs could be as high as $200 million/mile.

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-cost-per-mile-to-build-high-speed-rail

 

[take8easy]

Co-incidentally, I watched this on YouTube just few days ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qaf6baEu0_w

 

[Deguire]

It might be viable on the Quebec - Windsor corridor. Maybe. Otherwise, no. If you look at France or Italy, they have shorter distances, a lot more people and taxpayer subsidies. Can't be done here.

 

[islander1-1]

How about my far fetched idea... sky train uses a system called linear induction motor. Your car comes from the factory with magnets under it, an onboard dedicated computer to control stearing, breaking, acceleration.. You can drive it like any normal car, or if you want to travel to say Calgary.. You hop into a dedicated lane on the trans Canada Highway (Already there now) and the LIM brings you up to full speed, 150-200 KPH Exactly the same speed as everyone else in the special sectioned off lane. You the sit back, relax, watch the scenery or a movie in the big screen (the cars front windshield, which is now a Plasma screen.)

 

[clu]

How about my far fetched idea... sky train uses a system called linear induction motor. Your car comes from the factory with magnets under it, an onboard dedicated computer to control stearing, breaking, acceleration.. You can drive it like any normal car, or if you want to travel to say Calgary.. You hop into a dedicated lane on the trans Canada Highway (Already there now) and the LIM brings you up to full speed, 150-200 KPH Exactly the same speed as everyone else in the special sectioned off lane. You the sit back, relax, watch the scenery or a movie in the big screen (the cars front windshield, which is now a Plasma screen.)

Thing about the Skytrain is Translink is responsible for maintenance. I wouldn't trust individual owners to keep their cars viable. One sloppily-maintained car could take down the system.

My idea for high speed transit was a secondary road system where all laws, liability and insurance was suspended. Basically go as fast as you want but it's on you and nobody is coming to your rescue.

 

[80watts]

Was also thinking about another sky train parallel to current one.

High speed trains between major cities on prairies. Edm, Cal, Med Hat, Swift Current, Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Yorkton, Brandan etc.

Winnipeg to Thunder Bay,
Montreal to Toronto, Ottawa,
Northern On to southern Ontario


Along these routes solar and wind farms can be built, to supply energy the train line etc. also communications like fibre optics.

Not only in the future will we need less transportation that burn hydrocarbons we will need a cleanner electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves). So sending info through fibre can eliminate some of that...

Right now the world is stuck in Reverse Gear when it comes to planning our future and betterment of our next generation. As the video says we been stuck on gas and car (pollution given us by some major corporations - Standard Oil, Goodyear etc) since the 1950s, which is one of the reasons the world is having a problem with greenhouse gases... like CO2.

 

[licks2nite]

These big infrastructure dreams require an exploding population to make payments. More people, more pollution, more carbon, more encroachment upon environment, more endangered species. All thing that you care about.

 

[badbadboy]

It’s interesting that Eurail has a network of the GTV trains all over France with connections to Spain and Italy too.

It’s pretty mountainous going into Spain and Italy. Not on the scale of B.C. and Alberta but it’s still significant.

https://www.eurail.com/en/get-inspired/trains-europe/high-speed-trains/tgv