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Cost. It's costs about as much, per mile, to electrify a track as it did to lay the track in the first place. And the USA has a lot of miles of track.Originally Posted by BBHighway
As oil prices keep climbing, at some point it will presumably make sense to spend the money and electrify the rail systems even in the USA.
Tony: Yes as oil and diesel prices rises it should make more and more sense. And even though it sounds very counterintuitive electrifying track isn't an all or nothing proposition. In Norway for instance all the track is electrified except the northernmost route. I'm pretty sure that was done simply for cost reasons, but it seems to work out pretty well. For slower moving passenger trains and freight trains diesel-electric works pretty well.
Cobos
Guys, It's always made sense. It made sense when they built the first EV trollys in the 1880's and they made sense all the way to the time they started ripping them out in the 30's and 40's.
They still make sense.
Whoever has the (liquid) gold makes the rules.
The world loves to be deceived.
These vids are about a year old, but were new to me.
Last edited by doug; 06-24-2008 at 06:00 AM.
Doug:
What's that vote in 2008 they are talking about ? The presidential election?
Cobos
With every election, we also have state and local issues to vote on. The Quest video mentions a bond measure to fund the project. In California, bonds (large long term loans to the government) have to be approved by the voters. At the time the video was made that bond measure was scheduled to appear on the ballot in 2008. That means, that along with voting for president, at the same time we (in CA) would vote on this High Speed Rail bond measure, as well as a bunch of other stuff (local government positions, judges, etc...probably a state constitutional amendment).
At this point it's unclear to me whether this particular measure will be on the ballot this time around. California High-Speed Rail - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hope that answers your question and I didn't sound too pedantic. I'm assuming you don't know how our voting system works.
Thank you, my knowledge on details in your voting system is sketchy at best
Regardles this sounds like an excellent time to start working on this project for California...but I want Norway with it's 4 million people to get a extensive high speed rail network and the state has financed several reports. The most expensive is in the $100 billion range but we'll see what we end up with.
Cobos
Here's a thought; The California High Speed Rail will run along existing thoroughfares and require 25,000 volts for the entire distance. What if charging stations for EVs and PHEVs were put along the highways every 100 miles or so? Property at the charging stations could be leased to restaurants, convenience stores, and (yes) gas stations. Proceeds from leases and EV / PHEV charging could help subsidize the rail system while encouraging alternative transportation.
Mark Tomlinson
"I am not a trouble maker; I'm a catalyst for change."
Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has suggested $150 billion over 10 years for our entire "green overhaul".
Obama Green Talk Is Gold to Silicon Valley - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog
Now it seems kinda small.
The world loves to be deceived.
Keep in mind that the most expensive project isn't very likely to be funded, and Norwegians are actually experts at building tunnels. Considering how many we got we bloody well should be
Just to get it in scale, $100 billion is about half our states annual budgeted expenses. So this will increase our yearly expenditures significantly. At the same time this is about the 1/4 or 1/5 of the cash we got in our collective matrass (more as an investment fund, but you get the point).
Cobos
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