"F.O.A.D." wrote in message
...

....can't compete with this:

Japan Railway Comp. (JR Tokai) (TYO:9022) (aka. "The Central Japan
Railway Comp.) is responsible for ferrying close to 400,000
passengers
a day between some of the largest cities in central Japan. While its
fastest bullet trains can cut the transit time from Tokyo to Osaka
from
about 6 hours by car to about 2 hours and 20 minutes by bullet train,
JR
Tokai is dreaming of a next generation maglev system that could go
even
faster, completing the 500+ kilometer (310+ mile) journey in under an
hour.



When you don't waste your money on the military, you can have nice
things.

--------------------------------

Funds have been approved to develop high speed rail corridors in the
US however the Department of Transportation is still working on the
safety standards that will apply. Right now, the "crash worthiness"
spec for the trains is more than double (in terms of forces than can
be withstood without frame deformation) than the standards used in
Europe and Japan's high speed rail systems, i.e. almost 900,000 lbs
versus 350,000 lbs.

The cost of designing and manufacturing such trains is a major
impediment, as is the cost of the rail system itself. Right now
there are Amtrak trains between Boston and Wash DC capable of doing
over 200 mph however there are very limited stretches of track that
would allow speeds of even 150 mph. Plus, even if they could run at
high speed, they would never be able to sustain the speed very long
without having to stop at stations along the way. Not enough
passenger usage for "non stop" tracks.