Notable quotable

Houston gets real about rail

Posted by Katharine Wroth at 1:22 PM on 19 Jun 2008

Read more about: placemaking | public transportation | quotables

"I'll say it loud and clear: No longer is the city of Houston waffling on rail. With gas headed to $8 a gallon and oil to $200 a barrel, we have to rethink Houston as the happy motoring paradise."

-- Houston City Council member Peter Brown, after the council approved the addition of five light-rail lines

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PRT

This why we need ultralight rail, either various forms of PRT or CyberTran. Conventional light rail can work in some very limited parts of Houston - inside the inner beltway in some of the denser parts. If you want light rail much beyond that it has to be comparatively cheap. Trolley buses? But they will run empty a lot of the time - drivers salary, bus cost and electric liens combined with low utilization? The economics don't work. What all the ultralight solutions have in common is that they are more like an elevator than like a car. They are automated driverless, and scheduled on the fly as passengers demand them. If a unit is unutilized,it is also parked. And if with computerization you ought to be able to get at least 25% average utilization - one in four or better moving seats filled. Whether CyberTran, JAD or various forms of true PRT you get cheaper track, higher utilization, lower operating costs, and better energy efficiency besides.

by Gar Lipow at 1:59 PM on 19 Jun 2008

357 mph train

Just saw a test that beat the speed record on rails in France. It was electric. From coast to coast in no time at that speed, it would compete with air travel at 250 mph.

But as usual it seems overly dangerous without a protective tube around it. Overly heavy as well, it has to be built to stay on the ground. In a tube, an ultralight carbon fiber, aluminum train could fly on an air pressure wave.

The wheels contacting electrified rails top and bottom for a very smooth. safe ride. No dangerous high voltage exposure, no weather problems (as with air travel and regular trains), no obstructions on the track.

This is the way to go, fiber/steel/concrete tubes with windows on top, half buried in the freeway median. Say goodbye to domestic airlines and their GHG and expensive oily tickets and homeland security wrestling you to the ground and tasering you until you give up your baby's sippy cup.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

by amazingdrx at 9:02 PM on 19 Jun 2008

Damn...I had wanted to go to that metting...

...but I had some work to do, and ended up watchin' the news clips instead.

Still, fanatstic news!

by Tasermons Partner at 9:10 PM on 19 Jun 2008

UltraHighspeed

First High speed transit is to compete with planes, not for commuter transit. And that fast really is not very economic. 357 mph is I think hundreds of millions per mile or more. (And this is from memory; I may be understating.) These super fast ones are usually very short runs to show off technical prowess. Not that I mind a certain amount of it, but it will be a while before anyone does thousand mile runs of 357 mph trains.

Getting 40 mph commuter rail, and hundred or 150 mph rail for freight or on short runs between major airports will gain you a lot more.

by Gar Lipow at 9:11 PM on 19 Jun 2008

Modern aircraft

Infrastructure for aircraft and the airplanes themselves are very expensive. I think these tubes on the freeway median would be cheaper.

The type of train and very expensive track that beat that record is not a good design for light rail, it was just an example.

You are right though, local commter rail could go a lot slower. It would be nice if longer intercity runs went faster though. Up in the 200 mph range.

Mass producing the tubes and the ultralight trains would be key to making them affordable alternatives, so a standard size could be made to fit local lower speed trains and longer haul higher speed.

If you compare these to aircraft, built from composites and aluminum it is not far fetched to imagine a pretty cost effective system nation wide. With tubes maybe even crossing oceans someday. there's a design for a submerged, anchored, floating tube system that was featured recently on a science program.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

by amazingdrx at 9:52 PM on 19 Jun 2008

This Shows Why ...

high gas prices are a very good thing.

by Wolverine at 1:08 AM on 20 Jun 2008

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