TrainBlog by Marcel Marchon

Start thinking about how you can make sure that this year’s state budget ensures that the high speed rail project keeps moving forward. I’d like to see the train finally make it into the station someday.

Yeah, me too! Read more here: High Speed Rail Now (also added to Blogroll).

The lesson: we think of government-owned Amtrak as money-losing socialism, but the money-losing airline industry as a bunch of noble capitalists. Maybe we should re-examine our national transportation policies the way JetBlue is rethinking its customer-service policies.

[Quoted from Allan Sloan: Lessons From JetBlue’s Meltdown ]

That comment about the airline industry - my feeling exactly. As we all know, Amtrak is a money-losing entity. Lots of people think it could be otherwise, but I just don’t think so. But then, the much touted airline industry is also a money loser. Nobody really knows about the road transportation industry, because there is no single entity at whose income statement one could look at, but last I heard, most of the roads are paid for by the taxpayer and can therefore be considered a subsidy of the road transportation industry, so they’re probably not real profitable either. Looks like the only profitable transportation entities are freight railroads - they pay for their own infrastructure and still make a profit.

Well, maybe the general conclusion should be that transportation in general is just too cheap nowadays, i.e. the operators don’t charge as much money as they should in order to pay all the bills. I believe the general public in the USA somehow has the notion that transportation is/should be “free” and that cheap airfares are as much a basic human right as freedom or free speech… That’s just not true - especially with “Global Warming” showing up on people’s horizon more and more, I hope that those same people will soon have to recognize that transportation is a major factor. And the only way to really teach them is through their pockets - get them where it hurts most: charge more money for it. And then they might well recognize that trains are a much more efficient means of transportation than either air or road.

(via TicketPunch).

Wait, don’t look - did you know where it is, the oldest passenger railroad station in California?

This is California Registered Historical Landmark No. 955 and it is listed here:

“NO. 955 MENLO PARK RAILROAD STATION - This building, constructed in 1867 by the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad Company, is the oldest railroad passenger station in California. The Victorian ornamentation was added in the 1890s when the station was remodeled to serve the newly-opened Stanford University. The extension on the northwest was added to accommodate increased traffic generated by the establishment of Camp Fremont nearby during World War I.
Location: 1100 Merrill Ave, Menlo Park”

While we’re waiting for the official new record to take place, here’s a video (YouTube) that shows the old record achieved in 1990. Quite impressive … Now if we had HSR here in California, that stretch down the Central Valley should make for some nice flat straight running … Should be perfect for another record attempt … (Yeah right, maybe in the year 2030 or so … ).

This is not an official world speed record for conventional rail vehicles yet, since it was not an official record attempt. That will be made later, possibly this month or in April. It was “merely” another run in a series of trials targeted at exploring the very high speed behaviour of the traditional wheel/rail system.

The French high-speed TGV train broke its own rail speed record when it reached 553 kilometres per hour, the daily Le Parisien reported Wednesday.

[Quoted from French TGV breaks world speed record , German News, Germany, Expatica ]

A photo is available here.

I’m pretty sure the final “real” record attempt will be well covered by the media … And I’m pretty sure that if they can, they will try to beat the Maglev records of 581 km/h. An Alstom spokesperson was quoted as saying that they were trying to reach “550-570 km/h”, which contrasts with the original announcement of “540 km/h” made last December. To me, this looks like the trials are going better than expected and the Maglev records, maybe even the “magic barrier” of 600 km/h, seems within reach.

… and maybe even before California does … (not that that would be particularly difficult, the way things are looking now).

According to a report in The Ledger, the new Governor of Florida seems to have a much more favorable view of the Florida High-Speed Rail project and things might be moving forwards again - finally.