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Speaker 1: slash brain Stuff. Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com where smart happens. Him Marshall Brain with
Speaker 1: today's question, how does high speed rail work? Imagine getting
Speaker 1: on a high speed train in downtown New York City
Speaker 1: and arriving at Union Station in Washington, d C. Which
Speaker 1: is two miles away, just an hour later. That is
Speaker 1: the ultimate promise of true high speed rail. Compared to
Speaker 1: driving a car, are this train trip would be a dream.
Speaker 1: The car ride would take about four and a half hours,
Speaker 1: making the amusing assumption that there's no traffic or construction
Speaker 1: along the way. Even compared to an airplane, the train
Speaker 1: trip would be faster once you account for the need
Speaker 1: to get to the airport an hour ahead of time,
Speaker 1: the time spent sitting on the runway, the fact that
Speaker 1: Dullest and LaGuardia airports are a good distance from downtown,
Speaker 1: and a whole bunch of other things, the plane trip
Speaker 1: might take nearly as long as the car trip. True
Speaker 1: high speed rail service like this doesn't yet exist in
Speaker 1: the United States, but it is common in parts of Europe, Japan,
Speaker 1: and China, and it may be coming to America in
Speaker 1: the near future with backing from the federal government. California
Speaker 1: is actively working on a high speed rail system that
Speaker 1: would run all the way from Sacramento down to San Diego,
Speaker 1: a distance of about five miles, and this will probably
Speaker 1: be the first installation of true high speed rail in
Speaker 1: the US. The closest thing that the United States has
Speaker 1: to high speed rail today is Amtrak's Acela service running
Speaker 1: in the Northeast Corridor. The Northeast Corridor connects Boston to Washington,
Speaker 1: d C. And include stops in places like New York
Speaker 1: City and Philadelphia. Although the Ascella trains have a top
Speaker 1: speed of a hundred and fifty miles per hour, their
Speaker 1: average speed is more like seventy miles per hour, so
Speaker 1: the two d thirty mile run between DC and New
Speaker 1: York takes nearly three hours. This is still better than
Speaker 1: the car trip or the plane rides, so the Ascella
Speaker 1: run is popular. Something like three million passengers traveled between
Speaker 1: New York and d C every year on the train.
Speaker 1: So why is the average speed of the Ascella trains
Speaker 1: so low. The answer to this question helps clarify the
Speaker 1: difference between normal train track and real high speed track.
Speaker 1: One of the most important problems with normal track is
Speaker 1: the roads that cross over the track. Many of the
Speaker 1: rail lines in the United States were built with at
Speaker 1: grade crossings rather than bridges. Obviously, it's not very safe
Speaker 1: to have a train traveling at a hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: or two hundred miles per hour if a car canstall
Speaker 1: on the track at any intersection. Another problem is the
Speaker 1: radius of turns. Low speed trains can make sharp turns,
Speaker 1: while high speed trains cannot. The Acela train tries to
Speaker 1: get around this problem with tilting cars, but in some
Speaker 1: parts of the Northeast Corridor the tracks are too close
Speaker 1: together to use this tilting feature. Another requirement for high
Speaker 1: speed travel is smooth welded track. This normally means a
Speaker 1: good concrete base for the track rather than wooden railroad ties.
Speaker 1: Also needed is overhead electric service, since high speed trains
Speaker 1: are electric. In addition, a high speed train can't be
Speaker 1: competing for the track with slow freight trains. All these
Speaker 1: requirements mean that true high speed rail needs dedicated high
Speaker 1: speed track. Building just dedicated track can get expensive, especially
Speaker 1: in congested urban areas, so high speed rail projects cost
Speaker 1: billions of dollars. The high speed track in California might
Speaker 1: end up costing something like a hundred million dollars per
Speaker 1: mile when it's all said and done. The good news
Speaker 1: is that a high speed rail line takes less land
Speaker 1: than a major highway, and the high speed train gets
Speaker 1: its passengers to their destination much more quickly than cars can,
Speaker 1: and a new six lane wide interstate highway project can
Speaker 1: end up costing nearly as much as a high speed
Speaker 1: rail line. You might be wondering why Europe, Japan, and
Speaker 1: China have thousands of miles of high speed track and
Speaker 1: service while the United States currently has none. This has
Speaker 1: to do with different decisions in different priorities. The United
Speaker 1: States placed its bets on the interstate highway system and airports,
Speaker 1: partly because the US is so much bigger than Europe
Speaker 1: or Japan. There's also the fact that Americans love cars
Speaker 1: and airplanes and haven't been nearly as keen on trains
Speaker 1: until recently. But a lot has changed in American thinking
Speaker 1: since the nine eleven attacks and gasoline price spikes. The
Speaker 1: time may finally be right for Americans to get on
Speaker 1: board with high speed rail. Do you have any ideas
Speaker 1: or suggestions for this podcast? If so, please send me
Speaker 1: an email at podcast at how stuff works dot com.
Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics, go
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