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Eight minute bullet train

News says they are are going to build a bullet train between Fresno and Madera
 
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The distance between these two suburban towns is 26 miles. 200 miles per hour into 26 miles equals .13 hour or 7.8 minutes.

Will train even reach top speed ? How long will it take to plane and deplane ? What sort of vending machines will be there ? Will it cause a real estate boom ? Will local freight will be faster or delayed during construction and after ?

26 miles at 80 mph on the freeway beside it will take about half an hour.

I think there should be collectable buttons, t shirts, and coffee mugs. For this daring jump in front of the train of the future.

All the way to the year 2000 and beyond.

(marked for deletion - Thought there was an idea in there somewhere, but it hasn't shown up yet.)

popbottle, Jan 05 2015

Hydrogen_20Tunnel [FlyingToaster, Jan 05 2015]

Law, costs, politics, etc https://www.youtube...watch?v=bXZ7E475DY4
A detailed Video about the project. [popbottle, Apr 20 2015]

http://ecowatch.com...16/solar-bike-lane/ Why not build this instead? [xenzag, Apr 20 2015]


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Annotation:







       "A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you're talking about real money."   

       Everett McKinley Dirksen
popbottle, Jan 05 2015
  

       A test track for new superconductors? in between public trips.
wjt, Jan 05 2015
  

       A test section ? Maybe somewhere between LA and San Fran projected full route. This Fresno stretch is flat, but there are irrigation canals nearby. If there is any chance of flooding, I doubt you could get insurance for a test bed at a reasonable rate for this stretch.
popbottle, Jan 05 2015
  

       I vaguely recall talking about this (a train between LA and SF ?)... hydrogen tunnel, maybe; just leave enough room so that the train doesn't get into ground effect with the walls, and you've effectively vacuum tunnel efficiency. After a couple months of idiots failing to blow it up by shooting at it, maintenance would be minimal. Interior materials should be non h-brittleable of course, and an outer sheath to collect the seeped hydrogen would probably be a good idea as well, though semi-superfluous.
FlyingToaster, Jan 05 2015
  

       Tell everyone to stop being pussies, install sturdy seats, and allow for some real acceleration (with a magnetic propulsion system similar to a coil gun). Install an aerospike for shockwave attenuation and heat shielding. No walking around the train during the trip. Turn the seats around for decel. You should be able to cover that distance in just under a minute without killing anyone except the frail and elderly.
DIYMatt, Jan 05 2015
  

       I liked /without killing anyone in good health/ better. Because the converse of course is that any deaths were destined to happen soon anyway.   

       There is no good reason I can think of not to install something like MAST trousers on the seats. These would clamshell closed and push some blood back to your head after about the third minute.
bungston, Jan 05 2015
  

       Hang on. Hang on just a moment.   

       There are already plenty of trains operating at 200mph.   

       So, given that this is meant to be a sort of test case, would the US not do better to aim a little higher?
MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 05 2015
  

       Add a teacher. Have the worlds fastest classroom.
popbottle, Jan 06 2015
  

       // would the US not do better to aim a little higher //   

       No, that would be cost prohibitive in the USA. Typically, with such a project, 90% of the budget it spent on lawyers and other efforts to get the project approved. Now one might think that in such a case, an additional 10% to double the actual construction budget would be money well spent, but part of the reason they are even allowed to do anything is that 20% of the total budget is spent demonstrating that the project is being done in the most cost effective manner possible. Also, since they always use the low bidder, the system must be completely engineered to avoid the possibility of failure, so no innovation is possible on such projects. While all this may seem a bit ridiculous to those on the outside, it ensures that once a project is kicked off, it will run smoothly to completion without going over budget: for example, the Big Dig in Boston, the Seattle Monorail project, and the Seattle Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel.
scad mientist, Jan 06 2015
  

       //the Seattle Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel.// Yes, but don't the mules panic in the dark?
MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 06 2015
  

       That's why they used Bertha instead of mules. When the lights go out, it just stops. (Although restarting would have been a nice feature as well.)
scad mientist, Jan 06 2015
  

       I've said it before. To get a train to go really fast, eliminate the friction of wheels and thick atmosphere at sea level and power it with jet engines.   

       Then eliminate the track so you can travel over mountains, cities, the ocean whatever, in fact, you can even change direction any time you want to.   

       We've solved the problem of not getting there fast enough. We don't need to try to supercharge an old idea just because it's romantic. I'm sure with a little engineering we could design a horse drawn carriage that would go 100 miles per hour.   

       Wait, let me think about that one...
doctorremulac3, Jan 06 2015
  

       //horse drawn carriage// One of my favourite cartoons consisted of a couple of daubs, a hoofprint and a bite mark; it was captioned "horse-drawn carriage".
MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 06 2015
  

       I searched for "bullet train" and "high speed train" in the entire Fresno and Madera Craigslist. Just got single hit from a Dale Carnegie guy flogging local real estate.   

       They obviously don't want any local help building this thing. I Wonder who THEY is. And where THEY are located ?
popbottle, Jan 07 2015
  

       //One of my favourite cartoons consisted of a couple of daubs, a hoofprint and a bite mark; it was captioned "horse- drawn carriage"//   

       Sounds like an unsophisticated, preliminary effort. Was it a First-draught horse?
bs0u0155, Jan 07 2015
  

       Nay, it wasn't.
pocmloc, Jan 07 2015
  

       Rein your elves in guys - this is not a forum for horse puns. Once you take that tack people will be bridling about lists, and they'll trot out the help file.
normzone, Jan 07 2015
  

       Hey!
pocmloc, Jan 07 2015
  

       I want to move back to SF so I can ride the really fast train. (Then I'll move back to this piece of shit town right after.)
blissmiss, Jan 07 2015
  

       According to Wikipedia, the last time the US held a speed record for trains was in 1934 (104mph).   

       The current record for a proper train is 375mph (Japan).   

       For reasons which are incredibly hard to understand, even the French have managed 357mph.
MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 26 2015
  

       //We've solved the problem of not getting there fast enough. We don't need to try to supercharge an old idea just because it's romantic.//   

       I disagree. We have not solved the problem of getting anywhere fast enough. A short-haul flight of 1hr with luggage travels at an average speed of about 150mph, if you assume 30min to get to the airport, 30min for security and boarding, and 30min to collect your luggage and get out.   

       If I take the Eurostar I can, depending on destination, attain an average speed of about 150mph - the same as flying. The Eurostar is also cheaper and more comfortable, carries more people and gets me to the centre of whichever city I'm visiting.   

       In a big country like the US, 200mph trains should be the norm. I mean, c'mon guys, even the French...
MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 27 2015
  

       They could always ask the Chinese to build them for them. High speed trains (ie 200mph+) now connect just about every major Chinese city, while the fastest train in the USA never exceeds 48mph. Of course in the UK, where the train was invented, the fastest train never exceeds an average of 59mph.
xenzag, Apr 27 2015
  

       King's Cross to Hull is the fastest regular train, with an average speed of 111.4mph   

       Average speed of Eurostar from London to Paris is 105-110mph.
MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 28 2015
  

       / Assume 30min to get to the train station, 30min for security and boarding, and 30min to collect your luggage and get out ? /   

       Or do you just jump on at the last moment and buy the ticket from the conductor ? Make a good movie.
popbottle, Apr 28 2015
  

       I only partially understand the whole attraction of trains. Sure it's nice that you can board the train 20 mins before most other people, scatter 7 empty cans of Stella around and then unsteadily beckon everyone who boards to sit next to you, thereby ensuring the whole 4 person table section to yourself. But if you're going to do 200 mph+ surely it makes sense to do it in WAY thinner air? and while you're at it, do 550 mph. With mature tech and no land buying earthquake someone-stole-the-signal-cable woes?
bs0u0155, Apr 29 2015
  

       //King's Cross to Hull is the fastest regular train, with an average speed of 111.4mph   

       Blimus, but that's going downhill, if we take the planet to be an oblate spheroid.
not_morrison_rm, Apr 29 2015
  

       I suspect the journey away from Hull is slightly faster.
MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 29 2015
  

       //Air, train and road travel are statistically more dangerous than just staying at home.// Not if you live in Nepal.
MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 30 2015
  

       //For reasons which are incredibly hard to understand//   

       Three spring to mind:   

       1. Dirigisme means that they (the French) can lay the tracks in straight lines, instead of having to make frequent detours around NIMBYs.
2. Lower population density means that they have other places to put trees, besides railway embankments, so that the lines are not clogged with fallen leaves. (If you deforested the track-sides of the UK, you'd wipe out half the country's wildlife, and the urban foxes wouldn't be able to get to work on time). [I have no statistical basis for this point, but that didn't stop it from springing to mind.]
3. They threw a lot of money, and some of it stuck.
pertinax, Apr 30 2015
  

       ////Air, train and road travel are statistically more dangerous than just staying at home.// Not if you live in Nepal//   

       I'm pretty sure homes are more dangerous than aircraft, I've got my friend over at the HSE crunching some stats for me. I suspect that staying on major carriers, that you're safer flying about than "just getting that thing out of the loft Gladys...." will have to factor in the cancer risk....
bs0u0155, Apr 30 2015
  


 

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