It’s not often that I give the French credit for anything other than their wine, but this is too good to ignore: A new train with a 250,000- horsepower engine and special wheels has broken the world speed record for conventional trains. Reaching 357.2 miles per hour on a 125-mile run between Paris and Strasbourg, the bullet train is exceeded in speed only by Japan’s magnetic levitating train. (Read the AP story.)
Maybe the romance of the rails is suspending my capacity for critical thinking, but I think it would be surpassingly cool to link major East Coast cities in the United States with rail like this — even if it means importing the technology from one of the most anti-American countries on the planet. The speeds would be competitive with short airplane trips — and they could drop off passengers in city centers rather than airports on the metropolitan periphery. Think about it — from downtown Richmond to downtown Washington, downtown Norfolk or downtown Raleigh in less than an hour!
Of course, I have absolutely no idea what it would cost to upgrade the rail lines to accommodate such a train — the number is probably frighteningly high. But it might make a good long-term investment if we consider the projected rates of increase in electricity vs. aviation fuel. Electricity has its drawbacks, as I’ve blogged here frequently, but I’ll take a home-grown coal- and nuclear-powered energy source over an imported fuel dependent upon the vagaries of international politics any day. The usual caveat applies: All such projects must offer a competitive Return on Investment compared to other potential transportation projects.