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kormer t1_j5fsp8f wrote

Giving this an 'A' for effort, but most of this is not going to work for a lot of reasons.

I don't want to get into it too deeply, but I did want to call attention to one curious item...

> Amtrak Empire Service : Cleveland – Erie – Buffalo – Albany – NY – 1x daily

If you ever wanted to see a bullet train from NYC to Chicago, Erie would likely be the only stop in PA. Going this route, you have a net elevation change of 500', a maximum gain of 1,000', and even then the grade is virtually nil spreading it out of hundreds of miles. Additionally, You can take advantage of some very long, very straight stretches along the lakeshore segment.

Going across PA means tunnels, bridges, elevation gain, and lots of curves. All of which will quickly remove the bullet speed from your bullet train.

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[deleted] t1_j5g1gfm wrote

[deleted]

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kormer t1_j5gf25s wrote

From a purely engineering standpoint, yes, it could be done, that's not the problem. The problem is you're either going to balloon the cost to a level where aviation fuel would need to hit $1000/gal before taking the train is more economical, or you're going to be adding so many curves that you'll never hit bullet train speeds.

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culhanetyl t1_j5mlbwk wrote

tunnels are absurdly expensive to maintain , the turnpike keeps getting rid of them due to the cost associated with them

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Nexis4Jersey OP t1_j5fw74a wrote

That day service train to NY is planned under both the NY and PA state rail plans It's to fill in the service gap. I'm not proposing high speed rail but corridor service with dedicated passenger tracks alongside existing freight rail lines with increased speeds up to 110mph. The Amtrak 2035 Plan and most state plans do not have high speed rail in them at least not above 125mph. The focus is on improving and expand corridor services which are more popular and easier to build. Under the 125mph upstate ny empire upgrade you would see end to end travel times be reduced by 4hrs down to 5hrs from NY to Niagara Falls and 6hrs to Erie,PA. There's also a separate study underway for the southern tier region of NY so Erie might a few more trains from NY by 2035. Most of the Main Lines in PA were built for speed so re-installing a second track and upgrading it wouldn't be hard. You wouldn't need to take land or do any serious infrastructure work in most cases.

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