April 4, 2007
Why don’t we have a TGV?
Sometimes I wish that railroads played a larger part in the transportation infrastructure of the United States. Meanwhile those crazy French have a high speed rail capable of 574.8 kph, or about 357 mph for us English types. The french aren’t the only ones with high speed trains though. The Japanese first started the high-speed train movement in the 1960’s with a train that was capable of 130 mph. For comparison, the high speed trains in the US today go about 150 mph.
Trains have multiple advantages such as; lower boarding time, fewer security checkpoints and less carry on luggage restrictions. By the time you factor in time spent at the gate and waiting in the security line at the airport, the average speed for a one hour flight drops considerably.
So would you ride a high speed train, or would you fly?






I do enjoy the train from Boston to Providence far more than the bus. It takes about the same amount of time (because the train makes 15 stops) but it’s cheaper and far more comfortable.
Comment by Chris HP — April 9, 2007 @ 3:15 pm