I’ve always read that freeways are too steep and turns too sharp for rail, but Brightline says newer European trains are light and powerful enough to make it up the Cajon Pass in the median of the 15, so let’s stop screwing around with a single track for trains in the median. Just take the leftmost lane in each direction. Most of the cost is right-of-way acquisition; let’s use the one we already have. It’ll be better than nothing.
The interstate standard max grade is 6% and that’s only used when there’s no other option over mountains. The limit for standard passenger trains seems yo be 4-5%. So it’s not that different, the vast majority of the interstate corridor could support passenger trains. Not freight trains through, those need a much gentler grade.
The US has essentially built a railway network with the interstates, it’s just paved over and less efficient.
Also for the extreme cases, don’t forget cog railways. The steepest one is Pilatus railway with maximum gradient of 48%. Good luck trying something like that with a car.
![[meme] What would cities be like today if we had never demolished our streetcar networks?](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/1b55ace7-f4bc-432f-b8e0-abd0fdb9e846.webp){kind=link}
I’ve always read that freeways are too steep and turns too sharp for rail, but Brightline says newer European trains are light and powerful enough to make it up the Cajon Pass in the median of the 15, so let’s stop screwing around with a single track for trains in the median. Just take the leftmost lane in each direction. Most of the cost is right-of-way acquisition; let’s use the one we already have. It’ll be better than nothing.
The interstate standard max grade is 6% and that’s only used when there’s no other option over mountains. The limit for standard passenger trains seems yo be 4-5%. So it’s not that different, the vast majority of the interstate corridor could support passenger trains. Not freight trains through, those need a much gentler grade.
The US has essentially built a railway network with the interstates, it’s just paved over and less efficient.
Also for the extreme cases, don’t forget cog railways. The steepest one is Pilatus railway with maximum gradient of 48%. Good luck trying something like that with a car.