Whenever a new motorway/highway is built, you must also build a high speed train line next to it/ on top of it.

Posted by Scumbag__@reddit | CrazyIdeas | View on Reddit | 30 comments

Super useful for both passenger and cargo transport. If you’re carving out some space for a roadway, you can carve out a little bit extra for those rails

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Odd_Dragonfruit_2662@reddit

I mean it would slow construction down and cost more but would have a great benefit for the most part.

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Make the trains so they haul cars as well as passengers, make them comparable in price to fuel and W/T costs, do not mix passenger and cargo cars on same train, and schedule it to Japan’s Bullet Train efficiency, and I might get behind it.

But in America, no, this will never happen. It will cost 3x driving, take 4x as long, and be utilized by the type of people you don’t want to be around. It will just be the bus on rails.

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Extension-Abroad187@reddit

I mean not a crazy idea, just one that has no idea the process involved. Roads often turn and go up/ down slopes.... high speed rail doesn't like that

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EVRider81@reddit

I have family in Va USA, near Dulles Airport. The first times I went to visit,the closest DC Metro station was a 30 minute drive away. I was there again last year, there's now a (Silver) Metro line out to Dulles Airport and there's a station in their neighborhood,the rail lines were laid in the median beween highways,a perfect fit.I liked watching it expand over time..

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Satansrideordie@reddit

I live in the UK where there is 3,700km of motorways and 16,000km of railways. We’ll be ok I think

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Historical-Two8882@reddit

And to solve the housing crisis, whenever you build a highway, you have to build housing next to it/on top of it.

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AndyTheEngr@reddit

r/lostredditors .

This idea is completely reasonable.

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Gnomio1@reddit

And yet…

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arstarsta@reddit

Result no new highways are being built.

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bemused_alligators@reddit

the median of interstates would be such a perfect place to have train lines. Already owned and everything, and if you lose a lane on either side the passenger capacity should more than make up for it.

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cactusdotpizza@reddit

Problem is when you need a station, the train has to either go above or below the road - expensive

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ibxtoycat@reddit

Depending on whether highway exits are more or less common than train stations, of course

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HeyaShinyObject@reddit

In the northeast, topography that's suitable for an interstate often wouldn't be suitable for trains, especially high speed trains. Trains require much gentler slopes and wide curves.

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allenrfe@reddit

Trains and cars do not have the same rules for minimum bend radius and elevation change. Also one incident would complicate both form of travel. That doesn't include the fact that train tracks need to connect to other train tracks.

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citao_to@reddit

This is why it's crazy. Maximum incline of rail lines is like 4%, whereas motorways often exceed that. So unless we're talking a straight road through a plain, the idea is a no go.

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_real_ooliver_@reddit

It would be quite moderate speed rail depending on the road, as trains cannot climb and turn as much as cars. You'd have to compensate for having a very shallow alignment

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Megalocerus@reddit

Freight runs on old slow rail. Even China doesn't run freight on it. It's like those big slow ocean freighters.

Places that need high speed rail don't have wide open spaces. It would have to be above the highway--and sometimes above a tunnel.

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TemporaryPassenger62@reddit

No a brt maybe

A hsr line is very expensive and needs density inkrder to be built and gave enough revnenue to maintain maintenance costs

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Rare_Specific_306@reddit

Downvoted for not being crazy

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deleted_by_reddit@reddit

[removed]

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Either_Lawfulness466@reddit

How do you pay for it?

Go look at the failure in California for a cost estimate.

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yogaballcactus@reddit

So much of the cost of any infrastructure project in the US is the cost of acquiring land and getting permits. If you’ve already got or are acquiring the right of way for a highway then it probably isn’t much extra to design the highway to a train will fit in with it.

The problem with this idea is that a lot of highways run through areas where even high speed rail doesn’t make sense. But it still probably makes sense to set aside some right of way for a train so you can build it if and when the population density to support it materializes.

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Either_Lawfulness466@reddit

You do make a good point about route suitability.

But I absolutely question that the cause of the majority of overruns on the CA high speed rail was right of way.

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athomsfere@reddit

It really has been from what I remember. But you also have to group in all the lawsuits for right of way and easements that were filed against the project.

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yogaballcactus@reddit

I don’t know much about that particular project. I don’t live anywhere near California and it doesn’t really affect my life. But the impression I get is that there was a ton of grift in addition to the high cost of acquiring land.

You’re not going to escape corruption no matter what you do. But you can limit the opportunity for some of it if you set aside the land in advance.

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