KaiserJeep wrote:railroads, as enamored of them as are both Asia and Europe, are obsolete technology.
Not really. Jets are great for long range travel, but for short and mid-range travel trains are superior to passenger jets. They are quieter, more comfortable (you can walk around and go to the bar or the dining car!) and more efficient, i.e. they deliver passengers
faster to their destination.
You should go to Europe and see how modern train systems work. The high speed trains hit 200 km/hr and AND they take you directly from downtown to downtown. For instance, I took the Eurostar from Lille France to London, England last January. I stayed in a downtown hotel in Lille and spent the evening in Lille, had a great meal and finished with a beer in a outdoor bistro next to a ferris wheel covered in Christmas lights set up in a huge town square. In the morning I walked 10 minutes to the train station (no lengthy commute to the airport, no long security lines, no delays), got on the Eurostar train and popped out at St. Pancras in London (no commute into London from the airport). I walked to a tube station and Voila! I was in metro London and on my way. Total time for the trip from downtown Lille to downtown London, including walking to the train station in Lille....about and hour and a half.
Try doing that on a plane.
KaiserJeep wrote:
The railbeds themselves are terribly destructive, destroying hundreds of square miles of arable land with roadbed construction, and consuming enormous amounts of embedded energy for steel rails and fiber-cement cross ties. We already have the airports needed to support electric airliners.
??????
I hate to break it to you but highways and airports also destroy hundreds of square miles of arable land. The good news is that in many areas train right-of-ways already exist. All that is required is to modernize the existing track to accept high speed rail. (Yes I know California has chosen to build an entirely new track on a new route for their HSR project, but its California---what do you expect?).
KaiserJeep wrote:Technology marches on. The transcontinental aircraft I believe will within a few decades be all-electric fanjets.
There will have to some tremendous improvements in battery technology first. Electric batteries today are HEAVY, which greatly reduces their utility as a way to power passenger jets. It could happen, I guess.
KaiserJeep wrote: if Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic succeeds, will be suborbital space planes, arcing through vacuum from continent to continent at multiples of the speed of sound.
Perhaps. I hope you're right on this one.
Cheers!
I just got a text from our competitors. They took the train and they're ALREADY in downtown Paris, meeting OUR clients!!! DARN!!!!