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Re: Burbank-Palmdale HSR segment priority raised
Author: mook
Date: 07-01-2014 - 18:14
Solar power? Of course! And like in the Pokemon cartoons windmills everywhere.
Seriously, electric power for trains (as with autos) has the advantage that it's 1) remote emission (so it doesn't gas the people living next door); and it's 2) flexible regarding source. Sure, you can burn coal to produce it fairly cheaply (except in California, and except in the US once carbon regulations get nasty), but you can also burn gas, oil, "biomass" including garbage (except in California, for the garbage part). You can use solar during the day, wind when it's blowing, geothermal if there's warm ground around (Geysers, etc.), hydro if it ever rains/snows again. You can get power from exercise bikes and treadmills - maybe enough to power the TV screens. Oh yes, and it's the only way you can get power from a nuke at this point. Its disadvantages are also well-known: storage issues, NIMBYs don't like to see wires, transmission losses if those coal and solar and wind plants are Really Far Away, complexity and maintenance and capital cost issues with wiring the place. But eventually we probably will have more electric trains, as Europe and other densely populated areas have now. And if you do want HSR, the power requirements pretty much can't be met with a practical trainset (beyond 125 mph or so) with anything but electric.
My chuckle about the Metrolink segment is that they have the same issues pending that the Peninsula had (lots of people very close to the tracks leads to issues...), plus the fun of poking enough holes in the mountains (yes, there are faults to worry about too, including the San Andreas when you reach Palmdale) to allow decent (even if not 250 mph) speed. PB's preliminary design & environmental stuff describes what's needed in a general way. So if we assume based on the news that this segment will be the next to get attention (which I predict will resemble the Peninsula, with Environmental Justice thrown in), what happens at Palmdale if the line to Bakersfield (by any route) ends up the last thing built because it costs as much as everything else put together? Adaptive or temporary re-use really has to be a consideration with phasing this thing.
Seriously, electric power for trains (as with autos) has the advantage that it's 1) remote emission (so it doesn't gas the people living next door); and it's 2) flexible regarding source. Sure, you can burn coal to produce it fairly cheaply (except in California, and except in the US once carbon regulations get nasty), but you can also burn gas, oil, "biomass" including garbage (except in California, for the garbage part). You can use solar during the day, wind when it's blowing, geothermal if there's warm ground around (Geysers, etc.), hydro if it ever rains/snows again. You can get power from exercise bikes and treadmills - maybe enough to power the TV screens. Oh yes, and it's the only way you can get power from a nuke at this point. Its disadvantages are also well-known: storage issues, NIMBYs don't like to see wires, transmission losses if those coal and solar and wind plants are Really Far Away, complexity and maintenance and capital cost issues with wiring the place. But eventually we probably will have more electric trains, as Europe and other densely populated areas have now. And if you do want HSR, the power requirements pretty much can't be met with a practical trainset (beyond 125 mph or so) with anything but electric.
My chuckle about the Metrolink segment is that they have the same issues pending that the Peninsula had (lots of people very close to the tracks leads to issues...), plus the fun of poking enough holes in the mountains (yes, there are faults to worry about too, including the San Andreas when you reach Palmdale) to allow decent (even if not 250 mph) speed. PB's preliminary design & environmental stuff describes what's needed in a general way. So if we assume based on the news that this segment will be the next to get attention (which I predict will resemble the Peninsula, with Environmental Justice thrown in), what happens at Palmdale if the line to Bakersfield (by any route) ends up the last thing built because it costs as much as everything else put together? Adaptive or temporary re-use really has to be a consideration with phasing this thing.
