This is good. Calls for this are growing as people realise that global warming is here as a major issue and is not going to go away. One of the big causes of global warming is air travel (even though a planes engine is way more efficient in terms of moving people than an auto engine). Now, I am not here to attack air travel. I like air travel. I may be one of the few that do, but all the polava that goes with moving through an airport is kinda fun.
Then, get on a plane, and 12 hours later, be on a whole new continent is amazing! And for me, it allows me to push on with my life as an Englishman in Japan, in a totally alien environment, safe with the little thought that should it all go horribly wrong and I REALLY had to make a break for it, I could be at my folks home in under 24 hours!
Anyway. I digress. The call has come out asking/demanding for a high speed link. A call which is far too late in my judgement. High speed lines criss-cross Europe, a few small threads are beginning to snake around the US, lines are under development in Taiwan and Korea, and in Japan, the network is the most heavily used, and with new sections of line being linked in every year.
In Britain, all we have is a little bit running from London, to a big hole in the ground.
This is a very sorry state of affairs.
Still. The government has form a commitee to look at the development of "High Speed 2" and Network Rail has thrown its weight behind the development. So. Nothing to happen until the middle of the century then.
The big thing for a new high speed line linking these cities to London would be that it could move 15,000 people an hour, and bring travel times from the cities to London to near air travel times. If the ticketing is sensible, then I foresee most people switching from planes to trains. After all, there is far less hassle involved (security).
The really cool thing is that the network would be built to higher standards, allowing trains of a heavier weight to be used. This means that as the network gets crowded (Which, at some point, it will) things can be done. Upgrades on signalling can help trains run closer, upgrades on the trains can allow for faster accelaration and breaking can allow trains to cut times AND run closer, but these will only boost capacity so much. Trains could be made longer, but then, stations will ave to be made longer to fit.
So, the easiest thing will be to go up. Add a second floor. It can be done. France's Duplex TGV holds the world record for fastest train at over 300kph.
Here in Japan, the Joetsu line, linking Niigata to Tokyo cannot physically be expanded too easily, since that would involve widening a LOT of tressles that hold the track level and up in the sky (keeps it level from the run through the mountains, and protects the population from noise), and a lot of tunnels would have to be bored to add extra tracks.
Trains are already run pretty close, so, the only thing would be to boost the trains, and here we have it! The E-1 Class Max Toki Shinkansen. Probably the worlds biggest high speed train with a capacity of 1325 people! Just to show how impressive this is, ignoring the Eurostar since that pretty much runs to no other city but London in the UK, lets look at Virgins Pendolino.
This is an amazing train. Comfortable. Fast, and really cool! It seats 440 people, and has a top speed 125mph (and a designed top speed of 140mph). The E-1 series seats 1325 (3 times the Pendolino) and runs at 150mph! It is an amazing train. Whenever I use this service, I am full of amazement that something that is slab-sided, looks not unlike a huge slug, is monumentally large, thunders through the Japanese landscape hauling 1325 people at 150mph with total ease!
Not only that, but its "little" sister, the E-4 series ("only" seating 817 people!) is capable of running in combination with a second E-4. The E-1 is not run in tandem with another, as the resulting train would not fit in stations! The E-4 is run in tandem with another E-4 for the rush hour services, and is the worlds biggest high speed trainset, running at 150 mph to Tokyo with great ease, with a capacity of 1634 people! Granted it cannot compete on speed, but the capacity of an E-4 trainset is comparable to...
Yes! 3 Airbus A380's! And these aint small birds!
So, for all those who are shouting against Hitachi being the lead player in the consortium that developed the Javelin service (140mph), then really, get over yourselves. In Britain, if we tried to develop a high speed network totally from scratch, it would cost us a fortune, and take forever to fine-tune it! The French and the Germans have amazing networks, but neither have the experience the Japanese have.
We are talking about high capacity trains designed to run faster, longer, quieter and more efficiently than pretty much anything else going!
We could do far worse than asking for a little help...
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