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Contributed by Douglas Anderson When you are running late for work and waiting for the train to finish going by so you can cross, it doesn't seem like they are going very fast. They do travel at fairly decent speeds, though, when you consider the amount of weight the equipment is hauling. The source they depend on for energy as well as what they are carrying and the type of roadbed determines their speed. The first trains in the 1800's were only able to operate at a speed of approximately five miles per day. American freight trains and passenger trains such as AmTrak generally operate at a speed between 55 and 65 miles per hour. While they can go faster, they don't for safety reasons. The faster a train is traveling the longer it takes it to stop if there is something on the tracks in front of it. Also American roadbeds are typically compacted soil with loose gravel; often the railway ties are wood. Although the wood is treated with creosote to retard decomposition, nevertheless, over time, it deteriorates, causing a safety hazard.
These are often passenger commuter trains that can go more than 90 miles per hour without any difficulty. This concept is just now being applied to hauling some types of freight in Japan. The United States has considered it for hauling the postal freight but it has not been implemented yet.
The fact that trains don't offer the same top speeds as vehicles and airplanes has lead to them losing some of their contracts with businesses over the years. Yet the train industry has proven to be reliable and effective. It also removes the need for more trucks on the highways and more planes in the sky. Even though trains don't offer the fastest mode of transportation, they are still very useful for personal use and to move valuable freight for various types of industries. In the busy North-East of the US, the New York-Boston-Baltimore-Washington corridors, high speed commuter trains have become very popular. Because of excessive delays at airports, high speed commuter trains have stolen much of the traffic that airlines used to own. About the Author:Douglas Anderson has been fascinated by trains since he was
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Many
US commuter trains travel at a rate of 65-75 miles per hour.
It depends on the amount of distance between each stop. The more
stops that they have, the slower they operate in order to be
able to protect the equipment from unnecessary wear and tear.
The focus is always on how fast can the train effectively go
yet still offer the highest level of safety at the same time.
As new technology offers more safety benefits for everyone, the
increased speeds of trains continues to be authorized.
High
speed rail trains were first introduced in Japan but they seem
to be cropping up in various locations. France has a superb high-speed
rail service, the TGV. England has the Intercity 125 that runs
from Edinburgh to London. Japan has the bullet train.
The
fastest trains out there are the MagLev, which is short for magnetic
levitation. These place magnets to keep the train moving
along the tracks. They can go at top speeds of over 300 miles
per hour. The MagLev is still in the developmental stages in
both Japan and Germany. At this time, a MagLev railway is being
built in southern China with German technology, It is anticipated
that the technology behind it could one day find its way to railways
that commute both people and materials. It will be interesting
to see what becomes of this concept in the future.
