[Ad_Meyer]

But then of course we get into the question of how much the train costs.  These superfast trains cpbell describes don't run on old-fashioned freight rail, so we'd need to spend untold billions to lay new rail lines.  The new rail would also need to be better protected – because a derailment at 250mph is a very, very bad thing – which means the whole length would require durable, frequently-inspected fencing and every crossing would need to be elevated.  How many roads cross any given rail line over 1000 miles in the U.S.?  Hundreds of elevated road crossings would need to be constructed, at a cost of several million dollars each. 

For your information, the cost of the proposed Maglev (@320mph) tracks between Tokyo and Nagoya (280km or 170 miles) is estimated at 5.1 trillion yen (roughly 50 billion dollars).  This includes LOTS of LONG tunnels (10km plus) and is of course earthquake resistant up to 7.5 Richter (being in Japan), so is on the high side.  Anyway, we are talking about 300 million dollars per mile for a Maglev track, and High speed rail tracks are much cheaper
than this. 

I haven't done the maths yet to calculate how this translates to travel fares, and I don't really have time to do that, as I have to fly off to the US on business on Thursday (New York and Orlando)…

[Ad_Meyer]

Really?  Your commuter trains travel at 180 mph?  I've been on the Eurostar going over 200 mph, but that's meant to travel between three national capitals.

Actually, several of my colleagues do commute at 150mph (240km/h)

Currently, the fastest regular train services in Japan are 300kmh. (185mph)
The 200mph (320km/h) service in Japan is not due until 2011.

Automobiles are great up to 150 miles distance.  Trains are great from 50 to perhaps 500 miles distance.  Beyond 500 miles, air travel is the best way to go.  While Washington and Boston – the TERMINUS points on the only financially successful passenger rail corridor in the U.S. – are only 450 miles apart (with Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, Newark, New York and Hartford in between), most DESTINATION cities in the U.S. are further apart than that.  Atlanta and Chicago are more than 700 miles apart.  St. Louis and Denver are 850 miles apart.  Hell, you can go almost 300 miles in any direction from St. Louis before you hit another major city, and that's the center of the country and a major urban hub.

From Japanese experience, 3 hour Train Journey is the break-even point when competing against air
travel.  This means a 250mph average (300mph top speed) service between Atlanta and Chicago will
be just about viable. 

Well, JR Central has announced their plan to launch a Maglev successor to Shinkansen by 2025.
They will go 320mph (500km/h) so will be competitive against air travel even between St.Louis and Denver.
They plan to dig a 50km tunnel across 10,000 ft mountain range, so Denver would be no trouble either.

The technology's there.  It's just the matter of economics and mental inertia.

[Ad_Meyer]

I think I confused the two problems. Here's the current behavior:

I can reply in this thread, but I can't modify posts in the thread here:
http://amaz0ns.com/option,com_smf/Itemid,135/topic,7072.0/

When I hit the reply link at the top of the thread, I get a blank page.  I can't modify older posts here either:
http://amaz0ns.com/option,com_smf/Itemid,135/topic,1699.0/

I got the same problem in replying to the thread shown below:
http://amaz0ns.com/option,com_smf/Itemid,135/topic,7113.0/

I tried both "Reply" and "Quote", but both ended up in a blank page 🙁

[Ad_Meyer]

My apologies for my descent into lurkerdom.  The fact that this was caused
by the birth of my baby son does not in any way make me less guilty.

Now for the comments on the picture.  What is it that she is lifting?  Surely
it isn't the Millenium Falcon! (at least I hope not)
BTW, I only saw this picture today, so for this particular post, I haven't
lurked at all 🙂
Nice picture indeed!

[Ad_Meyer]

Maybe, if she selectively enlarges "her lower body, from waist downwards"

She looks distinctly top heavy at the moment…

[Ad_Meyer]

I checked the website and found the authors' list.  I only knew one of the
authors listed (apart from the two elee0208 has already mentioned), but that
one auther was none other than Purukogi-san himself!  😮

[Ad_Meyer]

As a resident Japanese, I've posted the current URL for YYoshida's Earth Color Art Gallery.

This is where they all come from, though all the "adult" pictures were removed last year.

http://earthcolor.sakura.ne.jp/htm_cg/cg00.htm

I hope this helps (^_^)/

[Ad_Meyer]

Erm…. How much is the cruise now? and when and where does the next available cruise depart?

[Ad_Meyer]

For a six figure salary they can call me Nancy for all I care 😛

Pity Italy has joind the Euro, and Turkey has denominated by a factor of a million….
The worst six figure salary I can think of now is 100,000 Won / year…
I wouldn't try to live on that if I were you…
 

[Ad_Meyer]

Hmmm, the plot thickens… 😮

… and so do the muscles too….  😉

[Author]

Posts