Quote:
Originally Posted by northbay
throwaway trains? uve got to be kidding.
this will be the fastest high speed train line in the country when it opens as well as the first funded entirely with private dollars and theyre just gonna throw away their trains after a little bit and buy faster ones? amtrak, or just about any other high-speed train related transportation agency would DIE to have a trainset like that.
perhaps they are anticipating cahsr trainsets using their tracks in the future.
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Nope, not kidding. The value of the ROW, when connected to the CHSRA system will absolutely dwarf any small amount that they pay for trains now.
When I said throwaway, I didn't actually mean that they'll throw them away, just that the fact that they're buying 150mph trains now doesn't mean that they'll be stuck with using 150mph trains in the future. They could have 220+ trains from CA use their tracks, they could sell the 150mph trains to other entities, they could use 150mph trains on some routes and buy faster ones for other routes, they could swap some of their trains with California for use in shorter routes (like a lengthened Caltrain route or intra-SoCal routes) that don't need the high top end, etc, etc.
Just don't think of this as a 150mph max extension - that's just the service level that they'll be offering on their own Victorville-Vegas trip, which can't possibly be where they hope to make money over the long run.