From: stephen@sprunk.org   
      
   On 14-Nov-14 15:09, Denis McMahon wrote:   
   > On Thu, 13 Nov 2014 12:16:27 -0600, Stephen Sprunk wrote:   
   >   
   >>> Trains do not have the option of larger cars.   
   >>   
   >> Trains have the option of adding more cars, which is both more   
   >> flexible and more cost-effective than replacing small planes with   
   >> big planes.   
   >   
   > You can only add so many cars before your train no longer fits in the   
   > station.   
      
   True, but you can make the platforms longer or add more of them, to a   
   point, before the tracks are fully utilized.  AFAIK, aside from a few   
   commuter lines around NYC, there are _no_ lines in the US that are   
   anywhere near that heavily loaded with passenger trains--and adding   
   tracks there has special problems that don't generally apply.   
      
   Still, what capacity would that give?  China's largest HSTs have ~1000   
   seats each, and with minimum headways of six minutes (a guess, but it   
   makes the math easy), that's up to 240k seats per day per track.  No   
   airport in the world moves that many people per day; the few that come   
   close tend to be in cities with lots of tracks, and they also tend to   
   have lots of long-haul flights that wouldn't compete with rail.   
      
   > Of course, if you add enough cars, your train becomes a footpath   
   > from one end of the railroad to the other which happens to have a   
   > lot of seats along the way.   
      
   *eyeroll*   
      
   S   
      
   --   
   Stephen Sprunk         "God does not play dice."  --Albert Einstein   
   CCIE #3723         "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the   
   K5SSS        dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking   
      
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