Jack Threads has quickly become the online shopping destination for guys. Here's why everything on the side is up to eight percent off. They serve up killer contemporary and street apparel, accessories and gadgets from brands like Converse, Penguin, and Busted Teas. Shopping is simple and all styles are curated, so buyer's remorse just doesn't happen. What's more, as a listener of brain Stuff, you can skip the membership waitlist and get instant access at sign up dot Jack Threads dot com
slash brain Stuff. Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff works dot com where smart happens. Him Marshall Brain with today's question, how does high speed rail work? Imagine getting on a high speed train in downtown New York City and arriving at Union Station in Washington, d C. Which is two miles away, just an hour later. That is the ultimate promise of true high speed rail. Compared to driving a car, are this train trip would be a dream.
The car ride would take about four and a half hours, making the amusing assumption that there's no traffic or construction along the way. Even compared to an airplane, the train trip would be faster once you account for the need to get to the airport an hour ahead of time, the time spent sitting on the runway, the fact that Dullest and LaGuardia airports are a good distance from downtown, and a whole bunch of other things, the plane trip
might take nearly as long as the car trip. True high speed rail service like this doesn't yet exist in the United States, but it is common in parts of Europe, Japan, and China, and it may be coming to America in the near future with backing from the federal government. California is actively working on a high speed rail system that would run all the way from Sacramento down to San Diego, a distance of about five miles, and this will probably be the first installation of true high speed rail in
the US. The closest thing that the United States has to high speed rail today is Amtrak's Acela service running in the Northeast Corridor. The Northeast Corridor connects Boston to Washington, d C. And include stops in places like New York City and Philadelphia. Although the Ascella trains have a top speed of a hundred and fifty miles per hour, their average speed is more like seventy miles per hour, so the two d thirty mile run between DC and New
York takes nearly three hours. This is still better than the car trip or the plane rides, so the Ascella run is popular. Something like three million passengers traveled between New York and d C every year on the train. So why is the average speed of the Ascella trains so low. The answer to this question helps clarify the difference between normal train track and real high speed track. One of the most important problems with normal track is
the roads that cross over the track. Many of the rail lines in the United States were built with at grade crossings rather than bridges. Obviously, it's not very safe to have a train traveling at a hundred and fifty or two hundred miles per hour if a car canstall on the track at any intersection. Another problem is the radius of turns. Low speed trains can make sharp turns,
while high speed trains cannot. The Acela train tries to get around this problem with tilting cars, but in some parts of the Northeast Corridor the tracks are too close together to use this tilting feature. Another requirement for high speed travel is smooth welded track. This normally means a good concrete base for the track rather than wooden railroad ties. Also needed is overhead electric service, since high speed trains are electric. In addition, a high speed train can't be
competing for the track with slow freight trains. All these requirements mean that true high speed rail needs dedicated high speed track. Building just dedicated track can get expensive, especially in congested urban areas, so high speed rail projects cost billions of dollars. The high speed track in California might end up costing something like a hundred million dollars per
mile when it's all said and done. The good news is that a high speed rail line takes less land than a major highway, and the high speed train gets its passengers to their destination much more quickly than cars can, and a new six lane wide interstate highway project can end up costing nearly as much as a high speed rail line. You might be wondering why Europe, Japan, and China have thousands of miles of high speed track and service while the United States currently has none. This has
to do with different decisions in different priorities. The United States placed its bets on the interstate highway system and airports, partly because the US is so much bigger than Europe or Japan. There's also the fact that Americans love cars and airplanes and haven't been nearly as keen on trains until recently. But a lot has changed in American thinking since the nine eleven attacks and gasoline price spikes. The time may finally be right for Americans to get on
board with high speed rail. Do you have any ideas or suggestions for this podcast? If so, please send me an email at podcast at how stuff works dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, go to how stuff works dot com and be sure to check out the brain stuff blog on the how stuff works dot com home page. Audible dot com is the leading provider of downloadable digital audio books and spoken word entertainment.
Audible has over one hundred thousand titles to choose from to be downloaded to your iPod or MP three player. Go to audible podcast dot com slash brain stuff to get a free audio book download of your choice when you sign up today.