Quote:
Originally Posted by Jasonhouse
With the generally easy terrain, there's no reason they can't crank it up to 250mph/400kph, like the UK is doing with their HS2. That would whittle the trip to 72-75 minutes.
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While there have been trains tested at 400 km/h (250 mph), none have ever operated that fast with paying passengers aboard.
In 2008 China opened the "Wuhan – Guangzhou" high-speed line at 350 km/h (217 mph), the first line ever to operate at that speed. That is until July 2011, when the maximum speed was lowered to 300 km/h (186 mph), it was the fastest line in the world. There are many reasons why China lowered the maximum speed.
I don't think American would ever build or operate faster trains than China, even with Japanese equipment. So forget 250 mph max speeds, the best you should expect in daily operations is 186 mph. America is not going to crank the speeds higher than what has been achieved elsewhere.
That's why 90 minutes is their goal, not 75 minutes.