Civilized Transportation | Green Energy News

October 13, 2002 – Vol.7 No.29

CIVILIZED TRANSPORTATION.

Sit back and relax. Enjoy a good book. Or gaze out a window and watch the world go buy. Forget about highways clogged with pollution-belching automobiles. Forget about long check-in lines and intrusive security at airports. Need to travel a few hundred miles? Take the only civilized mode of intercity transport. Take the train - if you have one near you.

Though the living-in-the-Dark-Ages-Washington-politicians don’t have the vision to foresee the need for a national world-class high-speed rail system in the U.S. (and never give Amtrak the money it deserves), they do gleefully support the uncivilized ways to travel. However, states, cities and regions are beginning see high-speed rail as one solution to travel in their territories. Bombardier of Canada knows this and has come up with a new product specifically to nudge state and municipal officials into making the go-ahead decision for high-speed rail projects - the JetTrain.

Built with more than $25 million from the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) (beyond Congress and the White House there is some vision in government) JetTrain sports a 5000 horsepower (3729 kilowatt) Pratt & Whitney PW 150 aero-derivative gas turbine engine (thus JetTrain) that will pull the beautiful beast to almost 150 miles per hour. Weighing in at 38,000 pounds less - 20 percent lighter - than a diesel locomotive of the same power, the JetTrain will accelerate at twice the diesel’s pace. But like a diesel locomotive Bombardier’s new product is really propelled by an electric motor. The turbine spins a generator to energize the motor. It’s a set-up that’s been used for decades and not unlike a hybrid automobile. But unlike a diesel there is no black smoke and greenhouse gas emissions are 30 percent less with JetTrain.

Bombardier is promoting the JetTrain as a Faster, Better, Sooner alternative to all-electric high speed intercity rail. JetTrain can run on ordinary tracks without the need for overhead wires. Without all those wires to install, a regional high-speed rail project can be up and running sooner, probably for less money than the all-electric version.

(All-electric is a bit of a misnomer anyway. All-electric trains are really powered by whichever powerplant is electrifying the overhead wires. All-electric trains are all too often really fueled with coal.)

JetTrains could be coming to a station near you. There are a number of high-speed intercity rail projects being discussed throughout the U.S. and Canada. But can high-speed intercity rail work in the U.S? Despite its recent problems with the Acela trains, Amtrak trains now carry more passengers between Washington and New York each day than the two busiest airline shuttles combined. Visit Bombardier at http://www.transportation.bombardier.com/ .