Buscar: 

The anachronism of high speed trains

The high speed train routes that are being constructed in the 2000s correspond to 20th century technological conditions, not to 21st century ones. In fact, in 1960 it would already have been possible to construct high speed routes if society had been rich enough to invest enormous amounts in the tunnels, bridges, land clearings and fillings necessary to draw up routes with little grade and very open curves. High speed railway lines are essentially that: very advantageous for train routes by acting without scruples with regards to the relief of the land, thanks to a colossal economic effort.

But in such works we are investing 21st century money to solve transport problems from decades ago. In 1960 sufficiently advanced technology already existed to put a 300 kilometres per hour passenger train on a level and straight route, separated from human and animal activity by means of a fence. However, what did not exist in 1960 but does exist at the beginning of the new century is computerization, that is to say, the computerized control of all types of industrial, economic and consumption processes.

High speed trains are anachronistic in the computer-science era because they are too heavy. Computerized public transport is not going to solve problems such as reuniting 500 travellers in a Madrid station to take them quickly to a Barcelona station. The challenge of the next decades consists of gathering each traveller at the door of their origin and taking them to the door of their destination. This is what will probably become common in the middle of the 21st century at a public-transport price.

 

 

Anyway, at the moment the question is not to get ahead of ourselves, reaching so far into the future, but to study the appropriate alternative for the high-speed train in its present state. Then, the alternative to the pharaonic and anachronistic works that are being carried out with certain slowness, due to their enormous cost, consists of light elevation for automatic vehicles of less than twenty seats.

All future high-speed lines will be more functional, cheaper, more suitable for high speeds, safer, more penetrating and more ecological if they are raised on columns on a continuous bridge, as much in the fields as in the centre and the surroundings of the cities. It is always given that this totally computerized transport requires small and, consequently, light vehicles.

It is more functional because vehicles with twenty passengers, or less, are more frequent, they adapt better to flexible routes with regards to origin, destination and itinerary, and need to stop less than heavy vehicles such as 60-seater buses or trains.

It is cheaper because lightness does not require such solid bridges, nor such wide tunnels. Elevation on columns uses less urban or rural ground and avoids the many works of clearing and filling.

It is more suited to high speeds because it is separated from the danger level, that is to say the ground. To this is added the fact that small vehicles, when taking fewer travellers from different origins or destinations, need to stop less than heavy ones.

It is safer for the stated reason: a continuous bridge on columns drastically separates the circulation from the level where human and animal life is developed.

It is more penetrating because a light route on columns can go into city streets without affecting urban life. The fact that elevation offers a great advantage against snow and floods is not insignificant.

It is more ecological because the impact at ground level, the one on human, animal and vegetable life, is limited to the columns feet. Children can play and people can walk in the heart of the city below a continuous bridge. Animals, domestic or wild, are not affected their passage. Vegetation, wild or cultivated, is not interrupted near the columns.

The investment necessary to put into operation a high speed line like the one from Madrid to Barcelona, turned into investment for the light elevation of a route for small vehicles, can be equivalent to the one with multiple origins and destinations, with vehicles that would start off from diverse points of the city of Madrid, as well as from Toledo, Aranjuez, Getafe or Alcala, and would arrive in various parts of Barcelona, as well as Sabadell, Tarrasa, Manresa and Gerona. There would be many trips with no intermediate stop. The twenty passengers would have routes such as: Atocha - Manresa, Alcala - Sabadell, Toledo - Barcelona centre, etc.

With this current available alternative we would be approaching the door-to-door public trip that the fully computerized public transport of the advanced 21st century will offer.

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