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| Re: Amtrak's ACS-64 design (1025492) | |||
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Re: Amtrak's ACS-64 design |
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Posted by AEM-7AC #901 on Fri Jan 14 15:33:29 2011, in response to Re: Amtrak's ACS-64 design, posted by JayZeeBMT on Fri Jan 14 15:23:40 2011. The NEC being the only large-scale electrification in the US, that makes sense. Politically, though, people have been avoiding the question of why this is so, for decades now.Primarily because petroleum is lightly taxed in the United States, and train frequency generally hasn't been enough to warrant electrification, and because the Class 1s are loath to spend large capital funds on something that works in the long-term which ends up spooking the investors. I suspect the only way you'll see the Class Is go electric is if diesel fuel is taxed heavily and/or the feds start subsidizing the capital cost of installation. For passenger service, with the exception of CAHSR and the Florida HSR regime, I don't see anybody electrifying beyond the commuter range due to the lack of frequency of service and the ambivalence of freight rail track owners to having it installed on their trackage. I suspect ultimately this will remain the status quo until there's widespread political agreement on the need for a high quality railway network. Otherwise, electric locomotives will remain a boutique purchase left only for Amtrak and NJ Transit. |
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