02-03 Rail

It was 1987 and a train ride from Tokyo to Kyoto on the bullet train helped me understand the future of rail transportation both passenger and freight.
The Shinkansen or bullet train was fast, comfortable and quiet. Some got off to visit the famous Mt. Fuji, but we went straight through to the historic city of Kyoto.
The big deal was that the bullet train was powered by electricity. And this was before anyone was even talking about climate change and reducing the use of fossil fuels.
And no wonder. Travelling by auto or bus in Japan, anywhere near the major cities was a nightmare of clogged roads and highways.
Something I noticed was the massive rural housing development that was only feasible because of the high speed train connections into Tokyo.
It is easy to understand why the USA has not invested in high speed electric train systems. Their rail system is still powered by diesel. Americans have made most of their infrastructure investments in highways to support the trucking industry.
Nations like India rely on electric trains to move people but their system is a nightmare of overcrowding, and people getting killed each year falling off these trains.
One of the interesting things I learned as an engineering student back in the 1950s was that diesel locomotives actually serve to generate electricity that power electric motors that drive the trains.
The reality is that it is much more efficient to send electricity down to these motors from an overhead track than from a diesel generator.
It was interesting during a trip to Norway in 2009 to hear them talk about their plans to electrify old railway lines as part of their plans to take the economy electric. Not just trains, but ships, cars, buses and trucks.
The photo shows an electric train in Norway that travels at conventional speeds on old tracks converted to electric train travel.
This is the kind of electrification story you find throughout Europe. Not all trains have to travel at 200 miles per hour.