Re: fast trains

["Dave Proctor" <thadocta@spambait.dingoblue.net.au>]

Richard wrote in message <38C8285F.5ECD2ACC@primus.com.au>...

>Thats what prompted me to enquire originaly...the bar for "fast" has risen
>considerably in recent years!!  160kph (the good ol' magic "ton") is really
>just getting out of the starting blocks these days.

HEck yeah, in the UK, 160km/h (100mph) is pretty much the standard - the
Class 158 - which was intended for higher standard branch lines (but finds
itself elsewhere) was built for 90mph (145km/h).

>Its amazing really whenyouconsider the barriers to progress these
days...when
>we have the technology and equipment to hand...even a "muffled"
desire..thatwe
>struggle to ven partially emulate what the pioneering fathers created many
>years ago.   They built infrastructure where there was NONE!!   and now ,
>today, we get in a tiz straightening out a few lines....ridiculous really.

Not really. The countryside was (mostly) unsettled back then, and there
would have been few if any land owners to get in the way compared with now.

Dave