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Update of the extension of the Line 2 of the Metro of Santo Domingo, which is included in among the fastest trains in North America.
This is from a few days ago.
In this one you can see the second cable car line in Greater Santo Domingo. That too is being built by the government as another transport solution to combat the traffic jams at rush hour, currently in its final stages.
The extension of Line 2 goes from the MarÃa Montez Metro Station by Kilometer 9, right on the border between the municipalities of Santo Domingo and Santo Domingo Oeste (or West Santo Domingo). Unlike the rest of Line 2, the extension is underground and goes until the municipality of Los Alcarrizos, which is a mostly lower middle class and poor municipality. The Los Alcarrizo Metro Station is the last one of the extension which includes I think 4 metro stations. Given the sociocharacteristics of the demographic in this area, both the extension of the metro and the cable car line will be used mostly by poor people.
Currently new trains are being built in Spain to further reinforce the Metro of Santo Domingo. They will be identical to the ones already running in the system. A little known fact is that the metro and stations designs are inspired on the ones in the Madrid Metro (but more colorful) and the trains are the same ones in the Barcelona Metro, both in Spain.
See the video to get an idea what the new trains will look like.
Since all of this is being built by the government, this is people's taxes at work (including a small part of the taxes paid by tourists when they vacation in the DR (resort stays, airplane ticket, etc).
i stand corrected and glad of it; the 100 MPH start-to-stop speed figure compares very favorably with the speeds on our own Northeast Corridor, when Amtrak was just starting out, some 52 years ago.
Nice work, Al-boraq!
But what the HSR zealots sometimes overlook is that redeveloping an existing right of way (as in Morocco and America) is often more feasible, and less expensive, than building new lines (as in Japan and France). And there is plenty of opportunity for upgrading those lines incrementally
as the system grows.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 04-12-2023 at 05:02 PM..
The century plus rail network and freight trains (something Europe doesn't have in spades) is what causes delays and the long transit times. The trainsets (Aveila Liberty) are literally the same ones replacing Frances TGV's.
By the way, this commuter rail maintenance center is in Stamford, Connecticut. While Acela's aren't maintained here, Metro-North New Haven Line commuter trains are.
Some of the trains are visible in Google Earth. Aside from getting close to these trains in the train station, this is as close as normal people can get to these locomotive beauties. They should seriously consider building an elevated lookout post with several of those binoculars that work with money. That way the trains would be visible in their entirety.You also would get a nice view of the downtown skyline and maybe of parts of the coast, Long Island Sound, the Stamford Lighthouse, and Long Island itself. That would be a nice attraction for trains enthusiasts and even as a family place to visit for the kids. Maybe put it across the street for safety.
The following are printscreens from Google Earth in Stamford, Ct.
Now that I think of it, the rooms in that Marriott hotel probably has nice views of the maintenance center.
There are many problems with what Amtrak calls HSR (Acela) some of them are beyond their control.
First and foremost due to federal regulations passenger trains in USA are far heavier than say in Europe or elsewhere in world. Amtrak's current Acela trains are so heavy they can barely get out of their own way.
Next comes fact huge portions of NEC are well over hundred years old, cobbled together as they were from former Pennsylvania RR (largely south of NYC) and Boston and New Haven (north of it).
Huge portions of Amtrak's NEC require vast investments in signaling, ROW maintenance or outright replacement (such as Portal Bridge).
Ironically Amtrak's best time for NYC to Washington was back in 1979 with Metroliner service. Those trains reached speeds of 90 mph.
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