Burning the Midnight Oil for Living Energy Independence
I’ve mentioned several times that there are lots of Federal Rail Authority regulations that are impediments to developing sustainable transport in the United States.
One of these is in the area of “superelevation” and “cant deficiency”. Superelevation is the term used in railroading for the degree of banking provided in a turn. Just as banking a turn on a road makes it possible to take the turn at a higher speed more safely, banking the track on a railroad line makes it possible to take a turn at higher speed more safely. In US rail, its measured in the inches of the higher rail above level.
And it might seem minor technical details, but this is really critical for how much new passenger transport we can get out of our existing rail alignments for how much money.