"Tour of the Turbo" 1971 Turbotrain concept tilting train

[JCitron]

I rode the UAC Turbo Train between Boston Back Bay Station and NY Penn Station in 1975. The trip, contrary to what they said in the video, took just as long as a conventional train due to the poor track conditions of the Penn Central's former New Haven lines.

 

[Paulsw2]

Interesting video John. I think this is something Britain and the US have in common with trains - the belief that the train technology can somehow overcome the shortcomings of the infrastructure so you don't really need to invest in the latter (eg. the obsession with tilting trains). The alternative view (pretty much the rest of the world, but notably Japan, France, China) is that you need to build dedicated lines if you want to do real genuine high speed rail.

 

[JCitron]

Interesting video John. I think this is something Britain and the US have in common with trains - the belief that the train technology can somehow overcome the shortcomings of the infrastructure so you don't really need to invest in the latter (eg. the obsession with tilting trains). The alternative view (pretty much the rest of the world, but notably Japan, France, China) is that you need to build dedicated lines if you want to do real genuine high speed rail.

I've noticed that too. Let's make a 125 mph passenger train run on old stick track that's barely able to support commuter trains. When I rode the UAC Turbo, Penn Central was bankrupt and never put much back into the infrastructure in the first place. The old New Haven Railroad (New York New Haven and Hartford) was in even worse shape because the Penn Central didn't even want that railroad as part of the merger between the New York Central and Pennsylvania and were told to include the New Haven as part of the plan by the ICC who was running the show back then.

At one time, the trains between Boston and New York City would take 3 hours 45 minutes and that included an engine change at New Haven where they swapped out diesels for electrics for the rest of the trip to New York City. This was true right up until the PC took over and by then the trip was 4 hours or more until Amtrak came along and upgraded the line and extended the catenary to Boston.

What's interesting is the US Department of Transportation was very interested in and inspired by the HST125 and the technology at the time. They had looked at trains from Japan and elsewhere but never imported an HST set for trials.