fairviewroad
Engineer
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2011
- Messages
- 3,387
A practical question is whether Talgo's (near-mandatory) service contract negates most or all of the savings vis-a-vis an active tilt system.
The active tilt technology has been advertised to the train-riding public in the PNW as a way to save time (i.e. run faster schedules). In that case, the service contract is a moot point.
If you mean do the financial savings realized by running faster schedules (i.e. less crew pay?) are offset by the Talgo service contract, I don't know.
All that said, I sort of think the active tilt technology has outlived its usefulness, as anyone who rides the trains in this corridor can tell you the real problem inhibiting faster service is not the trains' speeds going around curves but rather the time wasted sitting on sidings waiting for freight trains to pass (or other variations on this).