“The greenest train in the world.” That is what we are looking at as the future draws nearer. There has always been this idea that the future will embody flying cars or aliens taking over Earth. What if I told you that the future is more of a sustainable initiative needed to push towards a greener environment? But how? In the United States, something is emerging quietly and will change the entire trajectory of travelling. What seemed to be hard or took a long time to get to another location will be made easy by this project. This is similar to Elon Musk’s project that we have been waiting for since 2013.
The public transportation issue in America: A country on the verge of a high-speed revolution
America has not had the best reputation when it comes to public transport. In fact, for years it has been criticised for it. What makes it worse is that the nation is known to have advanced technology and is developed enough to cater to such downfalls within its economy. Good examples of nations with good high-speed transportation are China, Japan and France.
While Elon Musk has asserted something similar, America is still craving and hoping for something that could just revolutionise their economy and transportation industry by making one move and investing in one project that will just change everything. But what is it that could be done to elevate America? While speed and convenience are essential, green, clean and sustainable practices are more important.
California is developing a solar-powered bullet train for the 22nd century
The transport dynamics are about to change forever if this project comes to fruition without any problems. America announces a $100 billion project to invest in its solar train. The only thing that needs to be done is for this project, its engineers, and all participants to ensure that all the challenges are overcome and California can enjoy an innovation, a never-before-seen train that will make travelling easier.
Solar. Let us pay attention to that. Yes, we need a power-packed fast train, but remember we spoke about “The greenest train in the world”. Solar is the best power for this train because not only is it renewable, but it is also cheaper. In cases where there are blackouts, there is a guarantee that travellers do not worry about delays and postponements of dates and schedules. Margaret Cederoth, the authority’s director of planning and sustainability, said,
“California is a fantastic place to do renewable energy. It’s the best solar installation in the United States. We already have in our right-of-way portfolio some very well-configured parcels that allow us to do renewable energy generation at the scale necessary to supply the amount of electricity we need to entirely offset our load.”
The solar train as a future development model: This is good because
- It will be one of the fastest trains in the world, at 200 mph.
- Different from trains that use diesel and toxic fuels, this one is 100% clean and renewable.
- It will connect San Francisco to Los Angeles and eventually expand to more parts of California.
When it was approved in 2008, this train was budgeted for $33 billion, but today we talk of $95 billion more due to economic changes, and investors discovered that there was a need for things such as environmental clearances, land acquisition, and private negotiations. This project has come a long way, to be honest, and the state of California will have a ’22nd-century train’. We are excited to see how it unfolds, excited to see how travel times will be reduced and how the economy, in terms of imports and exports, will also benefit from this and job opportunities expanding too.
