Quote:
Originally Posted by Danth
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A big part of it is safety regulations. There are significant crashworthiness laws in place, and it's usually stricter for equipment expected to run high rates of speed. Most of the equipment used by tourist railroads, for example, would be illegal in high-speed service.
I do not disagree with such regulations; I don't want to be speeding around at 120 MPH in 19th century-style wood frame coaches. It goes back to the basic point, you can either be fast or you can be cheap, but you can't be both. EDIT: Look up historic rail crashes where you had coaches telescoping into each other and you'll quickly realize why such requirements are necessary.
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Really think you can say they're heavy compared to diesel trains carrying freight?