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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Gilbert B Norman: [QB] Ms. Karen, aboard #5, Zephyr, you will be in the middle of the 6.2 mile Moffat Tunnel when X-ing the Continental Divide at an altitude of 9200ft. The Continental Divide is simply a point in the land mass where on one side of it, rivers flow in one direction and on the other in the opposite. Here the Divide largely follows the North-South mountain range that extends the length of North and South America. In the US, in many places it is within a sharp mountain range, such as the Rockies in Colorado, in others, you wouldn't even know you X'd it were it not for some signage by a highway. I'm not completely sure where such a Divide is in Great Britain; it seems like, just based on my observations when I've "been over", the Thames and the Tweed flow Eastward to the North Sea, yet the Severn flows Westward to the Irish Sea. On the European Continent, again drawing from my limited observations from journeys past, it seems like the Rhine, Seine, Elbe all flow Northward to the Baltic Sea, yet the Rhone flows Southward to the Med. If such be the case, then there would appear to be a Divide traversing the Continent in an East West direction, but traveling from Avignon to Paris I cannot recall any noticeable mountain pass (same as over here on rail routes used by the Sunset, or on one - BNSF Transcon) that do not have passenger train service. Finally, and to move away from the rivers, I again want to impress that I believe you will find that North American railroading is simply "not about" passenger trains; they are about moving freight - and in volumes that will simply astound a visitor from overseas. While navigable waterways are available to most industrial and commercial centers, the inland waterways primarily flow North-South through the "midsection'. While there is much highway transport (trucks/"lorries"), the economics are simply against such being more than a means to "feed" into rail and waterways and to move overland the traffic that has high value sufficient to justify much higher rates than rail transport. While in the Northeast, especially on your NY-Wash segment, you will see passenger trains operating on frequencies about the same as you do in the UK, that is hardly the case elsewhere. The trains you will ride are "one a days", or, with the companion train in the opposite direction, the only ones on those rails. That there are any passenger trains on the routes you plan to ride away from the Northeast is simply a political accident, and I contend exist only because the managers of investor owned railroads "made a bad bet" some forty years ago and find themselves locked into operating government sponsored trains that they would just as soon not operate. But passenger trains, whether people ride them or not, are popular with elected politicians, and the railroads have simply decided it is simply most expedient to "just live with 'em" rather than making a concerted effort, through "behind the scenes" lobbying by their trade association, to have them discontinued. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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