urbanists.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
We're a server for people who like bikes, transit, and walkable cities. Let's get to know each other!

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lgsp

@cstross

There are already ballast issues as the train sucks rocks from bottom (maybe solvable with better aerodynamic design). Then there is the so called hunting unstability, solvable with better yaw dampers. The rral difficulties as far as I know are:
- overhead wire to pantograph contact, that requires higher tension (no electrical) but you get more wear
- curve radii limits. Lateral acceleration has soe limit due to confort.

@pluralistic @rachelplusplus @straphanger