JetTrain

what is it?

The JetTrain was an experimental high-speed passenger train concept created by Bombardier Transportation in an attempt to make European-style high-speed service more financially appealing to passenger railways throughout North America. It was designed to use the same LRC-derived tilting car Acela trains that Bombardier built for Amtrak in the 1990s, which used all-electric locomotives. Unlike the Acela, powered electrically by overhead lines, the JetTrain would have used a combination of a 4,000-horsepower (3.0 MW) gas-turbine engine, a low-power diesel engine, a reduction gearbox, and two alternators to power electric traction motors.

base stats

• speed 265 km/htop speed
• power 3.8 MWpower output
• weight 97.5 tin working order
• built 1made in total

Bars compare against all trains: 600 km/h (maglev), 1,700 seats; power, weight and number built on a log scale up to 20 MW, 1,000 t and 20,000 built.

fun facts

• 🎂First built 26 years ago, in 2000.
• 🏎️Top speed is 2.0× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• ⏱️At full speed it would cover Amsterdam–Utrecht (≈ 40 km) in 9 minutes.
• 🚗3.8 MW is about 44 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
• 🐘Weighs about as much as 16 African elephants (~6 t each).

high-speed train: Built for 200–350 km/h on dedicated lines, like the TGV, ICE or Shinkansen.

spec sheet

built

2000

number built

1

kind

Gas-turbine–electric

traction

gas turbine

origin

🇨🇦 Canada

builders

ALSTOM Transportation Germany

top speed

265 km/h

power

3.8 MW

gauge

1,435 mm standard gauge

weight

97.5 t

From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.