Solar Train

Our mission is outlined in the first paragraph of the Solar Train Website.at www.solartrain.com  / .org.

... there should be a high speed train system running from Texas running west into the sunbelt, extending at least as far west as Phoenix or Las Vegas, if not L.A. as well, and at least as far east as the Dallas - Waco - Austin - San Antonio corridor, which would particularly benefit from the intra-Texas service. Interim stops at El Paso, Albuquerque, and Tuscon would be natural to expect. If more cities (perhaps even some cities in northwest Mexico) can be included, so much the better, and if the station locations can be chosen to encourage smart urban growth from the point of view of each metro area, that will also be a major benefit. [We] also think that this train, and all of its supporting systems, should be "powered by the sun", at least symbolically.

Current thinking is not to put solar panels on the train itself, but rather deploy them fixed in the desert, at least sometimes visible from the tracks, as part of the same construction project, budget, staff.  Thus the train system "comes with" a grid-connected near-zero-operating-emissions power source supplying total annual energy equal or greater to annual usage by the train system.

We note the rather recent emergence of the Texas T-Bone initiative at www.thsrtc.com.  This seems to have some momentum in the 'Lege and is something we want to pile onto.