111–120 of 251 posts
chabuduo is the tradition of cutting corners long formed as the basis for china's fast economic growth. you can build the largest and the biggest infrastructures in the world as fast as possible but it won't be the longest lasting structure which NOT what current day china is about.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes you do. If the rail goes across any freehold, you'll have to negotiate and compensate for the owners loses. This process takes years if not decades. The only reason China is able to build so quickly is because the government tramples on people rights (does private ownership of real estate exist in China?) like there's no tomorrow. I attended a seminar in UCL a few months ago where the panelist shared the number o…
>Yes you do. If the rail goes across any freehold, you'll have to negotiate and compensate for the owners loses. This process takes years if not decades. The only reason China is able to build so quickly is because the government tramples on people rights Actually the Chinese government builds a lot of the high speed rail tracks on elevated tracks in order to avoid interfering with the owner. Which is why most of it…
I wonder, though, how much time is wasted slowly backing it up to the staging area to pick up each new beam section. Maybe they sometimes use a beam carrying machine to bring more beams to the erecting machine.
Japan seems to prefer to build at ground level outside of cities.
As someone who grew in China, I just want to point out that besides the engineering, it is a political wonder as well. Before the bullet train network was built, China already has an extensive railway network. The first step is to run the bullet train on traditional railways, with a peak speed of 180km/h. People think it's great. No objections. But to raise the speed further, a new network has to be built, almost sid…
I have ridden those trains (spent 2011-2016 in China), and they're pretty great, but they're hard to justify economically: > The overall bill is already high. China Railway Corporation, the state-owned operator of the train system, has debts of more than 4trn yuan, equal to about 6% of GDP. Strains were evident last year when China Railway Materials, an equipment-maker, was forced to restructure part of its debts. Si…
By back of the envelope math the comparison seems to favor China. It's not even close.
Obviously also has roads bridges etc. But with a functioning train network you can build far fewer of them compared to America.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I am left with a feeling of awe at China's development, and frustration at the UK's stagnancy. While the UK does feel particularly stagnated on several fronts, I'm not sure abandoning the rule of law, protection of private property, labour protections, at least an attempt at the appearance of corruption-free tenders, high safety standards and the principle that people who are affected should be consulted is worthy…
As someone who works in the planning and urban design field the real issues are private property and heritage. China doesnt care about either. The UK cares too much. The answer is of course somewhere in the middle. Lets not forget most of the UKs existing infrastructure (including railways, roads, canals) was built on private property and through heritage items too, just in a different environment where this was easi…
The chinese revolution led to complete overhaul of the property system, land ownership and land reform from the 50s.
Being developed countries a lot of development happened in a different era in most western countries when the rules, environmental awareness and current standards just didn't exist. China is doing it now. It's a completely different ball game.
China is a huge country compared to most european countries and has more than 1.3 billion people. Its unlikely the things that apply to Europe or the US will apply here.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is wrong. High speed rail networks in France are profitable. Please do some research
I have. I bought tickets and they were very expensive. Im flying vancouver-sf round trip next month for 1/3 the price i paid for london-paris a few years back. Doing the math again today, round trip paris-london on eurostar is 600$ in my money (320bp on eurostar site +fees +conversion to cad, leaving next monday). Vancouver-sf by air can he had for 275$ (corporate account, no visible discount).
You're not wrong that French rail is relatively expensive, but I think a specialty link was not really a "normal" rail ticket to use to compare.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have. I bought tickets and they were very expensive. Im flying vancouver-sf round trip next month for 1/3 the price i paid for london-paris a few years back. Doing the math again today, round trip paris-london on eurostar is 600$ in my money (320bp on eurostar site +fees +conversion to cad, leaving next monday). Vancouver-sf by air can he had for 275$ (corporate account, no visible discount).
The airport in London and Paris aren't very convenient if you actually have to go to the city, and you need to add transportation costs to and from the city on both sides. Eurostar takes you to locations where people actually want to be. AS for your 600 euros for a ticket, it's likely a last minute bought one at the most expensive time, it goes as low as 39 euros for a single, most people will pay under 300 for the r…
In general, I've found that in Europe there are pretty consistent large savings to booking rail well in advance, which is not nearly so much the case in the US. This can be the case with flying but air prices tend to be all over the map without an easily identifiable pattern.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Perhaps a better photo to make your point: http://en.people.cn/n3/2016/0229/c90000-9022441-11.html So it does seem like they're using tracks elevated by concrete pillars pretty widely, but are you sure your image shows a high-speed rail track? To my untrained eye that seems like a really aggressive curve radius for a high speed rail track. See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_railway_curve_radius#L...
"Perhaps a better photo to make your point: http://en.people.cn/n3/2016/0229/c90000-9022441-11.html" Neither your or your parents photo represents "elevating the rails to avoid interference with the property below". What's happening in these photos is that either there is a flood plain below the tracks and/or there is a maximum grade (elevation) change that they need to respect and so they are "flattening" the track…
http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2014/07/10/co...
"Laying track on viaducts is often preferred in China to minimize resettlement and the use of fertile land"
I rode across a lot of the country on HSR in 2013 and it was obvious that huge swathes (perhaps most) of the network is on viaducts.
Either China is about 40% "physical constraints" (which would make this high speed rail network an even more impressive and our lack of one an even greater failure) or they're actually there to be "nice" (i.e. avoid the need for resettlement/compulsory land purchase).
Currently in China and frequently using the train system here. I really wish something like this could happen in a country as big as the US. What's stopping them? Politicians? Land rights? Lack of resources?
Currently in China and frequently using the train system here. I really wish something like this could happen in a country as big as the US. What's stopping them? Politicians? Land rights? Lack of resources?
The United States would rather let an oil company build a pipeline on your land, then a rail company build a high speed train track on it. Oil is prioritized over rail because it immediately creates jobs, tax dollars, and the government doesn't have to pay up front for it. If you're a politician, which one would you want to support?
This happens.
> rail company build a high speed train track
This doesn't.
There are actually companies that want to build oil pipelines. How many privately funded companies are there that want to (and have the means to) build a high-speed rail line?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I am left with a feeling of awe at China's development, and frustration at the UK's stagnancy. While the UK does feel particularly stagnated on several fronts, I'm not sure abandoning the rule of law, protection of private property, labour protections, at least an attempt at the appearance of corruption-free tenders, high safety standards and the principle that people who are affected should be consulted is worthy…
Some of the UK's problems are not due to the rule of law, but the perverse incentives given to politicians. In particular, the system often rewards politicians who delay making tough (or expensive) decisions. For example, building a new power station using the latest green technology causes more protests and opposition than keeping a decrepit, polluting power station running for an extra five years. At which point, i…
I saw this happen once in my constituency. The protest was ridiculously meek and likely astroturfed but it had the backing of the local Tory MP.
Thus the department of energy and climate change refused permission to build a wind farm.