China laying tracks for 1,000km/h maglev trains • Hacker News Board

Re: China laying tracks for 1,000km/h maglev trains

#51

Post by mrtksn » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 2:31 PM UTC

saberience wrote: post #28

So, as someone that lived in New York for 6 years and California for 6 years, stories like this are incredibly depressing. The US is the world's largest economy and should be the shining example of amazing infrastructure, high-tech, green cities, and forward thinking policies. California is an especially egregious example in terms of infrastructure investment: If California was a country it would be the world's fifth…

I’m under the impression that the US public want cars not trains and even the current tech celebrity’s vision is to have self driving cars that work together as if they are train carriages and go in a tunnel as if they are metro train carriages.

In the rest of the world, people are fine with ride sharing.

Re: China laying tracks for 1,000km/h maglev trains

#52

Post by gnode » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 2:31 PM UTC

1,000km/h is within what is conventionally considered transonic (965-1235km/h). I wonder how practical these speeds are without a containing tunnel, particularly on the ground where there is potential for damage to buildings, structures, wildlife, etc. from sonic booms. Additionally, as I understand it, reflecting objects and terrain at ground level increase the potential for generation of sonic booms at transonic speeds. Indeed, sonic booms are generated by trains today when going through tunnels where the air ahead of the train is constrained and compressed.

Re: China laying tracks for 1,000km/h maglev trains

#53

Post by StreamBright » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 2:31 PM UTC

HenryKissinger wrote: post #16

ailideex wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you like China so much...

I'm not a fan of regimes that concentrate religious minorities in camps, enforce an ideological form of social engineering through "social credit", harvest organs on an industrial scale, or disappear people for having views out of step with dear leader Winnie the Pooh. Rather, I feel a profound sense of disappointment at the sight of an America that used to move mountains and earth to improve the human condition, and…

This is partially because the improvements you mention come from the private sector while the things that you miss usually done by government (at the very least the framework). US has a long history of crony capitalism or corporatism and as a result no real general public health care, public transportation and so on. It also does not help that different states have different regulations in many cases.

Re: China laying tracks for 1,000km/h maglev trains

#54

Post by cheeko1234 » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 2:31 PM UTC

saberience wrote: post #28

So, as someone that lived in New York for 6 years and California for 6 years, stories like this are incredibly depressing. The US is the world's largest economy and should be the shining example of amazing infrastructure, high-tech, green cities, and forward thinking policies. California is an especially egregious example in terms of infrastructure investment: If California was a country it would be the world's fifth…

As a commenter stated below: Be careful comparing a system which can simply take the land and labor it wants to one in which people have rights.

China also has the lowest organ recipient lists, maybe we should try to emulate that too:

https://www.businessinsider.com/china-harvesting-organs-of-u...

Re: China laying tracks for 1,000km/h maglev trains

#55

Post by brandmeyer » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 2:32 PM UTC

justinzollars wrote: post #7

supernova87a wrote: post #4

Hasn't the last 50 years of attempting these shown that they're uneconomic in the extreme, and probably will continue to be even if China puts its admittedly heavily state-subsidized rail-building prowess behind it?

They are amazing. There is one in Shanghai that connects the airport to the city. Imagine a ride from SFO to Salesforce tower in 7 minutes.

Its also a money pit. They keep it running as a matter of nationalistic pride, not because its economical. Most folks in the area take the ordinary metro to the airport, not the maglev.

Re: China laying tracks for 1,000km/h maglev trains

#56

Post by StreamBright » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 2:33 PM UTC

20190820234322 wrote: post #13

dang, can we ban this account? It looks very suspicous (posting a lot of pro-China stuff, username, etc.)

That is going to be the last day I use HN. I think this comment above just shows the intolerance of some people here who are yelling for moderation and unwilling to debate anything that is slightly against their worldview.

Re: China laying tracks for 1,000km/h maglev trains

#57

Post by simion314 » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 2:33 PM UTC

KoftaBob wrote: post #23

geogra4 wrote: post #3

As fast as a jetliner, and way more efficient. Can be powered without fossil fuels. This is the future. Where is America on HSR?

NIMBYs would block any of the eminent domain needed to build it. Not to mention infrastructure construction in this country is rife with corruption and incompetence. This results in HSR having massive price tags and taxpayers not wanting to foot the bill.

I assume there are already tracks between the major cities, probably used today mostly for materials and not people, so can't you put a new track near the existing one, this land would already have low value since trains are already passing there.

Re: China laying tracks for 1,000km/h maglev trains

#58

Post by 20190820234322 » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 2:33 PM UTC

anovikov wrote: post #30

ju577ry wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American here. Public transportation is seen as inconvenient and for lower class people, so large transit projects like this get no traction. You will never see executives or politicians taking trains to work like you do in European countries. Except in NYC.

Other, and actually main, reason is that good public transport decreases cost of land, it is basically designed to do so: it makes more places liveable/jobs reachable, so there is effectively more land for the same amount of people. So everyone will vote against or they lose their pensions. Want to fix this? Sure, easy, just scrap the democracy and just don't ask people, send those who object, to "re-education" camps…

Just a heads-up: This person has posted at least 12 pro-China comments in the past year by my count. Extremely suspicious.

Re: China laying tracks for 1,000km/h maglev trains

#59

Post by ecf » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 2:33 PM UTC

saberience wrote: post #28

So, as someone that lived in New York for 6 years and California for 6 years, stories like this are incredibly depressing. The US is the world's largest economy and should be the shining example of amazing infrastructure, high-tech, green cities, and forward thinking policies. California is an especially egregious example in terms of infrastructure investment: If California was a country it would be the world's fifth…

Currently living in California, and I feel the main opposition to things like this are the constituents.

Everyone in the Central Valley will simply vote against whatever California wants to spend money on unless if overwhelmingly benefits them, or “hurts” those in the cities.

I know this isn’t the only reason the high speed rail project was canned, but those in the Centra Valley opposed it unless it connected some stretches like Fresno Bakersfield together.

Re: China laying tracks for 1,000km/h maglev trains

#60

Post by adambyrtek » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 2:34 PM UTC

anovikov wrote: post #30

ju577ry wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American here. Public transportation is seen as inconvenient and for lower class people, so large transit projects like this get no traction. You will never see executives or politicians taking trains to work like you do in European countries. Except in NYC.

Other, and actually main, reason is that good public transport decreases cost of land, it is basically designed to do so: it makes more places liveable/jobs reachable, so there is effectively more land for the same amount of people. So everyone will vote against or they lose their pensions. Want to fix this? Sure, easy, just scrap the democracy and just don't ask people, send those who object, to "re-education" camps…

I'm not convinced that, as you say, decreasing cost of land is the main reason. A simple counterexample would be London which has great public transport and ridiculous prices of land. On the contrary, public transport projects like Crossrail actually increase prices of land and property in affected areas.