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

Post by noodlesUK » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 9:26 PM UTC

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #164

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 think there are two factors at play here. 1) We have the curse of being first. Our cities are old so our infrastructure is old. 2) We can't just say, "Your land is ours, get the fuck out, construction begins in one week" They can also cut corners on safety and pollution. The ends always justify the means.

Post by isostatic » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 9:29 PM UTC

arcticbull wrote: post #177

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there are two factors at play here. 1) We have the curse of being first. Our cities are old so our infrastructure is old. 2) We can't just say, "Your land is ours, get the fuck out, construction begins in one week" They can also cut corners on safety and pollution. The ends always justify the means.

> 2) We can't just say, "Your land is ours, get the fuck out, construction begins in one week" You kinda can, via eminent domain. Maybe the will isn't there, but the way is.

Post by dajohnson89 » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 9:29 PM UTC

jhayward wrote: post #190

greenonions wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Texas Central Railway project will be the first true high speed rail in the country, using Shinkansen tech.

You can gauge the insincerity of the project by the mendacity of the title. There is an area of Texas known universally as "Central Texas". The "Texas Central" project goes nowhere near it. It's a rail line from Houston to Dallas. It's not going to happen, unless the legislature goes full bore socialize-the-losses and subsidizes it.

Post by dang » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 9:32 PM UTC

ailideex wrote: post #5

HenryKissinger wrote: post #2

Meanwhile, in America...

If you like China so much...

Post by beamatronic » Thu, Oct 03, 2019, 9:33 PM UTC

MrFlynn wrote: post #166

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every time California's high speed rails come up on HN it's obvious that everyone here hates the idea California's major cities are almost in a line along the coast. That's the route that makes sense. California's HSR instead took a tour through the Central Valley's farming communities, taking a slam dunk pitch for linking San Francisco and San Diego via L.A. and turning it into a carcass.

Unless you wanted to build an HSR line through a long coastal mountain range most of way from SF to LA further driving up the cost, having it go the majority of the distance through a relatively flat valley definitely has its benefits. I do think that the line should have paralleled i-5 instead of going through Bakersfield and Fresno, but that's not the choice that was made.