221–230 of 503 posts
It’s the same fundamental idea behind Hyperloop One and some of the other Hyperloop-related efforts, although of course the vacuum train concept has been around for a lot longer than since Elon Musk popularized it (And got a bunch of flak for doing so...).
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 hate the fact that an autocratic and repulsive Government The Chinese government is much more autocratic yet it obviously does a much better job in building infrastructure The problem with the US government is lobbyism. It does not work for itself, it does not work for the people, it works for big corporations and lawyers.
Has anyone else here ridden the maglev in Shanghai out of the airport? My 2c is that it was awesomely fast and convenient. BUT, I was a little unnerved by how much the train jostled at some points. It was like the supports for the track had sunk in some places leading to the tracks no longer being aligned. Not really informed by anything concrete, but I think there’s a disaster waiting to happen there. China has nowh…
Another reason could be that it wasn’t the time of the day when it goes up to max speed ( it only reaches 400km/h on certain time of the day, some days only. other time it’s just 350 or something like that)
A train at M0.8 near ground level? The very first derailing/crash/etc will demonstrate quite well why this is a poor idea. Planes are quite far from anything easily damageable when they go this fast.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Jerry Brown tried to build the CA bullet train 4 decades ago. Amusing to me he did the Rip Van Winkle and popped up as Governor again after 30 years. In office he pushed hard to get CHSR built. Every time California's high speed rails come up on HN it's obvious that everyone here hates the idea. So the US is getting what it's collectively asking for and deserves here.
> 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.
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.
If either of these things were actually the factors blocking high speed rail in the US, Europe wouldn’t have trains either. Eminent domain exists, and US infrastructure only feels old because we never spend money on it.
You can see proof of that in the fact that Western Europe is barely maintaining its infrastructure properly today. Their spending on such has frequently fallen below US spending levels as a share of GDP.
That's even while having the ability to raise incredibly cheap - often negative yield - debt. Germany refuses to spend and it is starting to badly need infrastructure spending.
EU infrastructure spending as a share of GDP is at 1.8% - 1.9%. The US is at 2.3% - 2.5%. In Greece it's 1.1% (it used to be over 2%). Italy is seeing a similar problem right now as its infrastructure crumbles and they have to fight over spending rules constantly.
From the World Economic Forum's competitiveness report looking at 1998-2017 infrastructure spending and results:
https://i.imgur.com/2jV5Zay.png
EU and Eurozone spending on infrastructure has widely been below proper maintenance levels since the great recession a decade ago. The EU as a whole needs to spend a lot just to catch up to where it should have been right now with its basic infrastructure.
They aren't doing that, and they would build high-speed rail today? There is good reason to be skeptical of that premise.
"Europe’s spending on infrastructure at ‘chronic’ low level"
"Spending at 20-year low threatens region’s prosperity, EIB report warns"
https://www.ft.com/content/51524ab4-cf77-11e7-9dbb-291a884dd...
"According to Statista, the percentage of GDP spent on infrastructure for UK, France and Germany ranged between 2% and 2.2% in 2013 marginally below USA who has been spending 2.4%."
Note: it's not good to be marginally below the US on infrastructure spending in any regard.
https://medium.com/fitch-blog/the-infrastructure-footrace-wh...
"Investment in infrastructure in the EU is today at 1.8% of GDP, according to the EIB Investment Report 2018. This is 20% below pre-crisis levels"
https://voxeu.org/article/addressing-europe-s-infrastructure...
A train at M0.8 near ground level? The very first derailing/crash/etc will demonstrate quite well why this is a poor idea. Planes are quite far from anything easily damageable when they go this fast.
It’s in a vacuum tunnel. Basically like the Hyperloop One idea.
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…
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.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s in a vacuum tunnel. Basically like the Hyperloop One idea.
All the more fun to be had when it cracks/is terrorist-attacked/is subject to an earthquake.
