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Trains reach record speed in Beijing-Zhangjiakou test run

chinadaily.com.cn

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Re: Trains reach record speed in Beijing-Zhangjiakou test run

#41

Post by reacharavindh »

dustinmoris wrote: post #9

When I travelled to China for the first time I've spent one month there travelling across the entire country via their highspeed train network. It's amazing, all major places are so well connected and the trains are really cheap, offer 1st, 2nd, 3rd and business class acommodating all various budgets and comfort styles and they run really smoothly and are amazingly on time! After departure it doesn't take more than a…

Having taken the trains a few times from Denmark, through to Germany and Austria, it is always anxious because of missing connections and being stranded/inconvenienced along the journey. It is not particularly cheap compared to flights.Got a problem? - first think which train company to call and ask help from - DSB(Denmark), DB(Germany) or OBB(Austrian) and cross fingers that they speak in English :-) It is very complicated. If there was a single train service that worked all over Europe that is responsible for getting from city A to City B as fast as they could, it would be lovely, but I doubt if we will ever get there given the geo-political differences in Europe.

Re: Trains reach record speed in Beijing-Zhangjiakou test run

#42

Post by JohnJamesRambo »

kuschku wrote: post #33
nnq wrote: post #7

> 10 percent higher than the designed speed ...wasn't smth like "doing research on a live production system to get X% higher than designed output" what the Cernobil engineers were trying to do? Hope their sticking to trains with this mindset and not generalizing it to more dangerous industries :| Anyway, at least electric trains are the kind of technology that will benefit everyone when it gets exported, so yey!

> Anyway, at least electric trains are the kind of technology that will benefit everyone when it gets exported, so yey! It’s not like this is new tech — they’re using trains built in a joint venture by Siemens (EDIT: apparently, they’re now building trains based on the same technology themselves), and the top speed China is trying to reach is 385km/h, unsurprisingly the top speed of the exact same model Siemens sells…

Thanks for your comment, I was wondering who made these trains and if they were Chinese made and designed. I know people have been leery of Chinese made cars and this is going 385 kmh...

Re: Trains reach record speed in Beijing-Zhangjiakou test run

#43

Post by kuschku »

jayalpha wrote: post #38
kuschku wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Anyway, at least electric trains are the kind of technology that will benefit everyone when it gets exported, so yey! It’s not like this is new tech — they’re using trains built in a joint venture by Siemens (EDIT: apparently, they’re now building trains based on the same technology themselves), and the top speed China is trying to reach is 385km/h, unsurprisingly the top speed of the exact same model Siemens sells…

I don't think the Chinese would like this if you say they are selling "Siemens trains". They claim to have developed the technology further. The joint ventures were terminated after the technology transfer.

To actually develop this technology further, they’ll have to spend another 5-10 years on it. I’m sure they’ll manage it, but for now, there’s nothing new about these trains. Yet.

Re: Trains reach record speed in Beijing-Zhangjiakou test run

#45

Post by anovikov »

dustinmoris wrote: post #9

When I travelled to China for the first time I've spent one month there travelling across the entire country via their highspeed train network. It's amazing, all major places are so well connected and the trains are really cheap, offer 1st, 2nd, 3rd and business class acommodating all various budgets and comfort styles and they run really smoothly and are amazingly on time! After departure it doesn't take more than a…

It also requires population density similar to Chinese.

Re: Trains reach record speed in Beijing-Zhangjiakou test run

#46

Post by sdwa »

mason55 wrote: post #39
sdwa wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure why you're getting downvoted, I guess the CCCP astroturfers are out in force today.

I think you mean CCP (Chinese Communist Party). CCCP is the Russian abbreviation for the USSR

I think so, yes.

Re: Trains reach record speed in Beijing-Zhangjiakou test run

#47

Post by _-___________-_ »

9nGQluzmnq3M wrote: post #36
_-___________-_ wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First class in the best long-distance Indian trains is really quite comfortable. Beds are standard, whereas sleeper trains are disappearing in Europe, and you can use an app to order a meal for a certain time, which will be brought on board to you from a nearby restaurant at the appropriate station!

Beds are standard because Indian trains are excruciatingly slow. An "express" train is one that manages 36 km/h (!) excluding stops , while a "superfast" blazes along at 55 km/h. Not a single train in the country cracks 100 km/h as an average operating speed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Express_trains_in_India The Chinese train in the article is thus literally 10x faster than an Indian express. There's finally some…

Yeah, all of that is true. I was mostly replying to the "far below in any other standard" (emphasis mine) part of the parent comment.

Re: Trains reach record speed in Beijing-Zhangjiakou test run

#48

Post by _-___________-_ »

pja wrote: post #27
0b0001 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even with the current train connections, it would be a great improvement to book a single ticket for multi-country journeys. Right now, I need a ticket for Germany, France and Spain to get to Barcelona. If any of the trains runs late and I miss a train, I'd have to buy a new ticket for the connecting train. So a single booking agency with guaranteed connecting trains would be great.

There’s at least some single ticketing in Europe - we bought a ticket from the UK to the south of Germany this summer & it was a single ticket changing in Brussels and Frankfurt, with automatic carry over for missed connections caused by train delays.

DB is quite good at these through tickets to and from Germany, though it seems to be underutilised. A few months ago I booked a through ticket, with missed connections protected, from London to Berlin (Eurostar + Thalys + DB ICE) for €70, the day before departure.

Re: Trains reach record speed in Beijing-Zhangjiakou test run

#49

Post by _-___________-_ »

reacharavindh wrote: post #41
dustinmoris wrote: post #9

When I travelled to China for the first time I've spent one month there travelling across the entire country via their highspeed train network. It's amazing, all major places are so well connected and the trains are really cheap, offer 1st, 2nd, 3rd and business class acommodating all various budgets and comfort styles and they run really smoothly and are amazingly on time! After departure it doesn't take more than a…

Having taken the trains a few times from Denmark, through to Germany and Austria, it is always anxious because of missing connections and being stranded/inconvenienced along the journey. It is not particularly cheap compared to flights.Got a problem? - first think which train company to call and ask help from - DSB(Denmark), DB(Germany) or OBB(Austrian) and cross fingers that they speak in English :-) It is very comp…

If you have a single ticket, or you have separate tickets but the train operators are members of Railteam or parties to AJC (DSB, DB and OBB all are), there's no reason to feel anxious.

Get the conductor on the delayed train to endorse your ticket proving the train ran late (or give you something saying so, if you have a digital ticket).

When the train arrives, if your next train is a "reservation only" service, you should go to the desk of the train operator, show them your ticket from the late-arriving train endorsed with the delay and your ticket for the outbound train that you've missed, and they'll give you a new ticket for the next train with availability.

If the next train isn't a "reservation only" service I usually just get on and sort it out with the conductor. I think technically you're not supposed to do this, but it saves time so can allow you to take an earlier train, and I've never had a problem doing it. YMMV!

I've done this probably 8 times, and never encountered someone who couldn't speak English well enough to understand the situation. In fact, very little communication is necessary since you're holding an endorsed ticket showing your incoming train was late, and a ticket showing your outbound train that you've missed – there's only really one thing you could be asking for!

Re: Trains reach record speed in Beijing-Zhangjiakou test run

#50

Post by coinerone »

ucha wrote: post #4

The train reached its record speed but 385km/h is nowhere near a record. China Daily is a state-owned newspaper.

Even the Germans in 1938 were faster with a Car on the "Autobahn" :D

"Driving a Mercedes-Benz W125 Rekordwagen, essentially a W125 with streamlined bodywork and a larger engine, Caracciola set a new average speed of 432.7 kilometres per hour (268.9 mph) for the flying kilometre and 432.4 kilometres per hour (268.7 mph) for the flying mile..." -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Caracciola

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