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Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#51

Post by lmm »

jusben1369 wrote: post #47
jasonkester wrote: post #27

I wonder if we'll ever get back to "High Speed Air" in my lifetime. Back in the 70s, you could rock up at the airport twenty minutes before your flight left, jump on with minimal hassle, and cruise along at 600mph to your destination. Now, you need to endure two hours of having your fingernail clippers confiscated so that you can fly at 500mph to save on fuel costs. That seems to be the true advantage of rail travel.…

In the US we really don't have any rail alternative to flying. I'd love to know how European travellers thinks and weigh up rail (which seems relatively fast and efficient) vs flying. Do you think the two are interchangeable services? Is there a magical breaking point (more than 500km's distance etc) ?

I'll take the Eurostar from London to Paris even if it's slightly slower because it's just a nicer experience. But much further and I'll probably fly unless I'm making a point of taking a train for fun. The only other case would be if I'm taking a lot of luggage as that's much easier to do on a train. Back when I only had a big bulky laptop I might prefer a train to work on but these days my ultrabook is usable on a plane.

Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#52

Post by lmm »

the8472 wrote: post #43
atom-morgan wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worth noting JR Central is a private company. So I don't think the Japanese are giving up any of their income unless they pay for a ride.

I would assume they get some govt subsidies in one form or another for building infrastructure.

They charge ridiculously high prices. But they can get away with it because Japan's roads make poor competition (there's not room for any more).

In many ways it's the other way around: the US has a massively subsidized road network that makes rail uncompetitive. But it's also simply that land is so much cheaper in the US that there's less need to use it efficiently.

Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#53

Post by comrade1 »

jusben1369 wrote: post #47
jasonkester wrote: post #27

I wonder if we'll ever get back to "High Speed Air" in my lifetime. Back in the 70s, you could rock up at the airport twenty minutes before your flight left, jump on with minimal hassle, and cruise along at 600mph to your destination. Now, you need to endure two hours of having your fingernail clippers confiscated so that you can fly at 500mph to save on fuel costs. That seems to be the true advantage of rail travel.…

In the US we really don't have any rail alternative to flying. I'd love to know how European travellers thinks and weigh up rail (which seems relatively fast and efficient) vs flying. Do you think the two are interchangeable services? Is there a magical breaking point (more than 500km's distance etc) ?

It just depends on the distance. Fro Zurich and Basel we take the train to Paris, Milan, Frankfurt, even Lille, but to go to Berlin, Hamburg, San Sebastián, we fly.

So 3 to 6 hours we take the train. More than that we tend to fly.

I can get a lot more work done on the train than flying.

Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#54

Post by drzaiusapelord »

ant6n wrote: post #12

What's interesting, the speed record for conventional bullet trains is 574.8 km/h, about 30km/h less! This was a TGV train, largely unmodified (although they did increase the tension in the caternary). The wiki article about the speed record is interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TGV_world_speed_record Makes you wonder whether the overhead of maglev is really worth it.

Maglev is patent encumbered and really only implemented by a solitary Japanese company with close ties to the Japanese government. The government wants to give you a loan if you buy the product, etc. It a dying concept, much like the concorde was for air. The limits, cost, complexity, etc aren't worth it and the market has been choosing against it for decades.

Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#55

Post by TillE »

mmaldacker wrote: post #31
jasonkester wrote: post #27

I wonder if we'll ever get back to "High Speed Air" in my lifetime. Back in the 70s, you could rock up at the airport twenty minutes before your flight left, jump on with minimal hassle, and cruise along at 600mph to your destination. Now, you need to endure two hours of having your fingernail clippers confiscated so that you can fly at 500mph to save on fuel costs. That seems to be the true advantage of rail travel.…

>Back in the 70s, you could rock up at the airport twenty minutes before your flight left This still exists, for example Tegel airport in Berlin. Also, in the 70s there was waaaaaay less traffic in airports so it is simply not a fair comparison. >Sadly, I bet the way we'll end up equalizing this will be that somebody will eventually bomb a TGV and we'll have to start doing the two hour confiscate-your-kids'-apple-jui…

Tegel is fairly unique because each gate has its own security checkpoint. It's definitely a bit less stressful.

Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#56

Post by userbinator »

wahsd wrote: post #10

I used to be all about public transportation and trains, but I cannot reconcile that anymore with advancement in technology. It simply does not make sense to me anymore to try and build high speed rail on the ground, on fixed "rails" in order to not even get close to even slow airplane speeds. With the roll-out of more sophisticated air traffic control systems that will allow denser traffic, higher frequency landing…

Planes, even small ones, require a significant amount of maintenance and the fuel is not cheap either. Also, qualifying and paying someone to operate a vehicle that is essentially constrained to one dimension of movement is far cheaper than doing the same for a vehicle that can move in all 3 dimensions or even 2 (like a bus.) That's one of the reasons why fully-automated trains have been practical and in operation for many decades already: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_train_operation#Recor...

Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#57

Post by kissickas »

alanho wrote: post #50
rwmj wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Internal flights in Japan are basically turn-up-and-go (and cheap too), and have only a little security.

you can even bring your own bottled drinks/liquid on Japan domestic flights. they have a machine specifically for "scanning" drink/liquid. put your bottle on it, green light, then off you go. not sure how it works

There's a UK company in talks with the DoD on rolling these out for military use, and I'm sure they will expand to civilian airports eventually. I'm not sure if this is the same company, but they're doing the same thing: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/nov/02/scanner-anal...

Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#58

Post by DanBC »

jusben1369 wrote: post #47
jasonkester wrote: post #27

I wonder if we'll ever get back to "High Speed Air" in my lifetime. Back in the 70s, you could rock up at the airport twenty minutes before your flight left, jump on with minimal hassle, and cruise along at 600mph to your destination. Now, you need to endure two hours of having your fingernail clippers confiscated so that you can fly at 500mph to save on fuel costs. That seems to be the true advantage of rail travel.…

In the US we really don't have any rail alternative to flying. I'd love to know how European travellers thinks and weigh up rail (which seems relatively fast and efficient) vs flying. Do you think the two are interchangeable services? Is there a magical breaking point (more than 500km's distance etc) ?

The budget airlines provide such a customer hostile experience that many people prefer trains. These are (England) sometimes awful, but mostly okay and can be nice.

Commuting tends to be worse than the occaisional train journey. The baffling fare structure drastically needs reform -- the same journey can either cost £27 or £72 -- these will be the same class on the same day, just different times. It's frustrating. I like the Virgin trains - I've only ever had an unfun experience on one when the aircon broke. I really hate GWS and I will try to avoid using them where possible, even using a coach would be better. (Virgin trains have power sockets; GWS don't; even a National Express coach has power sockets and free wifi)

Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#59

Post by TillE »

comrade1 wrote: post #53
jusben1369 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US we really don't have any rail alternative to flying. I'd love to know how European travellers thinks and weigh up rail (which seems relatively fast and efficient) vs flying. Do you think the two are interchangeable services? Is there a magical breaking point (more than 500km's distance etc) ?

It just depends on the distance. Fro Zurich and Basel we take the train to Paris, Milan, Frankfurt, even Lille, but to go to Berlin, Hamburg, San Sebastián, we fly. So 3 to 6 hours we take the train. More than that we tend to fly. I can get a lot more work done on the train than flying.

> So 3 to 6 hours we take the train. More than that we tend to fly.

Yep. I could tolerate the longer travel times, but long distance train travel gets really expensive really quickly. For the price of a round-trip train ticket across Germany (Berlin to Cologne, around €100), I could also fly to London, Paris, Amsterdam, etc.

Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#60

Post by easytiger »

alanho wrote: post #50
rwmj wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Internal flights in Japan are basically turn-up-and-go (and cheap too), and have only a little security.

you can even bring your own bottled drinks/liquid on Japan domestic flights. they have a machine specifically for "scanning" drink/liquid. put your bottle on it, green light, then off you go. not sure how it works

Something like:

    num_checks += 1                                                                                                                                                                                         
    if num_checks % 200000 == 0:                                                                                                                                                                            
        red_light()                                                                                                                                                                                         
    else:                                                                                                                                                                                                   
        green_light()
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