Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again • Hacker News Board

Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#91

Post by randomsearch » Tue, Apr 21, 2015, 3:31 PM UTC

dkhenry wrote: post #16

zachalexander wrote: post #3

Amazing. Writing this from Berlin, which doesn't have maglev trains, but has phenomenal public transit. It's sad to be going back to the US soon where the infrastructure is so primitive.

If you look at Washington DC's metro its pretty much the same QoS as you get off the Berlin metro. So I am not quite sure how its considered "primitive" Berlin - 4 - 5 minute trains DC - 6 minute trains Berlin - 9 lines, 170 stations DC - 6 lines, 91 stations and thats not even the biggest metro system in the US. So really the problem isn't going back to the US, its going back to whatever place you're going to in the…

My experience is that the US has awful public transit, with the arguable exception of NYC, purely because of its subway.

Here's the stats for Berlin vs Washington, as you wanted to make the comparison.

Berlin subway (U-Bahn) has 10 lines, 94km (route length). Berlin trams have 22 lines, 190km.

Washington Metro has 6 lines, 118km. No trams (under construction?).

I'm excluding the S-Bahn, as Washington doesn't have anything comparable.

Berlin's subway alone carries about 500 million passengers a year, versus 200 million on the Washington metro.

The difference in this case is quite easily explained by density of population - Washington is much smaller than Berlin, with 700k vs 3.5 million. However, this doesn't explain why other US cities have such poor public transit.

If you look at the numbers transported by American metro (subway) systems, there are 18 subway systems in Europe that carry more passengers than Chicago, the USA's second busiest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metro_systems

Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#92

Post by Retric » Tue, Apr 21, 2015, 3:35 PM UTC

masklinn wrote: post #81

Someone1234 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trains still have an "end of the line." So, yes, you could if you were going fast enough. Also aircraft security was too much even pre-9/11.

> Trains still have an "end of the line." So, yes, you could if you were going fast enough. You can overrun the buffer stop (happened last year at O'Hare, a blue line train overran its buffer stop and climbed up an elevator) but you're just going to go a bit past the buffer stop (relatively, most likely a fraction of the train length), at best you'll get just outside the station Montparnasse-style ( https://en.wikipe…

You can replace the buffer stop with an incline too steep to climb with the available traction at which point their best bet is derailment by going too fast around a turn. But again, with properly banked curves the trains simply can’t go fast enough for that to happen.

Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#93

Post by joss82 » Tue, Apr 21, 2015, 3:35 PM UTC

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.…

SNCF actually prints on their tickets "try to arrive 2 minutes before the trains departs"

Pretty sure it's marketing though, the TGV can be veeery long sometimes, so it takes a while to walk to your assigned car.

EDIT: source: http://tgv.lu.voyages-sncf.com/fr/avant-depart

Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#94

Post by Retric » Tue, Apr 21, 2015, 3:41 PM UTC

littlejohnk wrote: post #70

cbr wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure? I'm not finding anything about this. The TGV record is about half the speed of sound, which means the wheel rims are bordering on supersonic, so it's not a simple thing to talk about exceeding it.

Why would the wheel rims rotate at twice the speed of the train? If the train advanced along the track 1m, surely the part of the wheel in contact with the track must also have moved 1m?

The bottom of a wheel is stationary relative to the ground. (X - X)

The middle a the wheel moves at the same speed as the vehicle relative to the ground. (X + 0)

The top of the wheel moves at twice the speed of the vechile relative to the ground. (X + X)

Put another way, the top of the wheel must go faster than the vehicle or it does not rotate.

Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#95

Post by bane » Tue, Apr 21, 2015, 3:44 PM UTC

CountHackulus wrote: post #48

the8472 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That still exists outside the US. Last year I took a flight from germany to a conference in poland and strolled through the airport after checking in. I left the security zone by accident - simply walking through a pair of sliding doors which only open from one side - 10 minutes before departure. But it wasn't a big problem, I simply went through the metal detector/xrays for hand luggage and arrived at the gate with…

That's strange, I flew from Toronto to Budapest through Munich, and Munich was by far the strictest security I encountered. They made my take off my shoes and sweatshirt. So it's maybe not "outside the US" just "in some places."

I had to unpack my entire backpack, every pocket, and camera equipment at Frankfurt (on a trip to Rome) not all that long ago because I had a summer sausage in my backpack. They weren't rude about it, but it was tighter security than I've gone through in the states.

Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#96

Post by vidarh » Tue, Apr 21, 2015, 3:47 PM UTC

ulfw wrote: post #26

wahsd wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't be such an idiot. I get it, you enjoy European infrastructure and social democracy. Remember though that you will pay half of the taxes you pay in Germany ... oh, did you just enjoy all the benefits of German infrastructure and society without actually paying any taxes, let alone your whole life? No one is keeping you from remaining in Germany, are they? I can guarantee you they will approve your work permit an…

Show me where in e.g. California taxes are HALF of those in Germany.

He's exaggerating. Or is just making silly assumptions.

I don't know about Germany, but when I was considering moving from the UK to California, the total tax difference I was looking at was 1-2 percentage points at my (high) salary level. Even compared to Norway which hardly has the reputation as a low tax country, my then salary and consumption would only lead to 3-4 percentage point more tax. This was when I included the amount of VAT I'd pay on average (even the 25% VAT on most goods and services in Norway contribute surprisingly little, as of course for starters this is on your net income, and secondly peoples largest expenses tends to be things like rent or mortgage payments etc., so the amount of your salary that actually goes on stuff taxed at the max VAT rates in Europe ends up fairly small).

Even compared with Belgium (which has one of the highest all-in tax rates in the world - well above Germany as far as I remember) California taxes would be well above half more most people.

The US in general isn't nearly as low-tax as some people would like to believe. I seem to remember that e.g. in OECD rankings the US comes pretty close to the top in the worldwide rankings and middle of the road when looking at developed countries.

Of course, if you cherry-pick tax brackets and assume a state with no state income tax, and suitably low sales taxes and lack of other local taxes in the US I'm sure you can find somewhere really cheap, though most of them will likely be places few people wants to live.

Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#97

Post by masklinn » Tue, Apr 21, 2015, 3:53 PM UTC

Retric wrote: post #92

masklinn wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Trains still have an "end of the line." So, yes, you could if you were going fast enough. You can overrun the buffer stop (happened last year at O'Hare, a blue line train overran its buffer stop and climbed up an elevator) but you're just going to go a bit past the buffer stop (relatively, most likely a fraction of the train length), at best you'll get just outside the station Montparnasse-style ( https://en.wikipe…

You can replace the buffer stop with an incline too steep to climb with the available traction at which point their best bet is derailment by going too fast around a turn. But again, with properly banked curves the trains simply can’t go fast enough for that to happen.

> You can replace the buffer stop with an incline too steep to climb

There generally isn't the room to plop down hills instead of buffer stops. Instead it's possible to use energy-absorbing buffer stops (rather than the traditional "hard" buffer stops), possibly with e.g. dowty retarders on the track beforehand to force specific speed ranges on incoming trains.

Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#98

Post by Symbiote » Tue, Apr 21, 2015, 3:55 PM UTC

wlesieutre wrote: post #80

Someone1234 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trains still have an "end of the line." So, yes, you could if you were going fast enough. Also aircraft security was too much even pre-9/11.

Even if you were going fast enough, you couldn't take one and crash it anywhere you like. Into the platform at Grand Central, maybe. Into the WTC and Pentagon, not so much. Some kind of automatically enforced speed limiter when the train detects that it's near the end of the line would probably not be hard to implement, or maybe has been already. IIRC many trains automatically slow for curvy areas of track. EDIT: htt…

You don't need anything that modern — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatische_treinbe%C3%AFnvlo... shows a 1950s electronic system which could reduce the speed to 40km/h. (Approaching a terminus stations counts as approaching a danger signal.)

Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#99

Post by shawnps » Tue, Apr 21, 2015, 4:02 PM UTC

Often people are disappointed when they visit Japan to find that it isn't as technologically advanced as they had dreamed, and I do agree partially, but whenever I discuss it with friends who also live here we always agree: the trains are amazing. Even local trains (in Tokyo) come very often, are fast, and are extremely quiet. But I always look forward to riding the Shinkansen. If you're lucky you can even get a great view of Mount Fuji.

Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#100

Post by est » Tue, Apr 21, 2015, 4:03 PM UTC

koyote wrote: post #5

melling wrote: post #2

How about low-speed maglev? China will open its first line later this year: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_S1,_BCR I imagine it's much cheaper to build and operate?

The reason for this is to cut down travel time. Japan already has a high-speed connection between almost all major cities, so this is just to speed up the link even more. What would a low-speed maglev accomplish?

Less noise, less expensive than metro?