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

asiatimes.com

201–210 of 503 posts

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

#201

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…

The alternative to being stuck in traffic for hours is flying. A major problem with train systems in the United States (and this is both short and long haul) is that almost the entire country is sprawl - built around the automobile. In dense environments (China and the north-east coast of the US (which has Acela), it's great to take a train into the core -- you beat traffic and are near your destination. In sprawling…

If I wanted to take a trip to LA there is no way I would spend a day driving each way on the I5. So for me it’s either fly or take a train. Regardless of the sprawl within metro areas, there is absolutely a need for connections between big cities - the last mile transit for airports is still bad anyway

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

#202
post #81

Sadly, China has already wasted too much money on the so called high speed rails running at 300-350km per hour. I was looking at my HSR options from Shanghai to Xi'an (1,500km distance) yesterday, the fastest train takes almost 6 hours and there is only one everyday. That 6 hours ride costs me almost $100 USD while $120 USD can covers my flight to Xi'an in 2.5 hours and I can choose the time of my flight. $20 extra t…

I don't think any traffic network is ever wasted, as traffic seems to perpetual grow, especially in countries with a strongly growing economy. A long-distance maglev wouldn't make the HSR redundant. Having two train systems increases the total transport capacity and the HSR would be more for shorter and medium distances while the maglev could limit to long distance connections. Any cities in between would connect via HSR to the maglev.

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

#204

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 am so glad California did not spend $80+ billion on the high-speed SF to LA rail project. It makes no sense. Flying from SF to LA would be faster than the train. Driving isn't that bad either and once you get to LA you need a car to get around. If you really want to take the train to LA there is already a beautiful route on Amtrak along the coast.

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

#205
post #51

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’m under the impression that the US public want cars not trains and even the current tech celebrity’s vision is to have self driving cars that work together as if they are train carriages and go in a tunnel as if they are metro train carriages. In the rest of the world, people are fine with ride sharing.

People want cars not trains because current trains are such an awful experience. This wouldn't necessarily be the case if trains were improved to the standards of some other countries.

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

#207

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.

Mountain ranges didn't seem to be a problem for Japan's high speed rail network.

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

#208

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.

> We can't just say, "Your land is ours, get the fuck out, construction begins in one week" didn't they say that when they arrived 400 years ago

> didn't they say that when they arrived 400 years ago

Didn't x say y 1,000 years ago?

You're talking about different people: literally, morally, culturally - in most every way in other words. What does the average American today have to do with someone that came over from the British Empire in September 1620? The Pilgrims were not a mixture of German, African, Mexican and Chinese. Today is not 400 years ago.

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

#209

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.

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

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

that seems very unlikely to happen in texas, right? socialized public transit doesnt seem like a distinctly texan thing to do.

Please see here for project financing info: https://www.texascentral.com/rumors-vs-reality/project-finan...
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