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

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321–330 of 503 posts

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

#321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That's because they mostly avoided mountains on their high speed routes. The Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen mostly follow the coastline and the Tohoku Shinkansen mostly goes through a valley. There are lines that do bore through mountain ranges, but nothing to the extent of several hundred miles as would be required for a line through the California coastal range.

Except the one they're building now...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%AB%C5%8D_Shinkansen

"About 90% of the 286-kilometre (178 mi) line to Nagoya will be built underground or through tunnels"

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

#322
post #82

I’m not sure if it’s just lost in translation, but Wuhan to Guangzhou isn’t even 1000 km so I don’t know where they get the 2200 km they’re quoting. That’s likely a figure for GZ to Beijing. I have used the high speed line between Wuhan and GZ (and through to HK) several times. It’s currently a 4.5 hour direct journey (once per day) or a 5 hour journey if you change at GZ or Shenzhen. The HSR is 300ish km/h at the mo…

Would be cool to make a system where the train could drop off tailing cars and redirect them to stops, and pick up new cars which are accelerated to a matched speed and then linked, removing need for the train to fully decelerate at intermediate stops.

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

#323
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a commenter stated below: Be careful comparing a system which can simply take the land and labor it wants to one in which people have rights. China also has the lowest organ recipient lists, maybe we should try to emulate that too: https://www.businessinsider.com/china-harvesting-organs-of-u...

What? The US has the ability to repossess land under Eminent Domain, and it can raise taxes to pay for construction labor (a roundabout way of compelling people to labor for the government). That's not the issue here.

It is not reasonable to equate the rules regarding eminent domain in the US with the effort required by the Chinese government to acquire land.

Nor is it reasonable to equate the complexities of raising revenue in representative government with the ability to direct expenses in a command economy as in China.

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

#324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

The problem is that during the last major American infrastructure buildout, the Interstates, experts basically rammed through projects without considering local impacts or local objections, and highways ended up gutting a lot of the neighborhoods (often poor or minority ones) that they went through. Eventually the pendulum swung in the other direction and people gained the ability to stop urban freeways, but now the…

The interstate highway system was originally envisioned as going around the cities, not through them. Unfortunately, local politicians and construction unions pushed for the opposite, resulting in the displacement of thousands of homes. St. Louis (where I went to college) is a sad example of this; I-55 was a dagger through the heart of the city and to this day there is bitterness over how many homes were razed in the name of progress. The city never really recovered from it, actually.

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

#325

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 is showing up the US

I hate that you use this term. Every government is like a flawed human being. I see it as a spectrum but HN sees it as The USA way or the HighWay.

The autocracy and maintenance of that autocracy is exactly how the Chinese government can show up the US. A centralized government with no ulterior profit agenda is exactly the central pillar to make unbiased decisions without resistance.

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

#326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

6h vs 18h for a trip are two different universes. Sleeper trains are cool and all but a shorter ride is better.

It is time but also energy. At 1000kph a train (at sea level) has massively more drag than an a380 at altitude. Even on electric, these things may have a greater carbon and financial cost than proponants want to admit.

No way. You can't even compare this to US car culture. A combustion engine for every single individual emits way more carbon.

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

#327
post #152

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…

Living in San Francisco and seeing homeless people everywhere, it really doesn't feel like one of the biggest economies.

Biggest doesn't imply evenly distributed, the gini coefficient in the US tracks income disparity, and it's gone up since 1980 in the US.

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

#328

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…

> stories like this are incredibly depressing.

Don't despair. We have Greta Thundberg. Just look at https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/fund/she - it's doing well!

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

#329

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…

infrastructure literally and figuratively underlays parts of society.

Boston has infrastructure problems to a degree Seattle doesn't experience because when the Seattle core burned to the ground, it was rebuilt in some critical areas with newer infrastructure and thinking.

If you were a Bostonian or Chicagoan in that era, you were patting yourself on the back because your town hadn't burned in 20 years, and would not again. Today Seattle residence scratch their heads at some of the problems that Chicago and Boston have.

Similarly, residents of Tokyo were 'forced' into cellphones because even the 'burbs were so dense that installing new data lines was hugely expensive. 2-4 times the cost of a cellphone for a year. We were sucking down DSL+ speeds and looking jealously at their cool phones.

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

#330

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 simple truth is, transportation projects are not created to solve problems but instead of pay off political affiliates, be they donors, family members, political parties, or the unions. Democrats have no more interest in high speed rail or energy independence than Republicans and for the same reason. Oh they will pay lip service saying otherwise but you can see the results of all those years they have made their…

> electric cars will doom them regardless.

Especially once highway miles are all self driving.

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