China Debuts the World's Fastest Train 491
An anonymous reader writes "China unveiled their new high speed train that clocks in at an average of 217 mph. China's new rail service travels through 20 cities along its route, connecting central China and less developed regions to the larger and more industrial Pearl River Delhi. Seimens, Bombardier and Alstom worked together to design and build this feat of modern transportation, which topped out at a whopping 245mph (394km/h) during trial runs earlier in December."
245mph max speed? Not so impressive (Score:3, Interesting)
The french managed 357mph (yes three hundred) with a lightly modified TGV in 2007 (google it).
China A Developing Country? (Score:5, Interesting)
Nice (Score:3, Interesting)
Just how much time are they allowing for deceleration and acceleration between stops? Or is it pretty much end-to-end with multiple stops near the origin and destination?
Anyway, there's little doubt in my mind that this is overkill, more a demonstration of technical capability and will to spend than anything else. But damn, I'd like to have a network of these in the US to replace our aging and slow rail passenger rail system. At the very least, they are much more energy efficient than air travel.
One picky point with TFA... it suggests that the fast travel times of a high-speed rail network would not come with the security overhead of air travel. I'm not so sure about that.
Fuel efficiency of this train vs airplane? (Score:5, Interesting)
If trains can travel that fast safely. Then it seems we could cut down air traffic considerably. NYC to Atalanta is only about 800 miles, if I could get there by train in four hours, a airplane would offer no time advantage.
If the difference in fuel efficiency is considerable, then maybe the US should consider building something like that?
Re:Nice (Score:5, Interesting)
Everytime I read something like this I ask myself, "Why not in the US."
It has come up many, many times before but each time the airline lobbies kill it dead. Its really amazing just how powerful this collection of interests has proved to be over time. Generally speaking, they almost always get everything they want.
The general rule of thumb is, if the airline lobbies want something, its almost a sure thing to be bad for you, me, and Joe consumer.
That is not entirely accurate (Score:5, Interesting)
To make matters worse, China has a MAJOR bubble forming. One that will make America's real estate bubble look positively MINOR. It will even make Japan's real estate bubble look minor (which was bigger than America's, but their economy was small enough and float freely that they did not take out the global economy). If it goes AND they keep their money tied to the dollar, it will bring us ALL LOWER THAN 1930's depression.
So, while the companies, esp. American companies, deserve their fair share of blame for this, the majority lies with China.
Re:China A Developing Country? (Score:3, Interesting)
It is, but I think the point here was to show how big the gradient is.
In the mountain areas of China it’s still pretty close to caveman land. ;))
Just as in the US.
Why not in the US? (Score:5, Interesting)
The most likely prospect for a bullet train in the United States is the vaunted California high speed rail project. And even that is going to be a tough row to hoe.
Federal rail regulations being what they are, the only prospect for high speed rail is if the entire system is grade separated - that is, there are no at-grade crossings. Existing rights-of-way can be used, but every where out in the middle of Modesto or Coalinga where a gravel road crosses the tracks the road will either need to be cut or a bridge or tunnel built. Next, the route between Bakersfield and Los Angeles, as well as the route between Modesto and San Jose will need to be redone, because existing ROWs are not flat or straight enough for high speeds. Even existing ROWs elsewhere, such as the Caltrain ROW up the San Francisco Peninsula, may be inadequate. Caltrain runs enough trains up and down that the extra headway for high speed trains may make it necessary to quad-track that entire route - which may mean bulldozing houses and/or businesses along the line in some spots.
All of that is bad enough, but before you can even begin thinking about turning over dirt, you need not only to write EIRs, but then have them stand up to Luddite court challenges. And then, whatever land you wind up using for the new ROW needs to be acquired - meaning that whoever owns it now needs to be paid fair market value for it (see also, 5th amendment). The Chinese government has a big advantage here - If anyone actually asks about the environmental impact of a train route, they get reeducated.
All of this is mainly because we want high speed rail to go between places where there is demand. If you read TFA, this line is being constructed at least partially to create demand - that is, they are taking trips to nowhere in order for nowhere to wind up being a desirable destination. It's a bit like the transcontinental railroad was in the middle of the 19th century here. Nobody really wanted to go to any of the whistle stops between Sacramento and Chicago, but since the train went there, communities sprung up. But when the railroad was built, there was nothing there. Nowadays, building high speed rail from San Francisco to San Diego is a gigantic pain in the ass because the destinations are already filled in.
Re:China debuts human rights abuses (Score:3, Interesting)
After a brief googling I couldn't find a decent study comparing the likes of human rights [universalh...sindex.org] (or at least press freedom [rsf.org]), and GDP [wikipedia.org] (or at least economic freedom [wikipedia.org]).
Anecdotally (from just browsing the individual indexes) however there appears to be a strong correlation - with various exceptions, some of which can be accounted for by e.g. natural resources. There are plenty studies showing strong correlation between economic freedom and GDP (even between US states [blogspot.com]), but that's not much of a substitute for human rights and freedoms.
Of course, correlation is not causation, although intuitively it makes a lot of sense - wealthier people seem to consider themselves more important, demand more power, education, have better communications...
My assumption is that the better a country's economy, the better the human rights. Anyone have a good study?
Not seeing it. (Score:4, Interesting)
I work with a Chinese factory that is a leader in its niche.
We are seeing unusual trends in our primary raw material that makes up 50-80% of the manufacturing cost. Normally it is more expensive than on the worldwide market because of the high import tariffs in China intended to protect the local producers. However, since last summer the cost of the raw material has been less than the worldwide market. Demand in our niche has been constant for us since it's a staple product for many third-world and developing countries, and to a certain extent, first-world nations. The web page I use to check the prices, which I have been doing every day for the last four years, also shows prices on other raw materials and I have observed the trend to be the same. IMHO, this evidence is in contrast to any reports I've read about a bubble in China - the bubble is in the rest of the world. I think what is more likely to happen is China and OPEC will decide to start trading in some other currency, and the Chinese will instantly become more wealthy, and the U.S. more poor.
China's largest trade 'partner' is the EU, and the U.S. makes up less than 18% of its export business. China can manufacture most of everything it consumes, so increasing prices for the U.S. does not directly equate to increasing prices for the Chinese, and the reduction in trade with the U.S. would hurt the U.S. more than it would hurt China.