Egypt Set For World's Sixth Largest High-Speed Rail System (cnbc.com) 78
A new high-speed rail line is coming to Egypt, with developer Siemens Mobility saying it will link 60 cities across the country. From a report: The fully-electrified lines will see trains with a top speed of 230 kilometers per hour and travel from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, among other destinations. According to Siemens Mobility, the electrification of the network will reduce carbon emissions by 70% when compared to making trips by bus or car. It added that the project would result in the world's "sixth largest high-speed rail system." Siemens Mobility -- a separately managed company of industrial giant Siemens -- signed the contract to develop the rail line with the Egyptian National Authority for Tunnels, as well as consortium partners The Arab Contractors and Orascom Construction. In a statement Saturday, Siemens Mobility said its share of the combined contract would amount to 8.1 billion euros, or around $8.7 billion.
Where are the high speed trains in America? (Score:1)
How can such a modern country have no high speed trains.
And no, the train between Washington and NYC doesn't count you fucking idiots. You think that piece of shit is even remotely comparable to what UK, Germany, France, China, Japan has?
America, you're such a noob at being a modern country. Just stop trying already.
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too bad you don't have public healthcare to help you out with the inevitable STIs
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Why, you answered your own question!
(Hint, if you are dense: America is a modern country.)
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modern yet people still die or go bankrupt paying for medical care. The rest of the world has this figured out. Let's not talk about the score of people getting killed in a single shooting every week.
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Re: Where are the high speed trains in America? (Score:3)
Yes even the UK. Google HS1. 186mph trains. HS2 is being built and will go even faster. Also even on normal lines the UK has had 125mph trains since the 70s.
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Even at the most generous lower-end of "high-speed," Finland (area = 338,455 km2) has m
Re:Where are the high speed trains in America? (Score:5, Insightful)
How can such a modern country have no high speed trains.
Because of a literal anti-rail conspiracy [wikipedia.org] which evolved into simple collusion of assorted cartels continually acting against rail in order to preserve profits. The auto companies and big oil kept around the freight rail lines that feed their factories and let them transport their finished goods, but have successfully attacked transportation use across the country [nytimes.com]. Rail is much more efficient so you need less fuel to move the same number of people, and you don't need as many cars if you use a bunch of trains. Tires are made mostly out of oil and you don't need those for trains, either.
What's worse, when you explain this to people they call you a nutjob even though members of the conspiracy were literally convicted of same, and you can draw a very simple set of lines between those who are profiting today, and those who are funding the propaganda today. Then they ask spectacularly naive questions like "so why isn't anyone doing anything about it?" Tell us you don't understand the influence of money on politics [publicintegrity.org] without telling us, noob.
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You're pissing in the wind, my friend. The only thing you get from pointing out the spectacular corruption of the US political system is "down-modded".
I hope your country comes to its senses soon. Some really major reforms are needed if your experiment in democracy is going to continue. Selections from the work of H.L. Mencken should be required reading in your high schools.
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As an aside, the airline industry has done plenty to cripple high-speed rail. Also, those damn landowners keep getting pissed off when their parcels get carved up by politicians and corporations.
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Re:Where are the high speed trains in America? (Score:5, Insightful)
LMAO @ landowners. They're part of the money corruption.
I'm pretty involved in the HSR stuff in Texas. I'm quite the fan of HSR as well, but many of these land owners aren't who you think they are. Many average people without expendable income and resources are getting screwed. Sadly it hurts their opinions of representative government.
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My country is Canada, and I'm well aware of our challenges. Unlike many Americans, however, Canadians don't tend to wrap themselves in a flag and assert any criticism amounts to an act of war. Back in the days of the original Star Trek, my buddies and I used to joke that Ensign Checkov's constant claims that, "It vas inwented first in Russia" were actually Gene Roddenberry's sly way of getting in a dig at how Americans often like to claim credit for every invention since the late 1700s.
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Selections from the work of H.L. Mencken should be required reading in your high schools
Why would you say something like this about another country? Do you believe that political satire written for and about a group of people who understood the context of the times would be beneficial when studied and dissected by people within our current political and social context? Maybe, but that sounds like your opinion, much like this nonsense:
Canadians don't tend to wrap themselves in a flag and assert any criticism amounts to an act of war
You'd probably think I was insane if I said all Canadians would benefit from spending three years in the armed forces after high school, and you'd be right.
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If you don't understand that Mencken's observations are essentially timeless, and as relevant today as they were when he wrote them, there's very little I can do to enlighten you.
Here's just one small example: "As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
Remind you of anybody? Bus
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If you don't understand that Mencken's observations are essentially timeless, and as relevant today as they were when he wrote them, there's very little I can do to enlighten you.
Menchken's observations suffer from the same illness you exhibit. Pride. The kind of pride that makes one feel mentally superior to others while misunderstanding humanity. You keep proving that you are unable to understand and empathize with someone who has different values than you. You prefer coercion, in that people who don't agree with you must be mentally deficient, so forcing them to think like you will resolve life's problems:
Some really major reforms are needed if your experiment in democracy is going to continue. Selections from the work of H.L. Mencken should be required reading in your high schools.
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I don't know whether you're a pretty good troll or just an idiot. The quote I provided and the presidents I named utterly refuted your allegation that Mencken isn't relevant today. As for empathy...nobody who knows me at all would agree with you. In fact, somebody who would leap to the conclusions you have based on my remarks in this thread could only be called delusional. You say I prefer coercion because I advocated including certain educational material on a required reading list? Please grow up.
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You say I prefer coercion because I advocated including certain educational material on a required reading list?
Yes, you picked an author that makes you comfortable with your world view and you want everyone in another country to be required to read it. If you stop trying to get others to think the same way you do and instead seek common understanding, you'll no longer get as angry when talking to someone you disagree with.
I hope your country comes to its senses soon
I don't know whether you're a pretty good troll or just an idiot
somebody who would leap to the conclusions you have based on my remarks in this thread could only be called delusional
Please grow up
Instead you've continually sought to diminish the beliefs and understanding of others who don't conform to your views. I accused you of pride based on my definition of pride. That was wrong and
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Got it. You're trolling.
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Got it. You're trolling.
If that helps you justify your view of the world, ok.
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Menchken's observations suffer from the same illness you exhibit. Pride. The kind of pride that makes one feel mentally superior to others while misunderstanding humanity. You keep proving that you are unable to understand and empathize with someone who has different values than you. You prefer coercion, in that people who don't agree with you must be mentally deficient, so forcing them to think like you will resolve life's problems:
So, if you have a leader claiming 2+2=4 and the mob claiming 2+2=5 we should give power to mob? Most of the people are stupid. They need good leadership to choose right path for them and to convince them the path is right.
You seem to think every opinion has the same value. It's false. Some opinions are pure bullshit.
I agree. (Score:2)
I'm Canadian and I agree with you. I think that one of the biggest problems we have today in North America is a horrible case of collective arrested development. There's no right of passage to manhood - people just mentally remain children way too long. Three years as an introduction to discipline and responsibility would be a good alternative to the current state.
I'm not saying everybody should be a soldier. Dig ditches. Fix computers. Learn communications. Whatever - just do it under the structure afforde
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You're comparing rail to car usage for transportation but you did not address air travel. In the US, you can travel from one major hub to another faster and cheaper via air (where you will have competition among the airlines) then you could via hi-speed rail.
Additionally, any HSR connecting the west coast and the mid west has to deal with the Rocky Mountains.
You mention the influence on money on politics. The Keystone XL pipeline was killed w/ the Biden admin. Why? Because Warren Buffet owns the railway
Re:Where are the high speed trains in America? (Score:4, Informative)
Because Warren Buffet owns the railway that transports the oil and he didnt want competition from a pipeline.
You should check your facts. [reuters.com] 1) Buffet did not contribute to Biden's campaign. 2) Burlington Northern Santa Fe before nor after the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline will carry that oil. 3) There is an existing Canada to Texas pipeline [nrdc.org] (this was one of the original criticisms of the Keystone project in that all it did was cut time off the transport. It did not add capacity.
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You're comparing rail to car usage for transportation but you did not address air travel. In the US, you can travel from one major hub to another faster and cheaper via air (where you will have competition among the airlines) then you could via hi-speed rail.
Additionally, any HSR connecting the west coast and the mid west has to deal with the Rocky Mountains.
There's a very clear breakeven distance where flying becomes faster, but until that point HSR would be faster and more convenient since you don't have to deal with security theater or stacking up at the gate, not to mention driving to the airport in the middle of nowhere.
Nobody is going to take a NY-LA train, but LA to Vegas or San Francisco? It would be a no-brainer if that existed. I was visiting in the US just after covid restrictions were relaxed, and even on the east coast, it was a pain in the ass to
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Yes, below around 400 miles, HSR is faster and cheaper than flying.
And below about 40 miles, bicycles are also faster than flying [archive.org].
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Because Warren Buffet owns the railway that transports the oil and he didnt want competition from a pipeline.
Which just provides further evidence that the US is a backwards country that is ruled by a bunch of nobles and their money. HSR and other modern advances like a healthcare system that doesn't bankrupt people are well out of reach for a country who's only concern is it's pocketbook. If the US wants such things, they have a lot of maturing as a society to do first.
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....any HSR connecting the west coast and the mid west has to deal with the Rocky Mountains.
Unless there's war involved, the Americans throw up their arms in apathy from the slightest bump in the road. I've got news. Western Europe's got mountains too, especially Switzerland, Italy, France & Germany. A few weeks ago I was cruising over the mountain planes in Spain at 300 kph. We're pretty good at viaducts & tunnels as well as high-speed rail. We're getting the whole of western Europe connected. China's got mountains too. They hold the world record for the fastest high-speed rail service (
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Re: Where are the high speed trains in America? (Score:3)
It doesnt have to be national in the US. Regional high speed rail is perfectly feasible where the concentration if cities is higher such as from Chicago eastwards towards the east coast which already has it.
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It's been discussed. But even in this corridor, which is a little more densely populated than most of the others that have been discussed outside of the coasts, the economics still don't make sense.
From Chicago to the next sizeable city toward the east (Cleveland, Columbus, or Pittsburgh depending on route) is mostly very small towns and farmland. None of these places has particularly great transit although they all have some. In between, there is no existing track suitable for high speeds, but without h
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"while individual countries like France and Japan have them, they are smaller than Texas"
Paris-Lyon and Tokyo-Osaka, the archetypal high speed rail routes in each country, are 50-60 miles further apart than Houston-Dallas.
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There are two types of high speed rail:
1) TGV (France), ICE(German) and Shinkansen(Japan). Perhaps I should move Shinkansen to section two? Those trains go close to 400km/h, the Japanese one is faster.
2) Mag lev trains like in China, they go close to 600km/h - again the Japanese one is faster.
(Just to annoy you more: all based on German engineering, the french stole the TGV tech from Germany, and Germany sold out the Mag Lev stuff to China and that got stolen by Japan)
Anyway: planes re not really "that much
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(Just to annoy you more: all based on German engineering, the french stole the TGV tech from Germany, and Germany sold out the Mag Lev stuff to China and that got stolen by Japan)
That's fine, though; at least someone gets to use German engineering this way even if Germans themselves won't.
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I have no real problem with that either, but my father has :P
I even would fly to China to try one, but with the recent development/or news about the Ugurs, that is a no go.
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Shanghai & Beijing are over 1,000 km apart, & journey times are between 4.5 & 6.5 hours.
Nope, the journey time is 90 minutes.
trains are pretty competitive.
Certainly in Europe Citi centre to city centre most of the time.
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Nope, the journey time is 90 minutes [citation needed]
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You can google your citations yourself.
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And I explained to you:
Flying is only faster: CROSS COUNTRY.
It would not be faster from NY to Philadelphia or Boston if you had high speed trains.
You are mixing up fact with reason. Fact is: US has no high speed rails. Reason is: US has no high speed rails. Oops. It is a self fulfilling prophecy.
If you had high speed rails: no idiot would claim that flying is faster. Except for cross country: aka NY to LA/SF.
And that has absolutely nothing to do with the size of the country. Or do you think Europe has high
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All that said, though, the problem of route density is a real one here in the US.
Europe is much more densely populated, and very few cities are more than, say, half an hour or an hour away from a high-speed rail line. It makes it easier to run efficient feeders to the backbone networks.
And even in Egypt (the original subject here), I think this can be made to work, because the population is concentrated in a "T"-shaped region (Alexandria down to Luxor, and the Mediterranean coast, and it will be much easie
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I would argue that you even have to put the security theater aside, because that's not the fault of the mode of transportation, but of those who gain from keeping us nervous (and getting paid to sexually molest air travelers, and conduct warrantless searches of their persons and property.)
Rail doesn't have to be faster as long as it's cheaper, it can be cheaper if enough people are using it, enough people will use it if you make it cheaper. Public transportation doesn't need to be profitable, but there are
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Boston and DC, FTFY.
Oh, and I was stuck for 4 hours under the Thames river once with my family in a high-speed train while they worked out issues with the track. What usually was a quick jaunt from Paris to London turned into a shit show.
Having a high-speed rail and having it run efficiently are two different things.
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Public transport? What kind of red commie talk is that?
I was planning on taking a trip from my neck of the woods to Atlanta which is a 10-11 drive and flying is just over an hour. For shits and giggles I though let's see what Amtrak can do. It might be nice to take the scenic route. Ok pull up the schedule... 24 fucking hours! Not to mention a few connecting cities. Hell even going across the state with Amtrak takes hours longer than driving and then I still need a car at my destination.
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Gee, and here I thought it was because we (Americans) are so spread out in our country that mass transit doesn't work in general.
Put in a high-speed transit line from, say, Chicago to Dallas/Ft. Worth. Oh, it needs to stop in Springfield IL, St. Louis MO, Tulsa OK, Oklahoma City OK, then Dallas/Ft. Worth TX. And since it passes by [insert city here], it should stop there, too. And in [insert city here].
What do you mean, it takes a day to go the distance? Why would you need to go faster than [insert speed he
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And none of these characteristics exist in the 11 nations that have more high speed rail than the U.S. (even generously counting the upgraded express rail lines that do no in fact have bullet type trains as "high speed")?
The argument that you can't have high speed trains because they need to stop at intermittent locations in the U.S. but don't other parts of the world is particularly bizarre.
The distances over which high speed trains make sense are similar to the distance of the regional airline routes. The
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But except for parts of California, no comparable high-density corridor exists in the U.S., and both California and the Eastern Seaboard are already served by rail, albeit not to the same standards as in many other parts of the world.
I would love to see more rail in the U.S., and would probably even use it since I don't particularly like to drive (nor can I afford to at today's prices). But it honestly already exists where it makes economic sense, and is not likely to get built elsewhere.
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But it honestly already exists where it makes economic sense, and is not likely to get built elsewhere.
No, there's no honesty in that assessment. The whole world is having to pay for the externalities on inefficient automotive transport. The cost of cleanup is far greater than the cost of switching to rail. Microplastic pollution from tires is estimated to have about as much impact as the powertrain emissions. We have to stop doing all this driving one way or another. If we're going to continue to travel this much then we're going to have to get the tires out of the equation.
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Well, for one, extremely un-even landscape...mountains sporadically popping up around the US. Then, land rights...having to negotiate and pay for those, which is complex even in the lightest populated areas, and ramps up as you get close and into more urban areas a larg
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"How can such a modern country have no high speed trains."
The Kochs are both dead now as is the Vegas one, so they can no longer sabotage them.
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The Kochs are both dead now
Charles Koch [wikipedia.org] is alive.
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"The Kochs are both dead now
Charles Koch [wikipedia.org] is alive."
Thanks for the update and darn, I sang Ding Dong too soon.
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8 years to get from Merced to Bakersfield. That is about as long as the Chinese to build their entire high speed rail network.
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Makes sense for Egypt (Score:5, Interesting)
Egypt has a hundred million people living almost entirely in a very narrow stretch of land along the Nile. One line can serve almost the whole country. It's also a mostly flat country, and if land rights were to become a problem you could run it through cheap desert on the edges of the cities. You could hardly design a country more perfectly suited to high speed rail.
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There are a lot of places in the world that are worse of
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"That society isn't particularly orderly, a lot of people are unhappy with the military rule,"
And the heavily subsidized bread feeds everybody, and I mean pigs and chickens too, since the bread is cheaper than feed.
Now the Ukraine war has derailed that system.
Unrest will follow.
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Plus, they need a way to transport pyramid blocks from Aswan to Cairo.
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Plus, they need a way to transport pyramid blocks from Aswan to Cairo.
I'm not saying that the Aliens will do it for Egypt, but they could if they wanted to
This makes perfect sense for Egypt (Score:5, Informative)
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Which would have to zig zag from city to city and town to town - facepalm.
How many river bridges over one of the biggest rivers in the world do you want to build?
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Because the cities and towns are not lined up in one simple long chain as you seem to think.
They are on both sides of the river e.g.
Anyway, let's see how it evolves, perhaps I can find a map of the planned connections, would be interesting.
The west helped overthrow the Egyptian government (Score:2, Flamebait)
and supports the current dictatorship.
> A new high-speed rail line is coming to Egypt ... the combined contract would amount to 8.1 billion euros, or around $8.7 billion
I'm wondering what demographic the train is intended for, what will tickets cost, and what will the yearly losses or earnings if there are some?
And while Egypt has some of the lowest literacy levels, I can't also help but wonder if the ~40% of the population, poor and without a primary education, would be a good (or who knows maybe even a
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Egypt, our ally, continues both to cancel those that oppose it and attack basic human rights.
"Egypt court jails for 15 years former presidential candidate Aboul Fotouh who ran as an independent candidate in the 2012 presidential elections" https://www.aljazeera.com/news... [aljazeera.com]
"Al Jazeera journalist Ahmed Taha was accused of 'false news' and sentenced to 15 years in jail for interviewing the former presidential candidate Aboul Fotouh" https://www.aljazeera.com/news... [aljazeera.com]
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No one is saying the US has to build a network connecting the whole country. Just the main transport corridors. And other countries much larger than the US have built way more challenging high speed network which are contiguous. Like China.