BEIJING (AP) - A Chinese passenger train hit a record speed of 302 miles per hour (486 kilometers per hour) Friday during a test run of a yet-to-be opened link between Beijing and Shanghai, state media said.
The Xinhua News Agency said it was the fastest speed recorded by an unmodified conventional commercial train. Other types of trains in other countries have traveled faster…
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20101203/D9JSBBLG0.html
Faster than a slow boat to America.
Now let’s see…the so called “backward” Chinese nation somehow manages to develop and build a 300 mph (plus) passenger train and do so in the fastest growing economy in the world (at this time)…AND while buying up much of our infrastructure (tollways and high-rise buildings in Illinois and New York). All of this while our politicos are rejecting more and faster passenger rail? What’s wrong with this picture folks?
The French TGV hit 357 three years ago. I’ll be impressed by anything China does sometime between yesterday and never. Unless they can build a train that runs 500 mph on nothing but air, is totally silent, and costs about $1 to build and ride that is. Anything else I’d want to say about that country and the politics would get this thread locked, and go way off topic.
What’s wrong? You only need to look at the negative and xenophobic sentiments expressed on this thread and this forum to answer that question.
In fairness, and pointing out some of realistic opposition to HSR, here’s a link that discusses a recent opinion in the Chinese Academy of Science:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/12/should-china-rethink-high-speed-rail/67282/
You can’t get the cart ahead of the horse. China is economically strong, so they can afford anything they want. The U.S. is on the verge of insolvency, so it is nonsense to waste money on things we can’t afford just to keep up with the Jones’s. Wasting money is what got us into this mess. Saving our pennies and holding off on HSR now is how we will get it in the future. Otherwise we will end up with a derelict country with some fast trains parked in the weeds.
I presume you’re taking issue with my post and the language within, as I was one a couple of replies.
[quote]
xen·o·pho·bi·a
–noun
an unreasonable fear or
This is a ‘one-of’ event. It’s nice to know that it can be done - yet again - and this time with someone else’s (China’s) 'off-the-shelf" equipment and track, and that maybe a new nuanced ‘world record’ of some kind happened there. And that the ‘envelope’ of the performance of ‘steel wheel on steel rail’ technology has been pushed out maybe a little farther - it still can work at ever higher speeds. But it’s not technically significant until it can be done ‘day-in and day-out’ with maintenance requirements for both the track and equipment that are acceptable both in terms of time out-of-service and costs - and not commercially significant until that speed attracts a sufficient ridership that’s willing to pay at least most of the incremental cost of providing it.
Schlimm, thanks for that link. That was a well-written article - probably the most economic common sense on a single page I’ve seen in a long time. Which leads to a further comment:
A few weeks ago on NPR’s Morning Edition I heard a report on a new Chinese HSR line, based on an interview with 1 passenger. As I recall, 10 years ago, he was a peasant or farmer - now he’s a pet food salesman, ‘living the good life’ and riding on an HSR on a salary of something like $160 a month. [EDIT: Tuesday morning, November 16, 2010 - “China Leads World In High-Speed Rail Tracks”, by Rob Gifford - here’s the link to a transcript of it, and an audio is also available: http://www.npr.org/2010/11/16/131351045/china-leads-other-nations-in-high-speed-rail-tracks ] This caused me to think of the dichotomy between the polar extremes on the theoretical 'economic co
IIRC, the new Chinese HSR equipment uses European Technology…
I’ll explain why I believe your statement was (though perhaps unintentionally) xenophobic. Pretty clearly from the linked article which makes an even a stronger case against HSR than Bucyrus, I am not such an HSR fan that I am unwilling to look at reasoned arguments against it.
You seem constrained from giving credit to China for its real accomplishments in HSR in a very short time. Yes they used/stole Siemens technology, but they still had to build most of the equipment and all the RoW. They broke the world record, period, for unmodified equipment. You resort to sarcasm (a sharply ironical
I am not against HSR…when we can afford it and people will use it. My commentary towards how that country does business and conducts itself is sarcastic, definately. I have contempt for anyone who steals ideas and does business as they appear to do because I believe the ends don’t justify the means. So maybe you were right in the textbook sense…but I come back to the apples/oranges argument-big picture. If money and public/popular opinion don’t matter then just about anything can be built anywhere.
I won’t speak for CNW 6000, but I think that one could justifiably be critical of China for imposing a political system that denies their people freedom, without being xenophobic toward the people themselves.
See the recent separate thread here about “Chinese Patent Infringement” or similar . . . [:-^]
CNW 6000: Very true. My point was that one should criticize others for what they do (without engaging in sarcasm or personal attacks as some – not you – engage in), but also that credit should be given for what has been accomplished, which should be beyond dispute. HSR in China is under attack there because tickets to ride it cost too much for many Chinese. That argument may well apply here as well. Can the farebox cover even operating expenses (not including paying off the cost of building and/or equipment)? Those are questions worth a rational, unemotional, non-ideological examination.
As to Chinese business practices, I would only say we are foolish as a nation to continue to believe that the importing of under-priced Chinese goods (all those bargains for the consumer) in the present, that has killed so many good American jobs, is in our interests in the long-term.
Thanks, I try not to get personal.
I agree with your commentary on cost of ridership etc and business practices as well.
Yes, you are correct IMHO…we are in the state we are in precicely BECAUSE we allowed ourselves to become so enamoured with the automobile in the 1950’s and 1960’s while the rest of the world was starting to build or continueing to build more and better public transportation. Doing what we wanted as opposed to what was right can be blamed as much on ourselves as citizens as our politicians who let such things (and others) happen when they should have been smarter than us (that’s why they are our supposed “leaders”). We need to remember, not all things that are good for us “taste” good to us.
That sounds like the castor oil approach to transportation.
Hey, whatever gets the job done!
Are the Chinese, or anybody else, doing anything about higher speed freight rail? Is 125 MPH a profitable speed to move freight?
Well, like the farmers say - "First, you have to be smarter than the mule . . . " [swg]
I rather doubt 125MPH being desirable for general freight, but it would be interesting to see express handled by HSR, particularly if the frequent service allowed for same-day delivery. One advantage of express by HSR over air is that security would likely be less of an issue, which could allow for faster handling.