High-speed rail blazes forward in China

[marmar]

via MassTransitMag:



Chinese Fast Trains Closing the Gap on Air Travel

Charlotte So
South China Morning Post


CHINA - With high-speed train services posing a rising threat to mainland airlines, carriers will have to do more than cut prices to stay in business.

With trains exceeding 300km/h soon to be zipping around the country, the travel time gap between rail and air is closing. After check-in and transit from the city centre to the airport, the advantage of air over train has been reduced to nearly nothing for train services under four hours.

High-speed railways could take up to 90 per cent of the high-end market for trips under two hours and 50 to 70 per cent of journeys under four hours, according to a study by Carnoc.com, a website run by the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

About one-third of the destinations operated by airlines were within the coverage of the mainland's planned high-speed train network, said Liao Quanwang, a researcher at China Aviation Industry Corp.

Short-haul routes under 800 kilometres will be affected the most, especially on the economically developed eastern coast. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.masstransitmag.com/online/article.jsp?siteSection=3&id=9894

[Vincardog]

1. Wouldn't it be nice if WE had such plans?

[HughBeaumont]

5. Corporations and the Pentasewer's needs come first.

This ain't Fray-unce you live in, pilgrim!

[wroberts189]

23. Which begs the question.. why don't we? nt

[HamdenRice]

2. All land in socialist China is publicly owned -- makes these projects easier than here

China is still very much socialist, and public ownership of all land makes building infrastructure much easier than here.

No endless eminent domain cases. Just allocate the right of way and build.

[Statistical]

3. In US high speed rail could be built either between or along side highways.

In places where highways have expanded take up entire public corridor (solid 12 lanes across no grassy median) the center two lanes of highways (one each direction) could be converted to high speed rail.

Simply requires political and public will.

[HamdenRice]

4. In some cases, yes. But iirc the turning radius for high speed trains ...

is not as tight as many highways. That was a big problem with our measily semi high speed eastern corridor Acela built over the Amtrak route. The high speed trains would go off the rail following a conventional train route. So they had to come up with a new technology for the train to tilt into curves, but it still isn't as fast as true high speed rail.

In China they can allocate land for long straight rail lines.

Oh yeah, they also have gigantic budget surpluses.

[Statistical]

9. Hmm didn't know about the turning radius issue.

[FarCenter]

12. I don't think the overpasses and bridges have enough clearance

For the roadbed, locomotive, pantograph, catenary and catenary's suspension.

[HamdenRice]

14. They did put a light rail system over a highway here in NYC in Queens

the so called train to the plane. There are some impressive tressles where the line goes very high to get over overpasses.

[FarCenter]

15. Light rail can be made to fit.

But high-speed rail of the 300 km/hr sort is bigger.

Light rail is usually subway car size or tram car size, eg. the light rail at Hoboken.

[AllentownJake]

7. They have no problem with eminent domain

When someone wants to build a strip mall or a Football stadium.

That is just my personal observation, of course if it is actually going to be used in the way the law intended it for it to be used well Fuck that.

[wroberts189]

21. I guess I will not have to point that out now that you have. nt

[girl gone mad]

20. China is not socialist.

It's an uber-capitalist country with a dictatorial communist government.

These projects are easier to achieve in China because the government spends at will with little concern about inflation or other long term consequences. The fact that few in China can afford to ride these trains or live in any of the expensive government-subsidized high rise towers doesn't seem to concern Chinese officials as long as the people are busy and they can feign growth to rest of the world.

http://www.steelmarketupdate.com/modules/blog/content/post.cfm?postid=67

[HamdenRice]

25. China is exactly what it says it is: a socialist market economy

I've worked there, in the guts of their environmental and land use system and despite the western propaganda it's very socialist.

[malaise]

24. So how does it work in France and Japan

since they are ahead of everyone.
Bottom line is that the oil boys in the US have destroyed every other viable approach to transportation.

[ramapo]

6. Remarkable isn't it?

Yes China does have a command-driven economy and government. But it is very effective.

China gets more done in one year then we do in a decade. Here in North Jersey there has been well more of a decade of dithering about bringing back passenger service on a rail line that now provides only freight service between the Hudson River and Eastern Pennsylvania.

If it is ever decided to move ahead, well then the work will have to be done.

The bottom line is that the United States has lost its leadership position in the world.

Everything is politicized and little gets done.

Meanwhile China vaults ahead. Read their plan for a transition to clean energy. It is a five-year time frame.

The sad thing is much of China's growth comes courtesy of the US consumers and government.

Chairman Mao was going about world domination in entirely the wrong way. Now China is beating us at our own game. It isn't even close at this point.

It really hurts to see this.

[AllentownJake]

8. Part of the problem is political with the railway

the other is funding.

The political problem is people in my community would rather see the community fall apart than add more commuters to New York to the community.

[HamdenRice]

10. Rail funding is also savaged by airline and highway lobbies. nt

[AllentownJake]

11. This country is going no where

without campaign finance reform.

[ramapo]

16. I think you can leave it at nowhere

We won't live to see true CFR. We probably won't live to see transportation reform. Hell, we probably won't even see health insurance reform if that scumbag Lieberman has anything to do with it.

And I plan on living at least a few more decades.

[shintao]

13. Capitalism raises it's ugly head

No bullet train for you. The American system requires a demand before construction. It would be "too risky" for a construction project not bathed in incentive & subsidies to build a bullet train and let demand follow.

So don't expect any American progress in public transportation in the near future. Just stick to your gas guzzler, more wars, more deaths, more pollution.

[wroberts189]

22. Kinda makes you wonder what on earth happened...

But we already know... "free" trade an all that.

We used to be the head of the pack... "made in china" used to be a bad thing.

I need a drink.

[leanderj]

17. For 7 bucks you can ride this $1.3-billion 267-mph German-built maglev in Shanghai:

[wroberts189]

19. Damn...I would take a trip just for the ride on that mean monster.. nt

[wroberts189]

18. Sigh... we could be so ahead ..yet we are so behind. nt