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re: China's bullet train that could go from NY to Chicago in 4.5 hours shows how behind US is
Posted on 5/12/18 at 1:56 am to Bench McElroy
Posted on 5/12/18 at 1:56 am to Bench McElroy
quote:It’s almost as if we built our infrastructure around a steadily growing population, with a standard of living allowing most to own cars and even afford plane tickets without causing too much congestion, big city rush hours aside.
it seems crazy that, at this point, the best high-speed offering in China is eons more advanced and effective than its US equivalent.
Posted on 5/12/18 at 2:18 am to Bench McElroy
quote:
While it's hard to imagine a rail network as extensive as China's or a rail line connecting New York with Los Angeles,
Yep, a little hard to imagine. Hard to imagine because of the problems we have with the high speed trains that we have now hitting stuff at crossings ..... uh, wait, do the citizens of China own stuff that can get run into at crossings or just bicycles???
Posted on 5/12/18 at 3:12 am to Bench McElroy
I upvote and say that TRUMP is saving this for his second term
Posted on 5/12/18 at 3:23 am to Jjdoc
quote:
We are behind in a lot of things and guess what..
Who says we are behind? If it is feasible, it will be built. There are railroad companies. The government doesn't have to become one.
Posted on 5/12/18 at 3:31 am to Bench McElroy
Let's see....if you want to build a bullet train in China,you just build it,relocate,or kill the people that are in the way,go through any nature habitat/historical places that you want. Easy peezy.
In the U.S. you have to buy the land,take environmental,cultural,historical issues into consideration,etc..It's not so much a technology issue.
How bad, do you want to go really fast on a train?
In the U.S. you have to buy the land,take environmental,cultural,historical issues into consideration,etc..It's not so much a technology issue.
How bad, do you want to go really fast on a train?
Posted on 5/12/18 at 4:07 am to beachdude
quote:
Well, I know we get treated like cattle, but long distance travel by air in the U.S. is quicker than the fastest trains. For shorter distances, drive your own car fast on a great network of interstate highways (except for LA).
Is it really quicker to fly? Actually flight time is quicker but add a couple of hours of waiting in lines and gettin x rayed and the train might be about as fast. I took a train from San Diego to LA a couple of months ago and it cost less than $30 and took less time than gettin through security and flying would have. Train travel has its pluses.....the biggest is the fact that you van buy a ticket and get on the train with a gallon of coffee if you’d like and nobody will even look your direction. Add to this the fact that train stations are usually in the city center where airports generally involve some ground transportation to town and trains can be very convenient.
There really is no more luxurious way to travel though than driving your self. Airport security has made trips less than 300 miles less attractive than driving. Flying is almost as bad as greyhound post 9/11......
Posted on 5/12/18 at 4:21 am to upgrayedd
quote:
They still use bamboo scaffolding in industrial applications
This is true...and we still use pine trees.......what’s the point? The frames we use may be made from the soil dug from the earth but the decking and walk boards are pine trees. Bamboo is extremely strong and readily available. It is as good a building material as any plant. Many high end homes in the US have bamboo flooring. Walk into almost any furniture store in the US and you’ll find shite made from banana which is a type of bamboo. Composite structural products made of natural fibers derived from tropical plants are very common in buildings around the world. They literally grow like weeds and are as renewable as any product can be.....the difference between mining iron ore and turning it into steel in order to replicate the strength and structural integrity of bamboo isn’t something we should hold as a point of pride.....
Posted on 5/12/18 at 4:29 am to Bench McElroy
But cab bf m they shoot?
Posted on 5/12/18 at 4:42 am to Bench McElroy
quote:
making it slightly more than two hours by plane,
Is that counting arriving an hour and a half early to allow time for check in and to get through security?
Posted on 5/12/18 at 4:44 am to Bench McElroy
quote:
making it slightly more than two hours by plane,
Is that counting arriving an hour and a half early to allow time for check in and to get through security?
There's really no such thing as a 2 hour travel time by plane anywhere in the US.
Posted on 5/12/18 at 5:10 am to Bench McElroy
How have we fallen so far behind Thailand when it comes to pedicab services?
Posted on 5/12/18 at 5:13 am to Bench McElroy
Train tickets cost less because they have less railroad to maintain. Duh
Posted on 5/12/18 at 5:45 am to Bench McElroy
I haven’t read this entire thread, but a train between NYC and Chicago in 4 hours does not compete when you can do air in 2 and a half hours for as low as 120 a flight.
One must realize a bullet train between those cities would have so many stops in other large cities that your trip would take 5 hours at the least. Just remember how many special interest people and congressional members would be pushing for a stop in their area.
Also the cost of infrastructure upgrades alone could not make this viable. If it cost 10 million a mile to build, the project would cost over 7 billion dollars which is probably a low estimate on my part seeing other rail projects in the tens of billions such as the ones in California. That is not including stations or trains and interest on debt to build. At that price, you would need about 75 million passengers paying 100 a trip before you would earn enough to to pay off just the track cost. If they ran 10 trains a day with 100 passengers in each train, it would take over 210 years to get to the 75 millionth passenger.
One must realize a bullet train between those cities would have so many stops in other large cities that your trip would take 5 hours at the least. Just remember how many special interest people and congressional members would be pushing for a stop in their area.
Also the cost of infrastructure upgrades alone could not make this viable. If it cost 10 million a mile to build, the project would cost over 7 billion dollars which is probably a low estimate on my part seeing other rail projects in the tens of billions such as the ones in California. That is not including stations or trains and interest on debt to build. At that price, you would need about 75 million passengers paying 100 a trip before you would earn enough to to pay off just the track cost. If they ran 10 trains a day with 100 passengers in each train, it would take over 210 years to get to the 75 millionth passenger.
Posted on 5/12/18 at 6:25 am to germandawg
quote:
Add to this the fact that train stations are usually in the city center where airports generally involve some ground transportation to town and trains can be very convenient.
In Europe and some North East Coast cities, but not the rest of the country. With this dumbass Houston - Dallas bullet train plan the station in Houston will be nowhere near downtown. I don’t know about the Dallas end, but I can’t imagine they can afford to make room for it in a dense location there either, so both terminals will probably end up being suburban, which defeats the point.
This post was edited on 5/12/18 at 6:26 am
Posted on 5/12/18 at 6:28 am to skrayper
quote:
Imminent domain says hello
Eminent domain involves a lengthy and expensive process here.
In China, they just show up and start building.
This post was edited on 5/12/18 at 6:38 am
Posted on 5/12/18 at 6:30 am to Bench McElroy
Planes already fly hourly between the two cities. Trains would be completely unnecessary.
You only need 100 people wanting to go at any particular hour to fly a plane profitably while a train needs 250-300 who want to or are forced to go at a less frequently available time.
Why do leftists orgasm over trains so much?
You only need 100 people wanting to go at any particular hour to fly a plane profitably while a train needs 250-300 who want to or are forced to go at a less frequently available time.
Why do leftists orgasm over trains so much?
Posted on 5/12/18 at 6:31 am to Bench McElroy
China has at least three times our population
Posted on 5/12/18 at 6:36 am to Bench McElroy
Yes I will give you we are behind in passenger rail here in the US but pay attention to how they move freight around China. The US freight rail system is the absolute envy of the world. If you could magically swap China’s passenger rail system with the US freight rail system overnight your cost of goods would skyrocket here in the states. Actually would collapse our economy. Not one other country in the world can move tonnages of freight the way we do via rail. I will take our system over theirs.
Posted on 5/12/18 at 6:37 am to beachdude
quote:
Is that true?
YES it’s true. The Chinese do not manufacture their own jet engines. They cannot machine the parts. Pretty eye opening, eh? They have a cultural disease of some type that makes them incapable of innovation. They’re a nation of drone bees. They can stamp out bad copies of simple things, but they can’t do anything requiring precision well and they’re wholly incapable of coming up with anything on their own.
Posted on 5/12/18 at 6:49 am to TygerDurden
quote:
Yes I will give you we are behind in passenger rail here in the US
The rest of what you said is true, but I take issue with this statement.
It’s not the we are “behind”. It’s that the market chose freight instead of passengers and the market chose well. You can make a lot of money hauling freight over rail. You can’t make money with passengers.
It cannot be over-emphasized that even the NY subway system, with its huge ridership, loses money due to the colossal debt service on the construction bonds. Rail (especially subway) has massive construction (and eminent domain land acquisition in the case of non-subway) costs and you can’t charge people enough to make a return on the investment. Only with freight can you assess a high enough fee, and run often enough, to make money.
The advantage of air as a mode of passenger travel is that you don’t have to aquire the land the planes fly over.
This post was edited on 5/12/18 at 6:53 am
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