Unveiled: China's 245mph train service is the world's fastest...completed in...FOUR years

Mail Online ^ | 12/28/09 | Daily Mail Reporter

[OldDeckHand]

In the week that Britain's high speed rail link closed down because the wrong sort of snow interfered with the engine's electronics, China unveiled the world's fastest train service on one of the coldest days of the year.

Days after thousands of passengers were left stranded when Eurostar services were cancelled, China's new system connects the modern cities of Guangzhou and Wuhan at an average speed of 217mph - and it took just four years to build.

The super-high-speed train reduces the 664-mile journey to just a three-hour ride and cuts the previous journey time by more than seven-and-a-half hours, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Work on the project began in 2005 as part of plans to expand a high-speed network aimed at eventually linking Guangzhou, a business hub in southern China near Hong Kong, with the capital Beijing, Xinhua added.

[OldDeckHand]

It is amazing how quickly things may be built when you don't have to worry about appeasing the environmentalist. It's as simple as that.

[PGR88]

The irony is that Mao broke down everyone and everything to turn them into servants of the State - which is serving them very well at this point in their Capitalist development.

[Little Pig]

It’s even more amazing how fast you can get things done when you don’t have to worry about OSHA, quality control, or proper design. Even if I were ever to travel to China, I won’t ride this thing until I’ve seen 5-6 years of successful, minimally accident-prone operation.

[Scythian]

China is doing incredible things while we rot and decay ...

[GonzoGOP]

I have to admit that I love the station architecture. Bright and open with the trains right out on center stage, not shoved into a dark basement like they are at Union Station here in Chicago. The Chinese measure their success by the things they build, and they are justly proud of their feats of engineering. Where we turn out ethnic studies graduates they turn out electrical engineers.

I worry most about adversaries that are builders. The fanatics burn out, you can outlast them like we did with the Russians. The thieves destroy themselves. But the builders grow stronger with every day that goes by.

[WhatNot]

Paying the workers 60 cents an hour is also a big help, in getting things built quickly and on budget.

[driftdiver]

I wonder how long those wonders they are building will stand. The big damn is already having problems. You know the one that displaced a few million people.

[bikerman]

It is amazing how quickly things may be built when you don’t have to worry about appeasing the environmentalist and union workers.(Fixed)

[prophetic]

I also note that there were no UNION Thugs/Leeches getting their 25% cut on this deal and drawing this construction out to a typical 15-25 years.

For a comparison compare notes on the Boston Big Dig which was 350% over budget and still 20+ years overdue... but hey its a Democrat construction job in a overwhelmingly democrat state.

[Dick Bachert]

Of course, the OTHER factor is what provided the MAIN MOTIVATION for those involved in the project:

[Gay State Conservative]

Yup...finished in four years without needing to worry about any safety rules and running trains built with technology stolen from Japan,Europe and the US.

[Stonewall Jackson]

Come on. Don’t you want to go flying through a rice paddy at 245 mph?

[ejonesie22]

Never under estimate the power of a cheap labor force...

[OldDeckHand]

"Where we turn out ethnic studies graduates they turn out electrical engineers. "

I read that they graduate more engineers per year, than we graduate total total students in all US post secondary disciplines, combined

Granted, I'm not sure they have the highest quality engineers graduating from their schools. In fact, I'm quite sure that they still send their best and brightest to the US for their studies, but still - that statistic is sobering, or it should be.

The point you make about "builders" is a good one. What adds insult to injury is that they're building those trains with our consumer dollars, while our manufacturing base is eroding. I'm not a protectionist, and MUCH of the US manufacturing failings may be laid directly at the feet of organized labor, but we should be demanding free trade bilaterally. If our markets are open to them, there's should be to us, without exception or limitation.

[AIM-54]

245 mph?

That’s gonna be on heckuva cleanup operation when that thing wrecks.

[Dick Bachert]

Yeah, wait until Three Gorges goes boom.

[moehoward]

Our engineers told the Chinese the Burma Road would cost millions and take 10+ years. They did it in a year for peanuts.

[ezo4]

china is a very interesting place to visit, and their rail systems are quite amazing

[GonzoGOP]

Egypt's 1st great pyramids fell down. The next four are still around 4000 years later. Titanic sank on it's first trip, but the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth reined as the largest liners in the world for 50 years. Chicago burned, San Francisco shaked and baked. But both cities were rebuilt in steel taller, bigger, and better than before. That is the mark of a society of builders. They push the edge, and occasionally fall over it. But they always learn and keep going.

China has been a society of builders from before the Communists, and will still be builders long after they are gone. The Grand Canal, Great Wall, in the same way that militant civilizations celebrate their generals builder civilizations celebrate their engineers. America was once a builder civilization. We celebrated the skyscrapers of New York and Chicago, the Hoover dam, and the Saturn V moon rocket. Today we celebrate Tiger Woods and Lady GaGa. Something happened in the 1960's we changed from builders to consumers. We lived for 50 years on the legacy built up by 184 years of frantic building. But that legacy is exhausted and we much now either rediscover our builder heritage, or become another Rome, that once built great things, and now survives by selling tours of the ruins.

[goldstategop]

California is still waiting for its LA to SF high speed rail line to be built. Which will take a lot longer than four years!

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus