Posted on 11/22/2010 9:15:45 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Yesterday, we rode the high speed rail from Hangzhou to Shanghai. It took 45 minutes to go about 110 miles, and the ride was smoother than any US form of transportation. At dinner last night, the Chinese, justifiably proud, asked what we had thought.
"I want it!" said one of my companions.
Unfortunately, I don't think we're going to get it. To see why, compare the map of the 10 biggest cities in China:
With the map of the 10 biggest cities in the US:
San Francisco-LA, the route my fellow journalist wanted to travel, isn't even on this map; the Bay Area MSA only has about 4 million people in it. By contrast, the smallest city on the Chinese map has a population over 5 million, and that's considerably understated, because I used just the population of the city, not the outlying areas that might conceivably drive in to use the HSR.
The longest trip between the major cities on the Chinese map is just slightly longer than the DC-Chicago trip would be. It's no coincidence that the only place we have anything that could even be arguably dubbed HSR is the one area where four cities are pretty tightly clustered together. And that doesn't go very fast because it uses existing rights of way, and because the politicians that fund it like to have it make stops in their city. (Q: Why does the Acela stop in WIlmington, Delaware, which is a quick drive from Philadelphia? A: Because Joe Biden likes to ride it.) Stops are the enemy of speed.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Let me guess:
Because union labor/benefits and bureaucratic feather-bedding will make a US system cost about 10,000 times as much as a Chinese system?
(Just a stab in the dark.)
Don’t forget those necessary EPA — DEP entanglements ...
Whenever you have a totalitarian government and people working at slave level wages, you can cheaply do things that aren’t practical elsewhere.
Do you think there were any legal challenges over property rights when the rail went through? If someone protested the demise of their home, what do suppose the response was?
Yeah, I had a Chinese made crescent wrench that was sorta like that. Worked great for a while, then jammed beyond repair at a most inopportune time. I'm sure all those Chinese bearings and wheels on that train work great until they don't while clipping along at 150 mph.....
My vote is for “because we don’t need it.”
Sure it would be convenient and cool, but how many people in America would actually use HSR often enough for high speed rail to be economically viable?
We have airlines here. We don’t need to embrace the latest variant of a 19th century form of transportation in the 21st century.
The whole problem of rail in modern America is the end result. The case cited is exactly the distance to my parent’s home. Yes, it takes me twice as long, but I arrive by car AT my parent’s home. Not at a depot looking for them to pick me up or in a cab or bus. By then, along with collecting my baggage which was pared down and sans my firearm, it takes just as long.
No thanks, I will drive and avoid unnecessary delays, inconveniences and potential idiots I may be trapped with on the way.
Property rights was just one more issue Willie Green never seemed to want to discuss.
That is precisely what nitwits like Thomas Friedman and the rest of his scummy liberal buddies love about China.
“They can get things done! They can do great things! Democracy gets in the way and is a disadvantage!”
They would trade our republic for any one of their dumbass projects, because that is what is important to them. And, the two posters at the top were spot on...labor and rail unions, DEP and EPA regulations, etc.
That's a good thing too. The gas taxes we pay help to subsidize trains after all.
Willie Green was a liberal statist. That SOB was all for artificially jacking up the price of energy to force people into his trains.
Exactly. Let’s drill our own oil and drive our own cars and tell the would-be rail bureaucrats to take a hike.
Because the Chinese don’t have to worry about inconvenient things like LAWSUITS that stopped a Runway project at O’hare Airport, FOR 30 YEARS...
And can you IMAGINE building a hydro-electric Dam in America today??
Actually, that just makes the geographic reasons given in the article more acute.
You said it.
I recently bought 8 roller sheaves for the cables on my garage doors. The doors are about 20yrs. old.
All sheaves were individually packaged, 6 Made in Indonesia, 2 Made in China.
The 6 from Indonesia were decent, they don't have to be precision. The 2 from China were worse than the 20 yr. old ones they were to replace. Felt like they had sand in them.
Didn't use them and shot off an e-mail to the Co. informing them to purge their inventory. No answer BTW.
If it's Made in China, expect to be disappointed.
The stuff they make for Harbor Freight, Wholesale tool, and Walmart are nothing like what they make for their own industry and military.
Yep, anything to remove us filthy carbon spewing monsters from the flyover country.
We have one of the best lightrail systems in the country in Portland, OR but it’s like a rinkydink carny ride compared to the trains and subways in Japan. When I was in Kobe last year, the Shinkansen took me thirty miles in ten minutes each morning to the worksite,and the station was right outside my hotel. We spend millions on MAX that hardly anyone rides and on which there is little to no security (bad guys use it because they’re lightly policed), and another load of money on bike lanes to discourage driving. Folks ride their bikes on the sidewalk in Japan, so I guess we’re superior to them for being more sensitive to the needs of our cyclists..
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