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Abe pitches Japan’s maglev trains to the US, touting New York to Washington in 40 minutes
Kyodo ^ | 22 September, 2016

Posted on 09/22/2016 1:37:34 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pitching Japan’s maglev technology for the railway system in the United States.

Speaking in a meeting with US business leaders and financial experts in New York on Wednesday, Abe said that in the late 2030s, a maglev train linking Tokyo to Nagoya in central Japan will take just 40 minutes - an hour shorter than currently required for the shinkansen bullet train. The two cities are about 260km apart, as the crow flies.

“The distance between Tokyo and Nagoya is almost the same as that between New York and [Washington] DC,” he said. “You could do the same thing here with the maglev technology.”

Abe noted that the planned train in Japan would reach Osaka station in an additional 20 minutes, making it only an hour’s ride from Tokyo, 400km away.

In the speech, the prime minister said Japan will continue to serve as “an engine for free trade,” and expressed determination to implement a pending Pacific trade pact and to conclude a free trade agreement between Japan and the European Union “as soon as possible.”

Abe called for Washington’s leadership in putting into force the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade pact despite opposition by both Democratic and Republican presidential nominees, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and business mogul Donald Trump.

“Please do ratify the TPP,” Abe said, requesting that Congress approve the deal he said “is good for free, fair and open trade.”

“The Asia-Pacific should be much, much better off with the US fully being a TPP member,” he said. “We are simply waiting for you to take a leadership role.”


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; Japan; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: japan; maglev; railway; train; williegreen
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Trial run of a maglev train

1 posted on 09/22/2016 1:37:34 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
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To: sukhoi-30mki

Holy Toledo!! A Japanese man named Abe? I clicked to find out if this was a company named after Lincoln. Well, Abe, lovely, lovely idea. However, who will pay for it? Mr. Huntington? No, he’s long gone. Mr. Amtrak? No such person. Maybe you’re thinking if Trump wins the two of you can cut a deal? Just wondering.


2 posted on 09/22/2016 1:44:35 AM PDT by The Westerner (Will Free Republic exist when ICANN controls the web?)
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To: sukhoi-30mki

Build a NY-DC maglev transport system?

We could no more do that now, than we could build the Hoover Dam.


3 posted on 09/22/2016 1:46:39 AM PDT by oblomov (We have passed the point where "law," properly speaking, has any further application. - C. Thomas)
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To: sukhoi-30mki

With all due respect to the Prime Minister, we will wait until a real President is sworn in - sworn in on a Bible, that is.

Nobody’s opposed with doing business with the rest of the world. We the People are just not interested in selling America down the river in the process.


4 posted on 09/22/2016 1:48:04 AM PDT by MichaelCorleone (Jesus Christ is not a religion. He's the Truth.)
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To: sukhoi-30mki

Phone call for Mr. Willie Green, please pick up the courtesy phone .


5 posted on 09/22/2016 1:48:50 AM PDT by csvset ( Illegitimi non carborundum)
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To: The Westerner

The Japs could license or sell us the tech...we’ll do the building, make the materials and staff the lines... American “jobs-jobs-jobs!”!


6 posted on 09/22/2016 1:59:02 AM PDT by mdmathis6 (BEWARE THE ABORTION POLITICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX!)
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To: mdmathis6

Hogwash! Just like everything that made America great before, we can and will do again. Much better, less expensive and on time. The talent and the people with it are ready if we can just get the friggin government out of the fargin way.


7 posted on 09/22/2016 2:16:37 AM PDT by mazda77 (The solution: Vote Trump)
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To: oblomov

Does Wall Street really need all that many quick dashes with cash to Capital (sic k) Hill?


8 posted on 09/22/2016 2:38:49 AM PDT by Paladin2 (auto spelchk? BWAhaha2haaa.....I aint't likely fixin' nuttin'. Blame it on the Bossa Nova...)
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To: sukhoi-30mki
Mr. Abe is acting as his country's pitchman to sell Japanese tech, proven as concept and applicable perhaps uniquely to Japan.

Map below shows current Amtrak rail stops, from Washington DC to Boston.

Note that the DC-NYC run spans six political divisions, DC, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, each with it's own political representatives subject to pressures by various interest groups, a situation not present in Japan.

Eight stops between start and end points. With TSA governing entry points to the system, five minutes at each stop, boarding and unboarding, eats up the entire 40 minutes Mr. Abe envisions for transit.

Highly unlikely that the five minutes can be reduced as our inhomogeneous population cannot yet be herded and pushed into trains in the manner in which the Japanese are accustomed.

Various high speed rail solutions have been tried over the years for the BostonWashington corridrightirst the Metroliner, then the current Accela, none of which achieved the hyped initial proposals. All attempts to limit stops have failed to deliver on the promises. In fact, additional suburban stops have been added to service the urban fleeing suburban jobs market. Few inner city workers use the trains to commute.

Unmentioned are the burdens Unions and minority set aside contracts impose on the implementation of any rail system.

The Eastern DC-NYC air shuttle achieved the approximate 40 min flight time, airport to airport at a reasonable cost, although at double or so the train fare at the time. It remains to be seen what the eventual MagLev real final cost would be and how that would translate to ticket prices, barring Federal subsidies, that old socialist porkbarrel money laundering scheme.

Finally, does anyone detect the smell of Elon Musk behind the curtains. This one is right up his alley

9 posted on 09/22/2016 2:43:39 AM PDT by Covenantor (Men are ruled...by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern. " Chesterton)
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To: All

be cool if they paid for it and lost money running it for thirty years..


10 posted on 09/22/2016 2:49:00 AM PDT by newnhdad (Our new motto: USA, it was fun while it lasted.)
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To: Paladin2

You’d be surprised. The Acela (Boston to DC “high-speed” train) is one of the few profitable Amtrak lines.

It might be a profitable venture for private investment.


11 posted on 09/22/2016 3:04:23 AM PDT by oblomov (We have passed the point where "law," properly speaking, has any further application. - C. Thomas)
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To: mazda77
You can't "get the government out of the way" and build a project like this economically.

The government's biggest role in a project like this is its power of eminent domain, which would be used to force property owners to sell their property to the government in order to assemble the right-of-way needed for a high-speed rail line like this.

12 posted on 09/22/2016 3:07:15 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Sometimes I feel like I've been tied to the whipping post.")
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To: sukhoi-30mki

Was this a pitch for maglev, or a maglev-camouflaged pitch for TPP aimed directly at the Beltway elites?


13 posted on 09/22/2016 3:18:14 AM PDT by niteowl77
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To: sukhoi-30mki

>>“The Asia-Pacific should be much, much better off with the US fully being a TPP member,” he said. “We are simply waiting for you to take a leadership role.”

Yes, but the question for Congress should be whether AMERICA would be “much, much better off” with the US fully being a TPP member. That nuance always seems to get lost on these elitists.


14 posted on 09/22/2016 3:31:54 AM PDT by vikingd00d (chown -R us ~ur/base/*)
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To: Alberta's Child

The infrastructure is mostly there along with the R/W buffers. Does it ever dawn on some people this whole thing could be built elevated over the existing R/W?

I was making a point about the upcoming election but am not polyannish about it happening overnight. There is a lot to be done to overcome the establishment and that is the key. Get it back into the hands of We the People and it will get done.


15 posted on 09/22/2016 3:33:23 AM PDT by mazda77 (The solution: Vote Trump)
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To: mazda77
The infrastructure is not really there. The horizontal alignment for high-speed rail would have to be different, and there are a whole bunch of bridge and tunnel sections that would make an elevated maglev system on the current alignment completely impractical.

I'd be willing to bet that no private company would ever get involved in such a project, even if the government gave them the right-of-way at no cost. I don't think this service would have enough riders to justify the enormous cost of building and operating it.

16 posted on 09/22/2016 3:40:27 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("Sometimes I feel like I've been tied to the whipping post.")
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To: sukhoi-30mki

All it needs is a nuclear power source and viola, Supertrain.


17 posted on 09/22/2016 3:53:26 AM PDT by wally_bert (I didn't get where I am today by selling ice cream tasting of bookends, pumice stone & West Germany)
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To: oblomov

How about a high speed train from DC to the Atlantic Ocean...one way and free passage for all politicians and K street lobbyists.


18 posted on 09/22/2016 4:01:08 AM PDT by Mouton (The insurrection laws maintain the status quo now.)
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To: csvset

Thank you!

I actually miss the Willie Green Happy Choo Choo threads.


19 posted on 09/22/2016 4:39:40 AM PDT by John O (God Save America (Please))
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To: sukhoi-30mki

I’d like to see this done in a big way, nationally, rather than stuff like the Mission to Mars foolishness. They only chase these space fantasies in search of something that might help them deny Special Creation and push atheism. IMHO.


20 posted on 09/22/2016 4:48:34 AM PDT by Tucker39 (Welcome to America! Now speak English; and keep to the right....In driving, in Faith, and politics.)
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