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.

[mo]

Heck...we can’t even get Freedom Tower built...8 years later....

[papertyger]

I was there (3 cities) this summer, and I can tell you the only places we saw any kind of trash or disrepair were the government facilities.

Take my word for it: we’re doomed.

[ridesthemiles]

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

Don’t forget the Great Wall of China—more than 600 miles long...

[OldDeckHand]

"That dam is at the confluence of 3 large rivers."

The "Three Gorges Dam", which some have described as the biggest environmental travesty in the history of environmental travesties. There are grave concerns, and not just from enviro wack-jobs, that the dam could have some long-term impact that will take a century, or longer to recover from. And, if it were to give way, the catastrophe would be unimaginable with respect to human life lost - probably without equal for a natural or man-made disaster.

[ridesthemiles]

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! “”

It will never be successful.

If one has to go from La To sf, a flight takes just over an hour. There are numerous airports to fly in and out of at both ends.

The ‘high speed’ rail is a giant boondoggle.

It will displace hundreds of acres of profitable farmland.

[OldDeckHand]

"Don’t forget the Great Wall of China—more than 600 miles long..."

600? I think it's closer to 4,000 miles long, FWIW.

[TopQuark]

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

Or about opposition and mere diversity of opinion. The Soviet Russia has also completed its projects quickly. Whether they were indeed in the interest of "the people" has never been discussed or questioned.

Totalitarian regimes are always efficient but ineffective.

[arthurus]

We lived for 50 years on the legacy built up by 184 years of frantic building.

The USSR lived for 40 yeas on the loot from Eastern Europe.

[ejonesie22]

And made with all Chinese parts

Rocks, stone, bricks, femurs, skulls...

[OldDeckHand]

"Totalitarian regimes are always efficient but ineffective."

I'm not sure I would agree with the "ineffective" part - nefarious to be sure, but not ineffective.

Unlike the Soviets Union, who didn't engage in the kind of super-Neo-Capitalism that China does, I don't believe that China will collapse under the weight of itself. China has somehow managed to maintain a firm grip on its citizens, while also using the unquestionable benefits of its manufacturing and trade policies with the west. We are, for the first time in history, supplying the capital requirements of our enemy through the mechanism of (somewhat) free markets. It's a very strange dynamic, and one that - so far - China has been very adept at exploiting.

[redangus]

Great comments

[US_MilitaryRules]

The train is for the environmentalist’s. It uses electricity that come from a plug in the wall! The airliner uses that evil oil!

Which one is cleaner, the plug or the oil?

Obviously the plug and it is free!

/s

[dmanLA]

Some people talk and other people do. Can you figure out which we are now?

[denydenydeny]

The big hole at Ground Zero is a metaphor for the process you described. How long do you think it would have taken the Chinese to put something up at that location?

[SW6906]

A great society is not defined solely by the big buildings and monuments it builds. Most of the world’s greatest inventions of the past century that made our lives better, longer and easier were made in the USA.

[Tailback]

Look at the number of people in the picture. In the worlds most populated country, at a train station connecting two of the hubs of business, that’s all the people riding the toy trains? Looks like a typical light rail boondoggle to me.

[artaxerces]

“A great society is not defined solely by the big buildings and monuments it builds. Most of the world’s greatest inventions of the past century that made our lives better, longer and easier were made in the USA.”

That is very true. We must also remember that during the 19th century, the U.S was the greatest perpetrator of technological theft/industrial espionage in the entire world. And considering that China is now in the top 3 in terms of annual technology patents when 20 years ago, it wasn’t in the top 50, this is alarming news.

[GonzoGOP]

A great society is not defined solely by the big buildings and monuments it builds. Most of the world’s greatest inventions of the past century that made our lives better, longer and easier were made in the USA

Great engineering feats are not what makes a civilization great, but great civilizations built great feats of engineering. They are a symptom of success. Note that at the same time in the last century when USA was building "most of the world’s greatest inventions" we also were building Hoover Dam, the TVA, the great California irrigation system, the Saturn V moon rocket, the interstate highway system, the worlds largest railroad system etc.

China is a rival to be watched. You cannot out wait China the way you can out wait Iran or North Korea. China will get stronger every year until they become the dominant power on earth, or until like the USA they have a change from a builder to a different type of society. This happened once before in Chinese history when they went from being the world's greatest innovators to being so anti-change that they were eventually surpassed by all the other powers of the world. It could happen again, but I wouldn't count on it.

The wars that have threatened the existence of America have all been with builders. The British in 1812, other Americans in the Civil War, and the the Germans in WWII. The other wars, even if we lost them, never threatened to destroy America. Even the Soviets were only a threat because they were so good as stealing technology from the builders they conquered. Much like the Turks built their empire on captured Byzantine technology.

[okie01]

We must also remember that during the 19th century, the U.S was the greatest perpetrator of technological theft/industrial espionage in the entire world.

Really? Do you have an authoritative source for this assertion?

Did Thomas Alva Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Robert Fulton, et al, "steal" their inventions from others?

[OldDeckHand]

"Look at the number of people in the picture."

I can promise you that the interior picture, taking just moments after the station was opened for the first time on Saturday, is not the standard. This is a much more accurate representation of what the Chinese railway platforms look like, taken on on of the outside platforms, later in the same day and for the same line...