China Abandons Long-Distance Maglev Effort

Ralph Lee writes "China has chosen to abandon its Maglev train effort from Beijing-Shanghai, according to this AP story: 'Besides cost, "the maglev technique was excluded because it does not match the wheel-track technique used by railways in China," the report said, citing Wang Derong, vice-chairman of the China Transport Association.... The scrapping of the 9-year-old maglev project - two weeks after the country's first maglev, a short stretch in Shanghai, began regular operation - represents a setback for the development of the technology in China, which many had seen as one of its key markets.'" The short 18-mile MagLev run mentioned earlier remains in operation, but China is not going to use magnetic levitation for the planned 750-mile Beijing-Shanghai link.

Comments

Re:Price per _half_ mile?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're american, you just proved them right. There is 1.6 kilometers in a mile, not 2.

Re:Price per _half_ mile?

[JohnDoe.Slashed]

Why in the world are they quoting price per half mile? Or is it really "price per kilometer" and they think the American public is too stupid to understand what a kilometer is?

Funny that a lot of mail I receive from that part of the world doesn't measure my penis estimated growth in 1/2 inches...

Re:Inevitable?

[Daniel Dvorkin]

If it were truly cheaper to maintain in the long run it would be in much wider use, ESPECIALLY in command economies like China. Welcome to the world of Economics.

Uh, right. I present the following parable:

So, this economics professor and his student are walking along the street, and the student spots a $20 bill lying on the sidewalk. Being a starving student, he says, "Look, there's a twenty! We should pick it up and buy some lunch."

And the professor, being an economist, shakes his gray-bearded head and says sagaciously, "No, no, that's impossible."

"What are you talking about?" asks the student. "It's right there!"

"Well, you see," says the professor with a chuckle, "if there were really money lying on the sidewalk, someone would have picked it up already."