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Chinese High-Speed Train Sets New World Record

Posted by samzenpus on from the speeding-bullet dept.

shmG writes "A new high-speed train linking Chinese cities Shanghai and Hangzhou has set a fresh world record for train speed at 416.6 kilometers per hour (259 mph) on its trial run on Tuesday. The train is expected to cut the travel time by half, to 40 minutes for covering a distance of 202 kilometers between the two cities at an average speed of 350 kilometers per hour. 'The new record of 416.6 km per hour shows that China has achieved a new milestone in high-speed train technologies,' Zhang Shuguang, deputy chief engineer of the Ministry of Railways, was quoted as saying."

20 of 267 comments (clear)

  1. Not a chinese train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Judging from the picture in TFA I'd say it's a Siemens train. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens_Velaro .

    1. Re:Not a chinese train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Chinese is not a race. It's a political affiliation.

    2. Re:Not a chinese train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Really? No one's going to call him in this astonishingly racist post?

      Nope. GP refers to China, Germany, and industrial espionage - not race. It *is* actually possible to question a nation's pattern of behavior without being racist.

      GP is fine, and you lose a timeout.

    3. Re:Not a chinese train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      What does race have to do with it? The GP's claim is pure nationalism, not racism.

    4. Re:Not a chinese train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Here
      But the cooperation turned sour in December 2004, when Chinese engineers broke into the Transrapid maintenance room in the middle of the night and took measurements of the new train. The bizarre incident was even captured on film, and German economic weekly Wirtschaftswoche speculated that it was a case of Transrapid technology theft.

      The pix were on the web at the time. It showed that the engineers broke in with PLA soldiers with rifles helping and making sure that nobody else was around.

      Racists? Not even CLOSE on my part. OTH, it appears that you VERY MUCH ARE ONE. Why? Because you instantly raise the racists card when somebody is pointing out a FACT about a nation's ILLEGAL ACTIONS (yes, nation, when it involves their government).

  2. In the meantime, we in the USA... by bogaboga · · Score: 1, Insightful

    ...still squabble as to whether we even need such a train. Sad to know that in this field, we as a country, are still stuck in the 1950s with so many of our folks against any move to the 21st century.

    1. Re:In the meantime, we in the USA... by pr100 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So all roads in the US are toll roads? ... or it's OK for the state to cough up for roads, but not for train tracks?

    2. Re:In the meantime, we in the USA... by icebraining · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The phrase "European/Chinese economic system" makes no sense. European economies are extremely different from the Chinese.

      Unlike what some may believe, there aren't only two economic systems, the US Capitalist and the Other. Even if both the European and the Chinese invest more public money in infrastructure than the US (do they?), it doesn't mean they have a similar system.

      --
      Dilbert RSS feed
    3. Re:In the meantime, we in the USA... by demonlapin · · Score: 2, Insightful

      NIMBYs will prevent the construction of new track or the running of truly high-speed trains on existing tracks - tons of small towns have regulations regarding maximum train speeds. They're not necessarily all wrong, either, because of the large number of at-grade crossings.

      Rail in the US will continue to do what it does best - move bulk cargo cheaply. Any more just isn't going to happen.

    4. Re:In the meantime, we in the USA... by boule75 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Spending money is not good for an economy. Spending money EFFICIENTLY is.


      You're right, that's the optimal thing.

      <quote><p>However time and time again governments (which account for a vast chunk of total spending) have proven themselves to be incapable of this.</p></quote>

      First , it very much depends of the timeframe you're placing yourself in, or of the expenses you're talking of. For instance "government" overhead for managing medicare is apparently very small compared that of privately runned health insurance companies.
      Publicly runned health systems in Europe cost less and are vastly more efficient than the US private version...
      Then consider building a bridge : it will cost a lot and could possibly become profitable only in the very long run. Furthermore, many of its benefit are probably hidden. So there is no incentive for the private sector to build that bridge even though it may be very useful and profitable for society as a whole in the long run.
      And who would run an honest army for a profit ?

      Second : there are so many idle spendings in the private sector that are truly worthless that you're surely joking. Advertisement is one, vast sums hijacked by the financial sector are another, especially when the government bails it out...

      I am all for efficient spending, from the government of from the private sector.
      --
      I am not Remy Mouton, unfortunately: http://remy.mouton.free.fr/art/
    5. Re:In the meantime, we in the USA... by Muad'Dave · · Score: 2, Insightful

      ...it's OK for the state to cough up for roads, but not for train tracks?

      I'd say that's a fair argument. Given our sprawling city/suburb layout, fast trains just don't make sense. For good or bad, most of the US was designed around ubiquitous automobile ownership - freedom of the road and all that. Until there is decent intra-city public transportation, taking a fast train between cities leaves you stranded at the station.

      --
      Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
    6. Re:In the meantime, we in the USA... by Ichijo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Until there is decent intra-city public transportation, taking a fast train between cities leaves you stranded at the station.

      And taking an airplane between cities leaves you stranded at the airport, right?

      --
      Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
  3. Pretty cool i guess by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Too bad their safety record won't be as good as their speed record.

  4. Re:booyah by siddesu · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is only a test. Wait until it is in operation free of trouble and come back again.

    If memory serves, Japan's Shinkansen has had only one accident (while braking during a very strong earthquake in 2006), and no dead people in how many years of operation now - maybe 40, maybe more.

    Wake me up when the Chinese beat that record.

  5. Re:Wrong! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yes, you're absolutely right. I was translating for occidental type people, and trying to avoid the dumb jokes some people on this website come out with

    Well, those jokes are all too appropriate when a "classless" society has to make facile claims like "soft seat" and "hard seat" to sell different classes of service.

    All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.

  6. Re:booyah by Kalidor · · Score: 2, Insightful

    In addition, to all the other posts, I have to wonder if the Chinese are using a sound limit. IIRC, the Shinkansen has it's speed governed so that the sound is limited to something like 78 db in the areas surrounding the tracks. This seems to be somewhere between the noise of vacuum cleaner at 1m and a busy roadway at 5 m. Somehow, I have my doubts that the Chinese authorities will have the same concern about auditory health of those people directly affected by this new train.

    --

    Code softly but carry a big magnet.

  7. Re:CRH3 by Chrisq · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There was a joke during the early days of the space race where an American says to a Russian "Our German rocket-scientists are better than your German rocket-scientists".

    It seems that in the race for the fastest train this has been replaced by "Our German rail-engineers are better than your German rail-engineers".

  8. Re:I'd be happy if our intercity trains did 300kph by iserlohn · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Where did you get that idea? In the UK the trains are limited to 125mph because of *signalling*. The GWML for example was built extremely well (by Brunel over 170 years ago no less) and is capable of speeds of 140mph and over. The problem is telling the trains when to stop and slow down. The proposed project to electrify the Great Western Main Line would also introduced in-cab signalling which would make the higher speeds a reality.

    --
    :. Ultimate Control Dedicated/VM Servers
  9. Re:Wrong! by PacoSuarez · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes, you're absolutely right. I was translating for occidental type people, and trying to avoid the dumb jokes some people on this website come out with.

      Rugs are occidental, people like movies, are Western.

    Wait, now we are also getting touchy about what oriental-type people call us?

  10. Re:booyah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    That was a regular JR train doing 90mph, no Shinkansen.