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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."

27 of 267 comments (clear)

  1. booyah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    In your face Japan!

    1. Re:booyah by Sique · · Score: 4, Informative

      But the Shinkansen made 443 km/h in diverse tests, still about 25 km/h faster than the chinese train.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    2. Re:booyah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      You should also note that the Shinkansen has to travel over curves with a much smaller radius than either the TGV or the Chinese bullet train does. Reality is that unless you have very long stretches of straight track, the Shinkansen is still the fastest. Neither the TGV nor the Chinese bullet train can come even close to the speeds the Shinkansen does around those curves. Of course, if the Shinkansen would simply build straight tracks (not exactly as easy as it sounds, considering the geographic location) then yes, both the TGV and Chinese bullet train would rule in both test run and service speeds. But then again, the Japanese Railway company will start building a super conductive mag-lev line in parallel to the Shinkansen soon. This is NOT the same technology as seen from the Shanghai airport, by the way.

    3. 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.

    4. Re:booyah by AC-x · · Score: 4, Informative

      And the French TGV reached 574.8 km/h in a special test run. However these were specially modified trains, while this Chinese train broke the speed record for an unmodified train

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_speed_record_for_rail_vehicles#Conventional_wheeled

  2. Wrong! by SmilingBoy · · Score: 4, Informative

    The TGV holds the record with 575 km/h! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TGV_world_speed_record

    1. Re:Wrong! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      China's World records are like the US World Series only in name.

    2. Re:Wrong! by Joce640k · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yes ... but the average speed of the TGV on real journeys is a lot less - 279 km/h (173.6 mph) according to Wikipedia.

      --
      No sig today...
    3. Re:Wrong! by AJWM · · Score: 5, Informative

      That TGV record is for a test train on a specially prepared track with customized power feed and tensioning on the catenary. It's not clear from TFA, but I believe the Chinese are claiming the record for a production train on production track (ie equivalent to scheduled runs).

      See e.g. this from the Wikipedia TGV article: "A TGV service previously held the record for the fastest scheduled rail journey with a start to stop average speed of 279.4 km/h (173.6 mph),[2][3] which was surpassed by the Chinese CRH service Harmony express on the Wuhan-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway in 2009."

      --
      -- Alastair
    4. Re:Wrong! by Malc · · Score: 5, Informative

      The article's full of errors:

      A first-class train ticket to travel between the two cities is estimated to cost more than 100 yuan ($14.90), which is twice the existing fare, Jiefang Daily reported.

      I've done this journey a lot of times, the last time being three weeks ago. The current high speed trains (hitting about 170kph) cost Y54 (2nd class) or Y64 (1st class). More than double the price of the existing first class would be in excess of Y130, which is bordering on exageration. The trains are always full, and there are a lot of rich Chinese and Western businessmen on this route, so I doubt they will have trouble filling seats.

      Travellers believe that the high-speed train between Shanghai and Hangzhou make take longer than the two-hour drive on road if the train stops at all the nine stations along the route, seven of which are newly built in suburban districts of Shanghai and some cities of Zhejiang.

      What bullshit. The current high speed trains stop maybe once or twice between Shanghai and Hangzhou - why would this one stop more than that? It'd blow the average speed, and anyway, there are already slower regional trains. Trying to claim it's a two drive to Hangzhou is again exageration... especially trying to get in to Hangzhou with its absolutely abysmal traffic problems.

      I wonder though, what has happened to the maglev link between the two cities that they were building. I saw an elevating track by the highway a few weeks ago which was either the maglev line, or maybe something else.

    5. Re:Wrong! by shikaisi · · Score: 5, Informative

      Please remember there are no such things as "1st class" and "2nd class" seats in China. This is a classless society ;-) You can buy "soft seat" or "hard seat" tickets, however.

      --
      No left turn unstoned.
    6. Re:Wrong! by Malc · · Score: 3, Informative

      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

    7. Re:Wrong! by Ash+Vince · · Score: 4, Funny

      I guess the obvious solution is to electrify the fences with 20,000 volts.

      Actually, the obvious (and cheaper) solution is simply to make sure the front of the train is fairly sturdy and won't get dented by morons walking along the track looking for their Darwin award. You might want to make it easy to clean too :)

      --
      I dont read /. to RTFA, I read /. to offend people in ignorance.
    8. Re:Wrong! by Eivind · · Score: 3, Interesting

      575km/h is about half the speed of sound too, so assuming you hear the sound the train emitted when it was 1km away, the train will be only half a km away by the time the sound reaches your ears. And half a km at 575km/h is 3 seconds. Which is enough time to leap away, but NOT enough time to first turn and see what's going on, then get away.

      For real speed, you want vactrains. Maglevs with a pressure-cabin, in an evacuated pipe. This has numerous advantages. First, there's less risk that anything will be on the line, if the line is in an enclosed pipe. Second, if there's a near-vacuum in the pipe, then it requires substantially less energy to push the train since air-resistance is the primary energy-waste at these speeds, and third, it cuts noise enormously, if the train is floating in vacuum, there's less vibration to begin with, and there's little transmission of noise to the surroundings too. (vacuum is a very good way of stopping noise!)

    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?

  3. I'd be happy if our intercity trains did 300kph! by fantomas · · Score: 3, Informative

    Here in the UK we're lucky if our intercity trains get much over 200km/h so I'd be happy with a mere 300km/h on the regular London to Glasgow route.....

  4. Re:416.6 km/h isn't a new record. by Chrisq · · Score: 3, Informative

    It appears that the Chinese record is for trains that will be used in service, not experimental vehicles.

  5. Re:416.6 km/h isn't a new record. by Sique · · Score: 3, Informative

    To complete this: 350 km/h is the regular speed for the Velaro E on the relation Madrid-Barcelona.

    --
    .sig: Sique *sigh*
  6. Re:I'd be happy if our intercity trains did 300kph by Dynedain · · Score: 4, Informative

    Lucky bastard, here in California we get 120km/hr. And anything faster is going to be 9 billion dollars, and over a decade, just to build the first 25 mile stretch along existing right-of-ways.

    --
    I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
  7. 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?

  8. Re:I'd be happy if our intercity trains did 300kph by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Lucky bastard, here in California we get 120km/hr.

    And ironically, that was also built by Chinese people. :-)

  9. 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
  10. Re:I'd be happy if our intercity trains did 300kph by JasterBobaMereel · · Score: 5, Informative

    In both cases the problem is the track ...

    In the UK the track goes around a lot of corners and is far from straight, and to take out the bends would cost huge amounts (especially through towns/cities)

    In the US your track is very poor quality (a legacy of the speed it was built and the huge extent of the network) and the cost of upgrading is huge ...

    The very fast trains in Japan/France/China all benefit from the local governments simply forcibly buying the land required at cost (or less) and getting on with it ...

    --
    Puteulanus fenestra mortis
  11. Not really by Viol8 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    All tilting does is make it more comfortable for the passengers. It doesnt redice the centripetal forces on the bogies and track which will become severe at very high speed. Also signalling needs to be upgraded for very high speed running to take account of greater stopping distances amongst other things.

    1. Re:Not really by Timmmm · · Score: 4, Informative

      No, the net horizontal force on the wheels would be the same. The vertical force should be equalised between them though.

      The only way you can decrease the horizontal force is to camber the actual track, which they do.

  12. 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".

  13. 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.