Slashdot Mirror
China's High-Speed Trains Coming Off the Rails
Hugh Pickens writes "The Washington Post reports that China's expanding network of ultramodern high-speed trains is coming under growing scrutiny over costs and because of concerns that builders ignored safety standards in the quest to build faster trains in record time as new leadership at the Railways Ministry announced that to enhance safety, the top speed of all trains was being decreased from about 218 mph to 186. Without elaborating, the ministry called the safety situation 'severe' and said it was launching safety checks along the entire network of tracks. Meanwhile China's Finance Ministry announced that the Railways Ministry continues to lose money as the ministry's debt stands at $276 billion, almost all borrowed from Chinese banks. 'In China, we will have a debt crisis — a high-speed rail debt crisis,' says Zhao Jian, a professor at Beijing Jiaotong University and longtime critic of high-speed rail who worries that the cost of the project might have created a hidden debt bomb that threatens China's banking system. 'I think it is more serious than your subprime mortgage crisis. You can always leave a house or use it. The rail system is there. It's a burden. You must operate the rail system, and when you operate it, the cost is very high.'"
I can't wait until California gets a high speed rail system! Obama and the voting lemmings^Wmasses have convinced me that this is going to be huge for our state economy and modernize transportation. Just look at all the successes the Chinese have had! Their people can now not get from one point, to another, at blazing speeds of over 200mph! Wait... what's that you say? Huge burden on their economy? Lack of ridership? Safety issues requiring them to slow down the trains? But... but... what about my eco-friendly, idealistic, blind to facts utopia? WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?!?!?!