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China Relaunches World's Fastest Train (fortune.com)
China has decided to relaunch the world's fastest train service following a fatal crash in 2011, where the high speed train service reduced its upper limit from its then-record holding 350 km/h (217 miles/hour) to 250-300 km/h (155-186 miles/hour). Fortune reports: Government-controlled website Thepaper.cn reported that seven pairs of bullet trains will be operating under the name "Fuxing," meaning rejuvenation, according to the South China Morning Post. The trains will once again run at 350 km/h, with a maximum speed of 400 km/h (248 mph). It is reported that the train service will boast a monitoring system that will automatically slow the trains in case of emergency. The Beijing-Shanghai line will begin operating on 21 September and will shorten the nearly 820 mile journey by an hour, to four hours thirty minutes. Nearly 600 million people use this route each year, providing a reported $1 billion in profits . Other routes include Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, which will begin operation today.
It is reported that the train service will boast a monitoring system that will automatically slow the trains in case of emergency.
Most trains will tend to slow down in the case of an emergency. The question is how quickly they slow down and what they hit whilst doing so.
I agree that the US has been going in the wrong direction for some time but I do not envy the Chinese. There is a lot of people suffering there and it's not just because of their totalitarian government, they have giant looming issues that are one disruption from crumbling their empire.
Right now China is economically dependant on the rest of the world using them as a manufacturing hub while keeping money from leaving their country by devaluing their currency and levying huge import taxes. This has multiple issue:
* It's paradoxical because as it lifts the Chinese people up, they want better conditions which is actually causing jobs to go elsewhere and making manufacturers more reliant on automation. Either way, the result is that it's bad for the Chinese economy.
* China has strict environmental standards but only use it to prevent foreign companies from doing business there. If the EU or US actually insist on compliance, it will cause production to be less cost effective and again cause economic issues.
* There has been a housing bubble in China but the problem is that nobody can afford to live their. The result is entire cities that are sparsely populated. When this comes crashing down, it will be absolutely devastating for China.
* Their stock market is currently being propped up by their government.
* The pollution in cities is absurdly high and is causing lung cancer in a lot of people. An increased percentage of the population dying isn't good in the long run because people may leave the cities out of fear or cause civil unrest but this is an outlying issue.
China isn't even a great place to be right now (Beijing has what they call "the poverty belt" that surrounds it) and while they do their best to present a good image, they are one bad issue away from economic collapse. A "trade war" with China would destabilize their country in a big way.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
I took that maglev back to the airport a few months ago when I left Shanghai.
Very interesting to ride on it, had a kind of theme park feel to the experience,
which struck me as part of the problem with it... If you are staying in a Hotel
any downtown (which is what most people would choose to do) it is completely
useless. You have to take a long taxi ride to get the station, and the train goes
along a track that seems to just run along the side of the highway. But you'd
have to get out of the taxi, get your luggage, go up to the station, buy a ticket,
wait for the train. And then a few minutes later you are indeed doing 430km/h.
For a short period anyway. And the train really shakes around a lot, which
concerned me a bit. The Japan bullet train is smooth as silk in comparison.
Something isnt quite right there. But the bigger issue is that if I'd just stayed
in the taxi I think I'd have got to the airport at about the same time. I'm afraid
it's just a white elephant, an ego trip for the city of Shanghai. Just extending
the subway out there would have made a heck of a lot more sense and been
far more useful. But I guess it doesnt do 430km/h..!