June 12, 2005, When it Absolutely, Positively Has to be there Overnight...
Let's hear it for our Chinese overlords, who, according to this from our friends at The People's Daily, are building a 200 kph (around 130 mph) railway between two of their Northern provincial capitals. The complicated project, which will include numerous mountain bridges and tunnels, is expected to be completed by around 2008. It's the sort of thing Americans were good at at one time (I recall reading that a significant part of New York City's IRT subway system was completed in under two years, as was the Empire State Building), but, for a variety of reasons... aren't quite as good at. Indeed, our highly limited high speed rail service, Amtrak's Acela, has had innumerable technical problems (and might I add, for my limited purposes, is outrageously expensive when compared to alternative means of East Coast inter-city travel).
So... the same month our Chinese overlords announce that their trade has surpassed $500 billion for the first five months of this year , they announce that they are building a fancy kick-ass high speed rail service, let's just say I get a little... I don't know what the word is. I mean, the Germans and Japanese getting a high speed rail, well... they build such kick-ass cars, so you'd think their engineering would be up to the task. The French? It kind of pisses me off that the indolent 35 hour a week 6 week a year vacation French have something as kickass as their TGV, but they do... I recall bicycling through the Loire Valley with the then future Mrs. TD some years back, and we stopped at a grade crossing where the crossing danger sign said something like "stop here; trains are very fast-- serious danger of death". We looked both ways, and saw nothing coming, but with the gate down, with Mrs. TD considering crossing, I just said (having travelled on it ourselves the day before) "given that these things come at 300 kph (nearly 200 mph), let's just sit here a bit"... and sure enough, within seconds, the thing came by in a flash, and the gate lifted.
Anyway, at least Germany, Japan, and France are all super-high-tech First World countries (as is Sweden, which also has a fast train on which Mrs. TD and I have once alit-- the same model we use for our Acela, albeit, with more technical trouble than the Swedes have with it)... But China? We are getting our ass whooped in something cool and high tech by a country with maybe 5% of our per capita income?
That says something. And not something good, I'm afraid. Anyone volunteering to give me Mandarin lessons will be most appreciated...
Comments
To be fair, our Acela is trying to run on old tracks and railbed which is something like trying to race a Ferrari on a dirt, country road.
Posted by Michael at June 13, 2005 9:49 AM
Yeah, imagine how much the fare would be if they upgraded the tracks.
I make an annual pilgrimage to Baltimore to see the Red Sox at Camden Yards. It would cost me $150 - and take me 5 hours -- to take Amtrak. (The basic, not high speed servie) but I could fly down in an hour on Southwest for $99.
What's the difference between Southwest and Amtrak? Hint: One is not a government monopoly.
Posted by Steve at June 13, 2005 8:27 PM
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