deleted by creator
Saving a couple of hours per person is a lot of hours given the volume of people this infrastructure moves. Also, people are a lot more likely to go on a two hour trip than a 4 hour one. This makes it possible to go from SH to BJ and come back the same day which means you’d have a lot more people travelling and a stimulus to the economy as a result.
deleted by creator
I guess we’ll see, but I don’t really see why they wouldn’t bother. I mean it’s a way for state to create a whole bunch of employment.
deleted by creator
Capitalist thinking. A government that will do something to actually help the working class, simply because it helps the working class, is beyond western, imperialist thinking.
China still has to spend its limited resources efficiently. It’d help the working class if they gave everyone in China a million RMB tomorrow, but obviously they can’t and won’t do that.
Some would argue that removing environmentally destructive jets from the sky is an efficient and necessary use of resources.
Halving travel time is not a minimal gain, but more importantly it’s a demonstration of technological prowess. If China has a commercial maglev operating it’s a showcase of things they can build for other countries. It’s important to keep in mind that a lot of countries don’t have well developed HSR systems or much rail at all. If China can now offer building maglev for them which is ahead of what any other country can do.
deleted by creator
Indeed, I’m just noting factors in favor of building a demonstration line even if it might seem wasteful on the surface.
the chinese cycle:
“okay its just a preliminary test”
“okay they just tested it again”
“alright they implemented it but it wont be feasible”
“so its feasible but they wont expand implementation”
BREAKING: China expands implementation.
The only people who could ever eventually find a way to go faster than the speed of light are Chinese train engineers
I look forward to being able to travel within China at maximum warp. Make it so.
GE sold their Locomotive Division to the Chinese to initially get the wheels turning. No market in the US for hi-speed trains, and just look at them now. More of that technology the Chinese “stole” from the US.
hover-train gang
