On a recent test run, the train sprinted to record-breaking speeds of 281 miles per hour, making it the fastest train in the world.
That’s not even close to the current record, which is 375 mph: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_speed_record
Once completed, engineers hope the maglev will reach 621 mph
Yeah, that’s a big “if” right there.
I’m all for high speed rail and I hope they succeed, but this article is terrible.
And only if will it approach airplane speed.
I think we really need to start shoving the noses of Democrats on how much China is beating our ass in just about everything in regard to infrastructure and going green. Pride is about the only thing i can think of that might make the Dems do something other than the barest of bare minimums on these things and point out how the supposedly “bad” country is doing better then us might get people to think. idk anything to challenge American Exceptionalism
I think you’re oversimplifying things, Trump wasn’t doing more than the bare minimum either. We really need to fuck off all these political systems that prop up politicians that have never lived with their constituents and start sending inept and lying politicians to jail.
This implies that I consider the Republicans any short of type of legitimate. The only thing I care to do with the nazi party is to treat them as nazi’s should be treated. While the younger generation would probably agree with me, we are not quite where we need to be with that. So if i’m talking about anything in regards to handling politics in any way that isn’t a riot, i’m going to be referring to Democrats…who the vast majority are also not legitimate but many people are not ready to hear that yet, so I offer the suggestion I have at the time. I do agree with you mostly. I would greatly like to burn it all to the ground and build something better, but until the people are there, i’m going to suggest things that might work in our current climate while suggesting people organize and work on opening people’s understanding on the fact that our institutions only exist to serve the ruling class. Let’s just say I wait for the day that we can have cocktails at these people’s houses.
I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts
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I mean they have a point though. We don’t have a progressive party in the US. We have a status quo party (which is usually the conservative party) and we have a far right party.
yep, honestly i’d prefer to handle the issue of America not being where it needs in a more…direct way (like having cocktails on the boss’s lawn), however, the people are not there yet and we need to continue to organize and open people’s understanding of how they are being played. Thrown that out as a suggestion as something that might work as of right now. Though I will say, it is nice to be reminded that there are people I can be a little bit more open to the whole “our political system is illegitimate” (and that’s the nicest way anyone can put it). Been organizing in a local issue and have to walk around big scary words like “fascism” and “socialism” like i’m playing minesweeper, that i forget that some spaces it’s not necessary.
Yeah but can it go to Costco 😏 checkmate libs
and it cant safely pick up my spoiled little shit of a kid from middle school when there’s a quarter inch of snow on the ground
I rode the Shanghai maglev once or twice. Interesting comparison vs. shinkansen. Very functional, less bougie. Both are complete pipe dreams compared to American infrastructure. And much of Europe for that matter (of course, these trains are mostly in megalopolisuri like Shanghai and Tokyo even in China and Japan).
High-speed rail can be above ground and below ground. There are tons of issues limiting above ground trains. Shinkansen have to slow down through residential areas and especially tunnels, because they are loud. They create a really bad pressure boom going in and out of tunnels at high speeds. They often aren’t running full speed for the majority of their journey. On the other hand, tunnels are expensive and Japan has had some recent reminders (with car tunnels) as to the engineering challenge of long tunnels (which are nearly impossible to avoid in the mountainous country) in earthquake prone regions . And China had a reminder as to the potential dangers of tunnels in extreme weather events (also a car tunnel). Both had presumably mass-casualty events although I don’t remember how they were officially reported.
Also on shinkansen many times you will be paying, iirc, more than 10k JPY / US$100 to stand the whole ride! Imagine standing room only in an airplane… and you will be gripping the bars from time to time. At least with one hand, the other gets to wrangle your luggage.
Anyway, fuck cars and build more trains. They’re awesome. And they have room to be so much more awesome still. One of the most realistic degrowth solutions available to society as a whole. But we look toward fraudulent carbon credits to prevent our extinction instead. Makes perfect sense. For the .01%, at least.
Mon dieu, faster than the TGV? I think not sacrebleu!
One of those crashing while going “faster than an airplane” would seem more catastrophic than an airplane crashing.
Are these bullet trains safer than planes or as dangerous as regular trains?
Japan’s bullet trains have famously never had a fatal crash in it’s 59 year history.
This cannot be said of their conventional trains.
That’s what I wanted to hear! Amazing.
Hopefully, China’s trains are as good as Japan’s 😬
These also have less probability of crashing than commercial airplanes.
Uh… Considering the Transrapid’s fatal crash and it’s very few operating hours, I can’t imagine that to be true.
I don’t see your logic. That’s like the only fatal Maglev crash so far and not even a commercial one (it’s a test track). Every airplane also has limited operating hours.
What’s the reason for this assumption?
What assumption? It was just a thought, followed by a question.
Do you know how much maintenance and regulation goes into airplane management? All those regulations have been written blood.
They would make a decent start on regulations for high speed rail. In addition to the regulations that have made existing high speed rail safe…
Trains derail on occasion. Planes crash on occasion. But at least with trains we’re not accelerating the death of the planet
As far as I am aware no country on earth is CO2 neutral, so for these trains the emissions are still positive.
The planet will be here long after we’ve died out
But at least with trains we’re not accelerating the death of the planet
A mag lev train doing 500+mph is going to need a lot more energy than a normal train. It will probably be less than the plane but I’m thinking it won’t be as much less as you might think.
Thae train is also doing those speeds at sea level vs the plane doing them at 35,000ft or higher, where there’s less than 1/4 the atmosphere to fight.
It’s way less than planes wayyy less than lots of cars. In fact maglev trains use less energy than normal trains. This is because they do not make direct contact with the track, and less energy is required to pull them.
How much is required to keep it floating?
At 480 km/h (about 300 mph) 0.4 megajoules per passenger mile, all things combined including power to track, according to Stanford. Also apparently the energy needed increases at lower speeds due to something about lift.
For reference https://vaclavsmil.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/January2019.pdf says
Jet airliners are surprisingly efficient, commonly requiring around 2 MJ/pkm (=3.22 MJ/pmile). With full flights and the latest airplane designs, they can do it at less than 1.5 MJ/pkm (=2.41 MJ/pmile)
So 6x is still a big difference. Not sure what I expected, but maybe this is smaller.
Trains don’t leave exhaust in the upper parts of the atmosphere, though, and depending on how the electricity was created, it could be neither did its energy source—though I suppose there’s no avoiding that manufacturing any kind of plant and the train itself did cause emissions.
@flux @QuinceDaPence Concrete and steel (for stations, track, etc) matter. So does the electricity used to maintain stations, not just propel the train. So lifecycle emissions of a train are immensely complicated, plus then you get into how to route a new rail line without destroying too many ecosystems.
Even so, clean electricity is the easy bit compared to making planes clean. More trains please.
@flux @QuinceDaPence The other common gotcha with new train lines (e.g. HS2) is:
What if we get a modal shift from internal flights to trains? If air demand is constrained by supply (i.e. landing slots), that means there will be more long-haul flights, and overall emissions increase!
There is some truth in this. But it just means we need to drastically reduce our aviation capacity, and increase prices, at the same time as building more train lines. We could start with a frequent flyer levy.
It’s a maglev “train”. Quite different technology and hard to derail at least. But yes there have been fatal accidents with maglev trains before.
