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.
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.