Does every stop cost 48 minutes? I don't have the answer but simply saying it's the number of stops without evidence is not factual.
Re:Germany's New Crowdfunded Train
by mschuster91 on Saturday December 17, 2016 @04:32PM
(#13202771)
At least a stop at a major hub will take that time. Basically, you don't only have the time spent stopped at the station, but you also have long period of acceleration and deceleration - an ICE3 takes 3km to stop from full speed in normal conditions according to a quick google search. Also, trains usually have to move extremely slow (40 km/h) in the surrounding area of a station... and the larger the station, the more switches.
You sure about that?
The non-stop train takes 4 hours from beijing to shanghai. now they stop once and it takes 4hr48 (reduced max speed from 330 to 300km/h). At the same distance, DB stops roughly 14 or 15 times. if a stop costs you 10 minutes, you save an additional 2 1/2 hours just by not stopping.
Took the info from wikipedia [1].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing%E2%80%93Shanghai_High-...