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A comment on China and Japan race to dominate the future of high-speed rail – The Japan Times. Parent comment

Re:China and Japan race to dominate the future of high-speed... by m_mueller on Monday January 18, 2021 @02:40AM (#25819244)
Tokyo-Osaka is definitely a prime example where it makes a lot of sense. In an close-to-ideal system (like Japan) you could reach major cities 1200km apart (by rail) in 4h, 300kph average. For longer distances than that, the plane becomes indeed more reasonable. That means in US terms, you could do NYC - Chicago in roughly half a day by train, arriving relaxed and being able to work all the way through. If you've never taken a Shinkansen - please try it when you go to Japan. I've never experienced a smoother, more relaxing and more comfortable train than this.
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Re:China and Japan race to dominate the future of high-speed... by presentation on Monday January 18, 2021 @06:36AM (#25820706)
The Chinese ones also feel similar, like they carbon copied the experience, and are (probably artificially) super cheap, so if you visit China sometime I’d recommend their high speed rail too! (The Shanghai airport maglev is impressive as well, though it doesn’t go to a particularly convenient location unfortunately as of when I last was there lol) I’ve taken pretty long high speed rides there, like Shenzhen to Shanghai and Xi’an to Beijing. Smooth experience and makes you wonder why the US is still not doing it...
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Re:China and Japan race to dominate the future of high-speed... by presentation on Monday January 18, 2021 @07:48PM (#25828648)
Actually EDIT: the experience on the trains is similar, though the experience at the stations aren’t as good - they made them more like airports in China so there’s security checks, and boarding time at gates, so it’s somewhat less convenient; also the stations in Japan are part of the actual city while the stations in China are their own huge plazas disconnected from the actual city so the seamless transition from being in the city to getting on the train in Shinkansen is lost on Chinese rail. Nonetheless, an enjoyable system
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Re:China and Japan race to dominate the future of high-speed... by lazylizard on Monday January 18, 2021 @07:34AM (#25821149)
because the us doesnt have a whole bunch of 5m+ pop cities within 2hours of each other...
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Re:China and Japan race to dominate the future of high-speed... by m_mueller on Monday January 18, 2021 @12:08PM (#25823864)
there are a bunch within 4 hours however, counting by metro population. Boston - NYC - Philadelpha - DC is the most obvious candidate for a dedicated 300-350kph HSR, that investment should be a no-brainer. Further candidates: Chicago - Cleveland - Pittsburgh - Philadelphia, SF - San Jose - Bakersfield (for connectivity) - LA - San Diego, Dallas - Houston.
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Re:China and Japan race to dominate the future of high-speed... by SECProto on Monday January 18, 2021 @12:30PM (#25824163)
And if you look internationally, the Detroit-Windsor-Toronto-Montreal-Quebec City corridor is in a line with a number of intermediate cities
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Re:China and Japan race to dominate the future of high-speed... by deepnotderp on Monday January 18, 2021 @02:14PM (#25825371)
Because nearly every hsr route in the world loses money (eg CRC is 770 billion in debt) and the U.S. lacks enough high density city pairs. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_busiest_passenger_air_...)
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Re:China and Japan race to dominate the future of high-speed... by presentation on Monday January 18, 2021 @07:43PM (#25828608)
Point of public transit isn’t to make money by fares, it’s to generate value at the destinations. I find it silly how people complain that American rail in general loses money, without addressing the fact that American rail systems make horrible use of the real estate of their stations - in most of Asia there’s huge mixed apartment, office, retail complexes on every station owned by the rail companies - and guess what it’s good for business when you build a human funnel into real estate you control, see how profitable JR/HK MTR are.
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Re:China and Japan race to dominate the future of high-speed... by deepnotderp on Thursday January 21, 2021 @12:17AM (#25855718)
Even the Shinkansen lines had a lot of their debt forgiven when they transitioned from public to private assets
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Re:China and Japan race to dominate the future of high-speed... by SECProto on Monday January 18, 2021 @09:38PM (#25829359)
Lots of highways and airports and bus lines lose money/exist only because of government support. Being profitable as a sole concern doesn't account for any of the benefits from transportation options existing.
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