They opened their first dedicated high speed rail line in 2008
Meanwhile the USA's infrastructure is crumbling.
But "Lol communist China breadlines lololol" right?
Tom Friedman wrote a piece years ago, that was actually good. It compared China and the US from 2001-2008. They spent about $1 trillion on infrastructure in anticipation for their olympics, while we spent that amount invading Iraq. And here we are now. And this is why I get into arguments with liberals about who was worse, Bush or Trump. They're both extremely bad, but I think Bush might have done more lasting damage. He did have two terms, so lets say its debatable.
They spent about $1 trillion on infrastructure in anticipation for their olympics, while we spent that amount invading Iraq.
Yea but look at what got out of it! I guess I remember when it crossed the $1 trillion mark and stopped keeping track. $1 trillion is enough to make my point. What the fuck were we doing?
Also of note is that China is the poorest country with high speed rail at all.
Japan also has over double the population density though so they get more bang for their buck.
Is it true that a woman cannot handle the speed of a train because it will go so fast her uterus will fall out?
Is it actually affordable? Nobody I know actually uses the AVE trains in Spain because they're so damn expensive.
I'm pulling this from memory, I have the ticket at home so I can double check later. But I think it was 119 yuan which is about 17 USD. The train was completely full from what I could tell and it was in the middle of the week at noon or so, so it seems like it's affordable.
yeah I only took the AVE like 2 times because it was the only option available. it's stupid, but half the time you're better off flying because the regular trains or buses are too slow (and honestly not that cheap) and the AVE is way too expensive...
It was amazingly smooth and quiet. I slept through some of it because I was still very jet lagged. The weirdest part was there was assigned seats, which I'd never encountered on any public transit. That's how I knew the train was full, I had to walk through like 5 train cars hauling all my bags lol.
I rode high speed rail from Guangzhou to Guilin once and it was the best train journey of my life. Those things go so fast I couldn't believe it. It's specially fun because the displays have a speedometer so you can see how fast the zoom zoom train is going in real time.
Sorry, we just don't have money for rail. This is just a free market decision. Our hands are tied.
200 km/h is not high speed rail, get me an updated version that removes all 200km /h only lines. Also don't bullshit me with "are capable of running", actual high speed rail in operation only.
The Tokaido Shinkansen started running at 210 km/h in 1964. While 200 km/h is kinda lame, I would respectfully disagree.
That was 1964, if this was a diagram from 1964 fine, but this is 2020 200km/h isn't high speed rail today, also 210km/h > 200km/h.
My problem with this diagram is western countries that want their rail lines that are "technically" built for up to 200km/h operation but only ever run trains at 140km/h or lower categorised as high speed rail.
It's the old liberal trick of re-categorising what something is by ignoring modern technology. Another good example of this is broadband speed in the US, where ISDN lines were for a long time classified as high speed broadband to make the FTC look like it was doing a good job.
To be fair here a lot of Chinese high speed rail is also 200kph
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/86/Rail_map_of_China_%28high_speed_highlighted%29_WP.svg
It's also a boon to China to include it.
LMAO how has the US less high speed rail than Italy even though it's almost 33 times the size?
Because rail monopolies want it all to be freight, and car companies don't want it either.
But how will existing capital interests in the fossil fuel and automobile industries survive if we have cheap, affordable, and clean transportation?
Whenever hyperloop was being discussed, the vulnerability of the system to catastrophic sabotage or terrorism was always mentioned.
Considering the history of the hegemon's (and allies) willingness to weaponize islamic extremism to further it's geopolitical goals, maybe the actions of the Chinese government become more understandable.
Go on.
The Uyghurs would absolutely have been weaponized by the west to slow or stop China's development, in any way possible, the same as has been done in similar situations in the past.
It's also the exact playbook they did for Yugoslavia
Having financed the Muhjadeen and opium production in the 80s in Afghanistan against the Soviets....rolling into the 90s the Muhjadeen then went in their thousands to Kosovo
The US then removed the KLA from their terrorist list (at the time they were a small outfit having achieved very little) then the US started funding them to break Kosovo away from Yugoslavia
And just like Afghanistan jihadis turned Kosovo into a heroin state
https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/KLA-Linked-To-Enormous-Heroin-Trade-Police-2932516.php
Peter Dale Scott - The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America
Christ, I'm so information poisoned. Am aware of all those points but wasn't able to recall them for this conversation. Overload.
Not only does that sure read like a blanket justification for suppression of a religious minority (not that i care about the argument over whether this is actually what the Chinese government is engaged in), it doesn't really support that point because, like, every country has infrastructure. Terrorism is regarded by most states as bad. China's flourishing rail system doesn't somehow explain a special fear of terrorism.
The fear of terrorism comes from constant large terror attacks in and from group in the province. It was a huge issue and many in the region feared constantly. Pretending it is not real is unhelpful. These people needed help and continue. This issue has material causes and do not happen randomly without reason.
> every country has infrastructure......China’s flourishing rail system doesn’t somehow explain a special fear of terrorism.
The point, imo, is that high speed rail is particularly vulnerable to catastrophic sabotage.
The paralysis of that system, on a massive country that came to depend on it as an alternative to air travel, would be catastrophic too.
Considering the history, and the present day actions of the hegemonic powers to weaponize islamic extremism, the actions of the Chinese become much more defensible imo.
I ride the Huning high speed railway to Shanghai often. It is very nice.
I used to have a car before returning to China. I could not go back. Transit is liberating.
2008 was 12 years ago. That means if we started today, it wouldn't be done before the next election. So... yeah, that ain't happening.
To be fair, the chart should lump all of the EU into one bar, so its a more fair comparison based on size. And do it per capita too to really make Europe look good.
Nice. Would be interesting to see km high speed rail per capita, per km2 land, and in relation to the gdp per capita compared.
I know how to spin this to Americans...cough... "Mr. President, we cannot afford a high speed rail gap!"
