China

LivelineDipso

incredible.

http://whowhatwhy.com/2012/11/18/china-really-is-on-the-faster-track/

Lapin

How's the line to Navan getting on ? :pac:

Dravokivich

Wonder how many in China can afford it.

corktina

china is going to be the leading nation in the world very shortly, if it isnt already

Supercell

The Guangzhou to Changsha line is exactly the same. The high speed stations have to be seen to be comprehended, the scale is almost hard for the mind to take in. There are literally 10's of thousands of people thronging in the station at any one time, its truly mind blowing (for a laowai from Ireland) to take in first time!
Riding the trains is a really nice experience, super smooth and the landscape seems to be on fast forward all the time, an amazing experience . Was on the Tianjin to Beijing line too before and is similar.

noelfirl

corktina wrote: »

china is going to be the leading nation in the world very shortly, if it isnt already

There can be a danger with getting there a bit too fast, in many senses of the word...*



*albeit that was caused by faulty signalling, apparently.

LivelineDipso

noelfirl wrote: »

There can be a danger with getting there a bit too fast, in many senses of the word...*



*albeit that was caused by faulty signalling, apparently.

They will probably shhot the manager responsible for this. If this was Irish Rail they would give him a promotion.

Cookie_Monster

read about how wonderful the track bed is and how it's just going to fall apart over the next ten years because they use cheap, unsuitable material. doesn't look quite so good anymore...

They also cited concerns about people and dangerous materials being too close to the tracks, increasing the risk of casualties.” In addition to that, “train line construction requires the use of high-quality fly ash in the concrete. Chinese media reported allegations that some contractors might have used lower-quality ash that had been mixed with other substances.” There have been reports that concrete bases for the tracks used cheap, faulty chemical hardening agents, which don’t allow trains to maintain their current high speeds.

http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?itemid=1848&catid=13&subcatid=86

all the powerstations in China only produce something like 10% of the requirement for high quality ash, I wonder where the rest magically comes from ??

CIE

corktina wrote: »

china is going to be the leading nation in the world very shortly, if it isnt already

No it won't. They have a massive property bubble that is straining to pop. Stop listening to EU propaganda.

rainbowdash

corktina wrote: »

china is going to be the leading nation in the world very shortly, if it isnt already

Depends on your definition of leading nation.

A nation where people abandon baby girls to orphanages because they want 1 child and they want it to be a son?

A nation that executes prisoners and then sells their organs to people who can afford to buy to buy them?

A nation that bulldozed thousands of villages and towns to build these new roads and railways.

Cookie_Monster

rainbowdash wrote: »

Depends on your definition of leading nation.

so they have bad points, like every other nation. the US is no bastion of decency. They still have massive poverty, rampage around the world and have the largest debt of any nation.

China/ India will be world leading super powers in the next half century, nothing short of global nuclear war will stop that, not even their internal social problems.

Franticfrank

No it won't. They have a massive property bubble that is straining to pop. Stop listening to EU propaganda.

That's something people really should be worried about. Even looking at the state of the Chinese property market right now, they're not slowing down. There are even forecasts for big increases in sales of construction equipment. And in terms of the infrastructure that has already been created, there have been cases of bridges collapsing and people getting killed. In terms of the train crash, this is an inevitable possibility when it comes to something as complex as high-speed rail. The Germans had their own devastating ICE crash. Still, if the property bubble bursts and the quality of existing projects doesn't measure up, it will prove disastrous for China.

dowlingm

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

so they have bad points, like every other nation. the US is no bastion of decency.

where did Rainbowdash say anything about the US?

Cookie_Monster

dowlingm wrote: »

where did Rainbowdash say anything about the US?

I guess it was implied, most people seem to throw them out as world leaders

CIE

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

I guess it was implied, most people seem to throw them out as world leaders

Never assume, et cetera.

As for "rampag(ing) around the world", getting ones ears out of EU propaganda would help to put things in perspective. The last entities you would want to act as world policeman are Red China and the European Union.

As for Red China's high speed rail, never forget Wenzhou. Because the CPC already has forgotten.

bmaxi

rainbowdash wrote: »

Depends on your definition of leading nation.

A nation where people abandon baby girls to orphanages because they want 1 child and they want it to be a son?

A nation that executes prisoners and then sells their organs to people who can afford to buy to buy them?

A nation that bulldozed thousands of villages and towns to build these new roads and railways.

Looks like you've stumbled on some of the proposals for our next Budget.

galwaybabe

I went on one of these trains earlier this year. Unreal! I went from Shanghai to Hangzaou which is 350 km. The journey took 45 mins and cost €8 return. Contrary to what the article in the OP says about the Shanghai to Bejing train, this one was full of people as a lot of people now commute to Shanghai from Hangzaou.

Cookie_Monster

The train averaged 466kph???
Lol, sure

galwaybabe

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

The train averaged 466kph???
Lol, sure

My apologies. It looks like its more like 170 km. I remember seeing a speedometer display saying it was doing c330km per hour at one point in the journey. Didn't feel like it at all, super smooth train

Run_to_da_hills

World's longest high-speed rail line opens in China.

"China claimed to have smashed another record on Wednesday, launching the world's longest high-speed rail link between Beijing and Guangzhou".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9766150/Worlds-longest-high-speed-rail-line-opens-in-China.html

Sponge Bob

Most of the line was open, they finished it off recently by filling a missing link.

Since the corruption scandal resulting in the removal of the head of the railways some time back no new lines have been commissioned and the network will be largely complete by 2014.

Then again, most countries have not eve started building high speed rail networks and if they have no major crashes in the next 2-3 years the Chinese will restart construction to a limited extent.

I think the plans were 13,000 km by 2012 and 50,000 km by 2020. They will manage the 13,000km target more or less bang on but the 2020 target will not be met for a long time.

I cant remember whether the trains on the new line are a knock off of a Bombardier or a Siemns Velaro or a Japanese Shinkansen, it looks like a knockoff of the Japanese train to me.

etchyed

Sponge Bob wrote: »

I cant remember whether the trains on the new line are a knock off of a Bombardier or a Siemns Velaro or a Japanese Shinkansen, it looks like a knockoff of the Japanese train to me.

They're not knockoffs. We're not talking dodgy Chinese handbags here. Chinese rolling stock is manufactured under licence.