Official media reports suggest Chinese leader appears to be taking bullet trains more often when he goes on tour, with sources and observers saying railway offers security and flexibility, and more opportunity to see what’s happening on the ground.

Unparalleled, nation-wide coverage has virtually turned China’s high-speed rail network into a giant version of a city’s metro grid.

These trains run at 300-350 km/h, while being both a lot cheaper and more convenient than flying.

When the next generation of 600-km/h maglev trains come fully into service, there’s going to be no point in flying at all.

  • DankZedong @lemmygrad.ml
    19·
    10 months ago

    I took a holiday through Europe by train, some of it being a high-speed train. Europe not investing in a high speed railway system is insane to me. I had no problem going from Basque Country to Copenhagen on a normal train. A high speed rail would have been even more easy.

    If I want to go to London from Antwerp I can either get on the Eurostar which can cost hundreds of euro’s or I can fly from Antwerp Airport for probably cheaper, and there’s only a two hour difference in travel time. Yet, there are no initiatives to make the train cheaper. Insanity.

    • loathesome dongeater@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
      7·
      10 months ago

      How does a train go from Europe to England? Asking since the latter is an island. (I think?)

      Europe seems like the prime candidate for extensive high speed networks but they probably don’t pursue it because of neoliberalism or the specifics of the economic relationships between various countries where some are much better off economically than others.

      • DankZedong @lemmygrad.ml
        14·
        10 months ago

        There are tunnels going underneath the water between mainland Europe and England. The Channel Tunnel for railway is 50km long which by train takes up to maybe 15 minutes I think.

      • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
        5·
        10 months ago

        England is not an island. It’s a myth. The rest of Europe just didn’t want to be associated with it, so they all pretend that continental Europeans can’t just walk over. England goes along with it because it’s racist. There was an old English king who was fed up with wars with France, who started the myth to see if it stopped his french cousins from claiming the crown. This is also why there’s a big white stripe down the middle of the French tricolour: it represents the white cliffs of Dover Calais but most people have forgotten. The channel is essentially a big puddle but only around the edges. All those ships are flat at the bottom with wheels on them. That’s why the French call it the sleeve; it’s deep enough in places that an average sized adult might get their sleeves wet if they did try to walk across some parts. The story was so successful that the Spanish launched an armada not knowing that their ships with round bottoms would flounder as they got close to England and they all hit the rocks under the water and so never made it.