China unveils 'world's fastest train link'

[dtotire]

China unveils 'world's fastest train link'
Dec 26 01:53 AM US/Eastern



China on Saturday unveiled what it billed as the fastest rail link in the world -- a train connecting the modern cities of Guangzhou and Wuhan at an average speed of 350 kilometres (217 miles) an hour.

The super-high-speed train reduces the 1,069 kilometre journey to a three hour ride and cuts the previous journey time by more than seven and a half hours, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Work on the project began in 2005 as part of plans to expand a high-speed network aimed at eventually linking Guangzhou, a business hub in southern China near Hong Kong, with the capital Beijing, Xinhua added.

"The train can go 394.2 kilometres per hour, it's the fastest train in operation in the world," Zhang Shuguang, head of the transport bureau at the railways ministry, told Xinhua.

Test runs for the service began earlier in December and the link officially went into service when the first scheduled train left the eastern metropolis of Wuhan on Saturday.

By comparison, the average for high-speed trains in Japan was 243 kilometres per hour while in France it was 277 kilometres per hour, said Xu Fangliang, general engineer in charge of designing the link, according to Xinhua.



http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.8349a994b8c3f1843499859080974ba9.341&show_article=1

[Double T]

1. The US has talked about train systems like this for years.

We are falling behind in technology and infrastructure compared to many other nations in the world; our leadership across the board is failing.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. But the US is too big, it's not like Europe or Japan...it's impossible!

China- 9M square kilometers.

U.S.- 9.8M square kilometers.



Oh, never mind.

[Double T]

3. WHAAAT in the hell are YOU talking about?

The US is TOO BIG to fail? Look around...

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. The most common excuse for the US not having high speed rail is it's size.

Europe and Japan have HS rail because they are smaller land masses...or so the excuse goes.


I was pointing out that the US and China are virtually identical in land mass yet China has HS rail and the US doesn't.

[Double T]

5. Excuses. I got it.

Excuses are all we get from our government and corporate 'leaders'.

[izquierdista]

6. Not gonna get me on it

With Chinese quality control, it will be lucky to average 35 kph. Even if you do get from point A to point B without derailing, you'll probably get poisoned from the melamine in the food.