Not to be left behind, the west invests in an even faster next-gen train codenamed “snowpiercer.”
Taller, more aggressively-styled SUVs with poorer visibility is the best we can do
I swear to god, if the west can’t get their shit together real fast I’m going to have to start learning some mandarin
Or go to France…
Or go to Spain or Germany, or Italy. They all have high speed trains (300-320 km/h commercial). , Spain has the largest high-speed network in Europe.
Lots of good cinema and books in Mandarin. And you don’t need to dig through all the AI Slop filling up the English language outlets.
AI writes in all languages. Also mandarin.
It’s a good bet regardless
“Always bet on bullshit.” -Wesley Snipes, probably
The US is set to unveil their high speed competitor soon with a train called the “American Superior.” It is stated to have a top speed of 80km/h and will launch on a single 10km track by the year 2083.
At a cost of 185 billion dollars. CEO is paid 109 million annually, and there’s a board of 126 directors
As someone who frequently uses Japan’s bullet trains, that max speed is cool, but also of limited value since trains tend to stop in places. There are some areas, moreso in china that Japan, where that might make sense, but even if your train doesn’t stop at all stations, you’re still behind the ones that do until a track split to allow passing.
Isn’t the record 600km/h?
Yes,
If it has an operating speed of 450km/h this would be impressive.
But just reaching this speed is far from a world record, the French TGV record from 1990 is 513km/h, it reached 574.8km/h in 2007 which is the current world record.
And they thunder around at 300-360km/h all day every day.
Wind resistance is a problem at speed which is why production trains rarely go faster. Airplanes at altitude see much less win resistance. (hyperloop would also be good but will never be reasonable to build even if the engineering challenges are overcome)
Japanese bullet trains had to get a redesign due to something akin to sonic booms when leaving tunnels that annoyed the hell out of residents several times an hour.
Noise is another issue of course but energy is what will kill faster trains for forever
I love driving, so much freedom🤡
603 for maglevs, 574.8 for steel rail, set in France in 2007 by a hotted up, modified TGV.
China holds the record for a stock train at 487, set in 2010.
(all per Wikipedia)
