Irrelevant considering pricing, frequency and connectivity of minor cities. Going fast is ok. Going often and cheaply while doing an average of 100kmh would be amazing.
Politicians love the shit that is completely useless but flashy, like a train doing 400kph
Nobody gives a shit about that, we want free trains to everywhere, even if its sorta slow, but that’s very boring politically
That’s the problem with politics:
People need boring politicians doing boring improvements to society but everyone keeps voting for these vapid but flashy idiots that constantly ruin everything.
In many ways they literally are exclusive. The amount of stops drastically reduces possible frequency as well as speed of service, it takes a long time and really long distance to accelerate and brake at these ~300 kph speeds.
Local rail can service high density areas as well as smaller towns, so you want tracks closer to people. High speed rail usually only connects major stations, so most of the length of tracks could go through the middle of a field.
Two different use cases for rail transport which would ideally each get their own infrastructure, and of course there’s plenty of options in between, too.
I once went from Tokyo to Osaka, with very few stops in between and the train topped out at 500kph. The only minor annoyance being that my camera wasn’t fast enough to capture Mt Fuji at that speed.
It would be awesome to have that same experience between, say, London-Paris-Berlin-Warsaw, and you could consider additional stops in Luxembourg, Frankfurt, and Poznan.
Tokyo to Osaka services don’t go upto 500 kph. IIRC, the maximum operating speed for that section is 320 kph. Whilst in testing, Maglev trains have breached 500 ( and even 600 kph) barrier, commercially they don’t run as of now. (I don’t think apart from Shanghai, Maglev runs anywhere and even that topped off at 431 kph).
Traditional bullet trains in Japan exhibited record speeds of ~450 kph in the past but of course, operationally, they aren’t run that high.
What you say is corroborated everywhere on the internet. But I have real trouble trying to square this information with my recollection. Hrmph. :/ Thanks for the correction though.
I recently learned that there is only 66 kilometers of maglev tracks in use. Everyone is up in arms about maglev maglev, when we have classic bullet trains going well fast enough IMO.
I guess there is a reason why the french don’t run their trains over some 360km/h even if they can. The cost is probably not worth shaving off 10 minutes of your 2h journey.
Irrelevant considering pricing, frequency and connectivity of minor cities. Going fast is ok. Going often and cheaply while doing an average of 100kmh would be amazing.
I don’t think that these goals are mutually exclusive.
Unfortunately for politicians they will be
Politicians love the shit that is completely useless but flashy, like a train doing 400kph
Nobody gives a shit about that, we want free trains to everywhere, even if its sorta slow, but that’s very boring politically
That’s the problem with politics:
People need boring politicians doing boring improvements to society but everyone keeps voting for these vapid but flashy idiots that constantly ruin everything.
I want boring politics
Funding is finite and so is labor and materials.
In many ways they literally are exclusive. The amount of stops drastically reduces possible frequency as well as speed of service, it takes a long time and really long distance to accelerate and brake at these ~300 kph speeds.
Local rail can service high density areas as well as smaller towns, so you want tracks closer to people. High speed rail usually only connects major stations, so most of the length of tracks could go through the middle of a field.
Two different use cases for rail transport which would ideally each get their own infrastructure, and of course there’s plenty of options in between, too.
I once went from Tokyo to Osaka, with very few stops in between and the train topped out at 500kph. The only minor annoyance being that my camera wasn’t fast enough to capture Mt Fuji at that speed.
It would be awesome to have that same experience between, say, London-Paris-Berlin-Warsaw, and you could consider additional stops in Luxembourg, Frankfurt, and Poznan.
Tokyo to Osaka services don’t go upto 500 kph. IIRC, the maximum operating speed for that section is 320 kph. Whilst in testing, Maglev trains have breached 500 ( and even 600 kph) barrier, commercially they don’t run as of now. (I don’t think apart from Shanghai, Maglev runs anywhere and even that topped off at 431 kph).
Traditional bullet trains in Japan exhibited record speeds of ~450 kph in the past but of course, operationally, they aren’t run that high.
What you say is corroborated everywhere on the internet. But I have real trouble trying to square this information with my recollection. Hrmph. :/ Thanks for the correction though.
I recently learned that there is only 66 kilometers of maglev tracks in use. Everyone is up in arms about maglev maglev, when we have classic bullet trains going well fast enough IMO.
I guess there is a reason why the french don’t run their trains over some 360km/h even if they can. The cost is probably not worth shaving off 10 minutes of your 2h journey.