Work to do, cricket to watch, no time to blog. But here’s a quick train story that will probably make Feòrag happy and Kevin disgruntled.
2 thoughts on “Busy, Busy”
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Cheryl's Mewsings
Feline thoughts about anything from food to reading to rugby
Odd. I read last week that that project had been cancelled. Ah well, something to look forward to (eventually).
Actually, that particular service might be one of the few places in the world where it’s justified — just as long as it’s an overlay on the existing network, and not being touted as a replacement for the existing Shinkansen conventional rail service. Maglev is so fast — if it works — that it’s not worth doing for short distances. So, for instance, a super-express that makes no stops at all between (say) Tokyo and Osaka might be justified, but maglev trains that makes lots of stops or run over a trivially short distance like that one in Shanghai are a waste. In effect, it might produce a level of high-speed service higher than the current fastest services (the “Nozomi” Shinkansen super-expresses).
The article talks of this being a “successor” to the Shinkansen, as if implementation of this service would lead to the existing tracks being torn up. That’s what Americans would probably do, we being complete idiots when it comes to building transportation systems. Fortunately, the Japanese are smarter than that. They didn’t tear up their existing rail network when they built the Shinkansens (which use a different rail gauge than the “classic” lines), and therefore I assume they would leave the existing system in place if they built yet a third system.
There might be a few other places where there is just the right combination of cities at the right spacing where this sort of system is justified, but not many. Besides, conventional high-speed rail already works in large-scale application and isn’t that much slower than maglev.