China streaked ahead of its western and Asian rivals at the weekend by unveiling the world's fastest long-distance passenger train service.The Harmony express raced 1,100km in less than three hours on Saturday, travelling from Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdong province, to the central city of Wuhan. The journey previously took at least 11 hours. The improvement illustrates how China's huge investment in infrastructure is dramatically shrinking the country, yet the economics of the new service, which runs 56 times a day, remain unproven amid a build-it-and-they-will-come approach to transport. "Expressways are not suited for China, which has large numbers of people but little space to spare. China should learn from Japan and Europe." The Harmony express, which reached a top speed of 394km per hour in pre-launch trials, travelled at an average rate of 350km per hour on its debut. This compared with a maximum service speed of 300km per hour for Japan's Shinkansen bullet trains and France's TGV service. In America, Amtrak's Acela "Express" service takes 3½ hours to trundle between Boston and New York, a distance of only 300km.
China streaked ahead of its western and Asian rivals at the weekend by unveiling the world's fastest long-distance passenger train service.
The Harmony express raced 1,100km in less than three hours on Saturday, travelling from Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdong province, to the central city of Wuhan. The journey previously took at least 11 hours.
The improvement illustrates how China's huge investment in infrastructure is dramatically shrinking the country, yet the economics of the new service, which runs 56 times a day, remain unproven amid a build-it-and-they-will-come approach to transport.
"Expressways are not suited for China, which has large numbers of people but little space to spare. China should learn from Japan and Europe."
The Harmony express, which reached a top speed of 394km per hour in pre-launch trials, travelled at an average rate of 350km per hour on its debut. This compared with a maximum service speed of 300km per hour for Japan's Shinkansen bullet trains and France's TGV service. In America, Amtrak's Acela "Express" service takes 3½ hours to trundle between Boston and New York, a distance of only 300km.
See DoDo's diary China wants 380 km/h trains from September 2008. La Chine dorme. Laisse la dormir. Quand la Chine s'éveillera, le monde tremblera.
FT HAD to add anti-rail marketista nonsense...
travelled at an average rate of 350km per hour on its debut
The Chinese spokesperson, or his translator, spoke nonsense, too: mixed up average speedand maximum speed on the fly, especially when comparing with high-speed services in other countries. Still, that doesn't change that the line is top in two categories:
Now that marco linked to that diary of mine, I note that in the meantime, China did order trains meant for 380 km/h operation in regular service. The choice is 'interesting' again. As I wrote in Globalisation catches up with rail industry?, number one rail manufacturer Bombardier was a laggard on the high-speed market, because no serious railway wanted to buy a top-speed version of its Zefiro platform until it existed only on the drawing board. But now China did just that, ordering 80 trains in one go. (The only Zefiro so far is a 250 km/h night train -- for China.) *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
