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Once I had dinner with an international bunch of railway engineers in Munich, when a colleague (a local) who has been to China on business talked about what he saw and how he realised that everything is on a different scale from what is possible in Europe. When I tried to suggest that, especially in Germany, there are institutional and financial hurdles to efficient project execution, my arguments fell on deaf ears. Even a Dutch guy and an Austrian guy (who should know better as Austria has a much better system) brought up irrelevant excuses for the sluggishness of projects like the third track from the Ruhr Area to the Dutch border. Received wisdom is a terrible thing.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Sat Sep 12th, 2015 at 06:58:44 PM EST
In July, the newly merged single Chinese manufacturer CRRC presented two prototypes for the next generation of high-speed trains, for now both designated CRH350:

The one in the foreground is the latest stage of development that started with the imported Siemens Velaros, the other is a grand-grand-grandchild of the Shinkansen Series E2. The professed aim of the development was to standardise technology around components with 100% domestically-owned intellectual property rights.

"350" represents the intended service top speed. When compared to that of earlier models, the number is symbolic of the post-Wenzhou-accident change in mindset, from boosterism to safety and efficiency. The current generation of trains, developed just prior to the Wenzhou accident, are designated CRH380, but were limited to 350 km/h in their short service life prior to the accident and 300 km/h ever since. In addition, there have been two earlier prototypes originally designated CIT500, and originally intended to break the world rail speed record, but these have been sidetracked and even re-designated (as CRH380AM).

Back in 2012, when I asked a Chinese representative what will become of the CIT500 prototypes, he explained that the new leadership focuses on economics, and a major design change of the CIT500 for higher speed – reduced cross-section – reduced seating capacity, thus those prototypes are viewed as a dead end to be used as technology testbeds at most, burying the record speed prestige ambitions.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Tue Sep 15th, 2015 at 08:35:19 AM EST
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Given the high traffic densities that seem to characterise the Chinese HS network, I don't see how you could run a mix of 350 km/h and 500 km/h trains anyway...

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II
by eurogreen on Fri Sep 25th, 2015 at 12:25:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I corrected the map in two regions, and the corrections fit into a pattern: "true" 300–350 km/h high-speed railways built alongside existing 200–250 km/h railways which have already become saturated.
But what's even more interesting is the much bigger project to double the entire Yangtze River corridor (where the Nanjing–Wuhan section of the existing semi-high-speed line is saturated, too). Only the launch of a feasibility study was announced just two days after my diary, so there is no route yet for most sections and I'm not putting it on my map yet.



*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Thu Sep 24th, 2015 at 11:07:56 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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