China's new high-speed train just set a new record as the world’s fastest — and it could travel faster than an airplane (www.thecooldown.com)
from yogthos@lemmy.ml to technology@lemmy.ml on 07 Aug 2023 11:24
https://lemmy.ml/post/2961869

#technology

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masterairmagic@sh.itjust.works on 07 Aug 2023 11:28 next collapse

It’s probably faster than an airplane if you also factor in the time lost at airports going through meaningless queues.

yogthos@lemmy.ml on 07 Aug 2023 11:45 next collapse

That’s the huge advantage of trains in my opinion. Instead of having to drive out to the airport, and deal with check in, boarding, and so on, you just go to the train station downtown and get off downtown of the city you want to go to. That alone saves a ton of time and hassle.

Che_Donkey@lemmy.ml on 07 Aug 2023 11:49 next collapse

Than and Bar Car!

pretty countryside with an ice cold beer in hand is amazing

Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works on 07 Aug 2023 15:19 next collapse

Trains are awesome in general. This train in particular looks freaking great!

andruid@lemmy.ml on 08 Aug 2023 01:54 collapse

Some airports are located closer to cities downtowns for this reason.

yogthos@lemmy.ml on 08 Aug 2023 10:20 collapse

That’s not very common for a good reason given that airports create a lot of noise pollution.

andruid@lemmy.ml on 09 Aug 2023 03:45 collapse

Are airports louder than train stations? Near freight trains and air port and the freight trains are much worse for me personally. Though I would hope passenger train systems are designed for less noise.

yogthos@lemmy.ml on 09 Aug 2023 10:32 collapse

Passenger trains are a lot less loud than planes taking off www.chem.purdue.edu/chemsafety/…/dblevels.htm

andruid@lemmy.ml on 10 Aug 2023 01:49 collapse

Thanks for the data, and yep that seems to be the case that passenger trains are quieter for the people living near a station vs planes taking off and circling a runway.

Honestly neither bother me too much, but I thinkings a matter of good spacing. No one’s lives 1 mile from the run way or 25 meters next to the tracks from here, which is good thing for both.

Another to add passenger trains can make simple intercity travel easier, when for planes it’s just not economical.

thejml@lemm.ee on 07 Aug 2023 13:57 next collapse

I worry that the more useful and prevalent high speed trains become, the more the population will use them… and the more likely the long useless queues will also move to trains.

Trains can have more stations to spread out the load, but then they won’t be as high speed.

Still, I’ll happily take advantage of the currently short queues.

lemann@lemmy.one on 07 Aug 2023 14:31 next collapse

I feel that could be resolved by adjusting ticket prices and providing alternative options, like regional buses/coaches. Another possibility is adding more doors to each carriage, spreading out queues across the platform, but at the cost of less seating

Where I am, the regional/inter-city train costs are very competitive with the alternatives, and sometimes enable more flexibility with travel. It’s still nowhere near the affordability of some parts of Asia though, and is overpriced IMO. My biggest gripe though has got to be only 2 doors on each carriage side, one at either end. And they’re narrow AF, good luck carrying a bike on board. What sadist designed these trains 😭

geemili@lemm.ee on 07 Aug 2023 15:05 next collapse

I think this is unlikely to happen. Going through security is one of the big sources of useless queues at airports, which trains don’t have. Trains also tend to have more doors to get, which should reduce the length of queues to get on the train.

masterairmagic@sh.itjust.works on 07 Aug 2023 15:27 collapse

In airports it’s usually the security theater that causes the long queues.

AfricanExpansionist@lemmy.ml on 07 Aug 2023 15:59 next collapse

n China, the trains are awesome and pretty much everything else sucks hard.

Chinese train stations are a fucking nightmare compared to the rest of the world. First, they have a funneled entrance from the subway that goes through multiple choke points. For example, at Shanghai Hongqiao, you’re in a mob of hundreds, forced to go up two long escalators.

Next, people there don’t have freedom of travel, so there is a security check to actually enter the station, where they look at your papers and make sure you’re approved for your destination. The queues are super long and people constantly cut in line. It’s rage-inducing.

Then they subject you to a baggage check, metal detector, and frisking.

Now you’re inside the station, but you can’t just go to the platform. Instead, you wait at a secure gate until maybe ten minutes before scheduled departure. Again, it’s a giant mob of people, trying to form a line in a station that’s also just overcrowded. They finally open the gate and everyone rushes through and down to the platform.

You have to arrive an hour ahead of your train’s departure else you’re going to have a very stressful time.

I

Smatt@lemmy.ca on 08 Aug 2023 00:27 next collapse

This guy Chinas

victron@lemm.ee on 08 Aug 2023 03:07 collapse

This guy this guys

5redie8@sh.itjust.works on 08 Aug 2023 03:22 next collapse

people there don’t have freedom of travel

What?

AfricanExpansionist@lemmy.ml on 08 Aug 2023 05:23 next collapse

What’s confusing about that?

master5o1@lemmy.nz on 08 Aug 2023 09:45 collapse
zurchpet@lemmy.ml on 08 Aug 2023 12:28 next collapse

Sounds just like taking a flight at an airport.

AfricanExpansionist@lemmy.ml on 08 Aug 2023 23:40 collapse

Also hellish

socsa@lemmy.ml on 08 Aug 2023 22:35 collapse

Oh wow, another person on Lemmy who has actually been to China.

driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br on 07 Aug 2023 18:34 collapse

meanwhile, in Canada…

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masterairmagic@sh.itjust.works on 07 Aug 2023 18:46 collapse

Canada is pathetic.

Tylerdurdon@lemm.ee on 07 Aug 2023 11:40 next collapse

I feel like it’s a lie because of how the Japanese have engineered their trains. Theirs have a huge leading “nose” structure to help them move the air in a fluid manner. I’m thinking the engineering behind that hasn’t just suddenly been out done.

yogthos@lemmy.ml on 07 Aug 2023 11:44 collapse

China’s been working on these trains for over a decade now, there’s nothing sudden about it. Also weird to think that what Japan did can’t be replicated, if you look at the picture of the actual Chinese maglev train it too has a large nose structure www.cnn.com/travel/article/…/index.html

Tylerdurdon@lemm.ee on 07 Aug 2023 11:49 collapse

Ah, then I stand corrected. They should have used a real picture of the train for the article.

DarkDarkHouse@lemmy.sdf.org on 07 Aug 2023 12:52 collapse

Looks like a picture of the Shanghai Maglev, not the Qingdao one.

Electricorchestra@lemmy.ml on 07 Aug 2023 12:32 next collapse

I wish when governments said they want to be competitive with China they did like the one thing China does that would raise our quality of life. As in make trains.

driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br on 07 Aug 2023 14:52 collapse

People: Can we have competitive with china [trains]?

Governments: we have Competitive with china at home.

Competitive with china at home: Low wages and no labor rights.

AfricanExpansionist@lemmy.ml on 07 Aug 2023 15:49 next collapse

Don’t forget surveillance and erasure of minorities!

iopq@lemmy.ml on 07 Aug 2023 17:41 collapse

China: working from 9 to 9 six days a week, with lower wages

hellishharlot@programming.dev on 08 Aug 2023 11:57 collapse

And there are some Americans working similarly because they have rent to pay

iopq@lemmy.ml on 08 Aug 2023 20:53 collapse

So you’re saying they are getting paid for overtime

kittenspronkles@lemmy.ml on 09 Aug 2023 00:49 collapse

Probably working 2 jobs without OT

iopq@lemmy.ml on 09 Aug 2023 07:26 collapse

Chinese only get one salary and still expected to work that much

maynarkh@feddit.nl on 09 Aug 2023 15:33 next collapse

I wouldn’t consider US min wage with US prices a whole salary.

iopq@lemmy.ml on 09 Aug 2023 20:50 collapse

In 2021, 1.4% of workers in the United States were paid hourly rates at or below the official minimum wage. The percentage of hourly paid workers earning the prevailing federal minimum wage or less declined from 1.9% in 2019 to 1.5% in 2020, which remains well below the percentage of 13.4 recorded in 1979. Around 44.3 percent of wage and salary workers paid hourly rates at or below the federal minimum wage were aged between 16 to 24 years.

www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/…/home.htm

hellishharlot@programming.dev on 10 Aug 2023 17:25 collapse

In the US it’s usually 2 part time jobs or 1 ft and 1 or or 1 ft and gigs. Regardless the idea isn’t that they make enough with one job and get spending money from the other. It’s basically that you need to make as much as the top 15% of earners in the US to be ok in most areas. So we work as hard as we can to survive

iopq@lemmy.ml on 11 Aug 2023 01:28 collapse

Big cities like Beijing or Shanghai in China are much worse, lower wages and rents north of $1000 and salaries of about $1350

Workers cram into one apartment just to have a place to sleep

hellishharlot@programming.dev on 11 Aug 2023 12:17 collapse

You must not have ever seen a couple of folks making min wage renting a room just to survive. America may not be quite at that disparity level but it is rapidly approaching

iopq@lemmy.ml on 29 Aug 2023 07:33 collapse

Couple of folks? There are like a dozen workers bunking in Beijing apartments because it’s just not affordable

boredtortoise@lemm.ee on 07 Aug 2023 13:01 next collapse

Nice to read a wholesome post about China once in a while

zephyrvs@lemmy.ml on 07 Aug 2023 15:48 next collapse

I remember how maglev was supposed to be the future when I was growing up but most European projects went way over budget and were eventually scrapped so I’m really happy to see that the Chinese finished this thing and that it actually works and delivers in terms of speed.

This feels so much more futuristic than boring tunnels.

pulaskiwasright@lemmy.ml on 07 Aug 2023 16:33 next collapse

Unfortunately, the west’s political systems disincentivize projects that take longer than an election cycle. Everyone needs short term wins to secure re-election and it has stopped us from doing most things that inherently take a long time to show results.

Chewy7324@discuss.tchncs.de on 08 Aug 2023 11:50 collapse

And all the NIMBY’s who definitely don’t want a train line going “here” where they live, since it would be way better “there”. And then the local politicians who listen to them.

silly_crotch@sh.itjust.works on 09 Aug 2023 07:48 next collapse

My knowledge might be outdated but my understanding is that maglev is still unreliable and frequently breaks down or has to operate at slower speeds. Not yet a completely mature technology I think… but very interesting for sure.

silly_crotch@sh.itjust.works on 09 Aug 2023 07:48 collapse

My knowledge might be outdated but my understanding is that maglev is still unreliable and frequently breaks down or has to operate at slower speeds. Not yet a completely mature technology I think… but very interesting for sure.

independantiste@sh.itjust.works on 08 Aug 2023 14:12 next collapse

I hope there are not too many tunnels or that they found a way to relieve the pressure when going through them at high speed. This is a thing I noticed in France when taking the TGV (300kmh), when going inside tunnels at a rather high speed, there is a lot of pressure, it kind of feels like a plane landing, but shorter and more intense

heird@lemmy.ml on 09 Aug 2023 07:43 collapse

Tom Scott just did a video recently of the Japanese Maglev in which it goes to 500km/h so 310mph meaning it was faster than this Chinese test…

lmaozedong@hexbear.net on 09 Aug 2023 07:55 collapse

I think this article just has its numbers wrong. 281mph is barely faster than what they’re already running commercially.

This article says they’ve tested as fast as 621km/h.