Althouse: "After all the wind and storm, what’s going on with the high-speed train?"

July 29, 2011

"After all the wind and storm, what’s going on with the high-speed train?"

"It’s crawling slower than a snail. I hope nothing happens to it."

11 comments:

The Dude said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/29/11, 6:08 PM
Carol_Herman said...: The railroads were always about feather bedding.

I guess after AMTRAK ... The rails are on par with Greyhound buses?

You know, I'm not surprised. Who'd want one of these trains passing by in the night in their own backyards?; 7/29/11, 6:12 PM
Michael said...: Why didnt the other train simply go around the stalled speedy train?; 7/29/11, 6:23 PM
edutcher said...: The old saying, "The truth will out", is more potent than ever before, thanks to the Internet and a lot of courageous bloggers.

Including someone dear to all of us.

The people in Red China risked more, certainly, but spreading the truth here also requires courage.

Sad to say.; 7/29/11, 6:34 PM
F said...: Whaaaaa? Still?????? Kill it.; 7/29/11, 7:12 PM
SgtPete said...: I talked with a rail road engineer. He drove the trains for decays. When questioned about high speed rail he had two points. First there is a reason trains travel below 50 mph in high density populated areas. There are too many stupid people that run the gates, combined this with a train at 100 mph and yes many car occupants will just die. Because of his elevated tracks would be required, a dedicated new rail road line. This is very cost prohibited. Second, the only high speed train which shows a profit is in Japan in which the working class does not take this train, all others high speed trains are supplemented via some type of government fund, e.g., they don't show a profit.; 7/29/11, 8:15 PM
traditionalguy said...: If the Space Shuttle cost too much to do too little, then the Bullet Trains are 1000 times worse than the Space Shuttle.

No one will ride them and everyone will pay for them like Egyptian Pyramids.; 7/29/11, 9:48 PM
Skippy said...: Read the story. This event has nothing to do with Amtrak or Greyhound. It has nothing to do with feather-bedding. Or the subsidized cost of high-speed trains. It is about the Chinese government and its willingness to allow its own people to die rather than allow the truth about faulty design, errors of judgment, greed and corruption to be revealed.

If you read the whole story, the Chinese say that this high-speed train system has design flaws. Surprise, surprise, given that the Chinese businesses (owned by the government/military) cut corners and produce products that poison its own people and land. The officials immediately buried a portion of the train rather than investigate the problems; the only comment the president could offer when asked about that was that the rescue/safety of the passengers was most important. The train has been unburied. The tweet-style uprising of the people is what's forced the government to be at least a little bit transparent. Expect some executions and then, more business as usual.

One of the most telling quotes/tweets were written in the final lines of the story in which a Chinese actor tweeted poetically about the death of regular people attracting no notice, while the death of a leader being the cause for nationwide mourning and placing of many wreathes. Echoes of dialogue from Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar."

Freedom of speech and its power. That's what this story is all about.; 7/29/11, 10:00 PM
Curious George said...: Tom Friedman wants us to be China for a day. So we can do awesome things like build bullet trains without all the hassle of Democracy.

Tom Friedman is an idiot.; 7/29/11, 11:40 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: That's one of the dumbest articles I have ever read.

I was in China about two weeks ago, before the accident occurred, and there were reports on the government news station about how unreliable the high-speed train system was. Supposedly, people were choosing airplanes over the train.

Keep in mind, this was what the government WANTED people to know, so reading an article about how this is all because of censorship is ridiculous.

And you know what's even dumber? Obama, because he went to China and the only thing of theirs he thought worth copying was the high-speed rail system.

He's possibly the stupidest man alive.; 7/30/11, 4:16 AM
Widely Seen said...: Railroads, everywhere, evolved to minimize collisions because the basic rail concept does not allow much in the way of 'avoiding' or 'going around'. One concept is the block system -- the line is divided into segments such that if Train A is in a block, Train B cannot enter that block [red] or even the one before that [yellow]. No signal defaults to red.
If there is a crash -- look at the operator; if there is a crash and cover-up, look at the system and whose pals got the juicy contracts...; 7/30/11, 8:24 AM