4 ms·

We put a man on the moon, and you're telling me we can't make a train go faster than the Shanghai maglev?

by wbl 9y ago

jcranmer 9y ago
In terms of fixed railway track, 350 km/h (220 mph) does appear to be a rather hard limit. The higher you boost your top speed, the more difficult it is to build track configurations that don't make passengers puke, and that filters down to things like "being able to build high-speed switches." Maglevs have reduced physical infrastructure limitations which give them higher theoretical top speeds. The problem is that the fixed infrastructure costs are way too high to be feasible for low-volume routes, and they are completely incapable of sharing their tracks with those low-volume routes, which means you need to carve separate approaches through the very high land values of large, dense cities.
niftich 9y ago
There is not much point; the engineering and construction is extremely expensive (and more so in the US [1][2][3][4][5][6]), and there's perfectly good sunk-cost airports that let airlines operate this route at a variety of price-points today. [1] https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/6/4/this-is-why-infrastructure-is-so-expensive https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/6/4/this-is-why-inf... [2] https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-04-08/why-u-s-infrastructure-costs-so-much https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-04-08/why-u-s-i... [3] http://fortune.com/2017/01/23/us-infrastructure-renewal-building-transportation-donald-trump/ http://fortune.com/2017/01/23/us-infrastructure-renewal-buil... [4] https://www.citylab.com/life/2014/04/7-reasons-us-infrastructure-projects-cost-way-more-they-should/8799/ https://www.citylab.com/life/2014/04/7-reasons-us-infrastruc... [5] http://theweek.com/articles/449646/why-expensive-build-bridge-america http://theweek.com/articles/449646/why-expensive-build-bridg... [6] http://marroninstitute.nyu.edu/blog/is-u.s.-infrastructure-more-expensive http://marroninstitute.nyu.edu/blog/is-u.s.-infrastructure-m...
- wbl 9y ago
  Sounds like the US needs to stop sucking at this.
frankharv 9y ago
Well we have some great hucksters that tried maglev here in Norfolk and we got robbed. https://pilotonline.com/inside-business/news/municipal-government/virginia-still-owed-m-after-maglev-failure/article_6a7898b9-abf8-5b87-acbb-cc93b0fa794a.html https://pilotonline.com/inside-business/news/municipal-gover...

We put a man on the moon, and you're telling me we can't make a train go faster than the Shanghai maglev?

by wbl 9y ago

We put a man on the moon, and you're telling me we can't make a train go faster than the Shanghai maglev?

In terms of fixed railway track, 350 km/h (220 mph) does appear to be a rather hard limit. The higher you boost your top speed, the more difficult it is to build track configurations that don't make passengers puke, and that filters down to things like "being able to build high-speed switches." Maglevs have reduced physical infrastructure limitations which give them higher theoretical top speeds. The problem is that the fixed infrastructure costs are way too high to be feasible for low-volume routes, and they are completely incapable of sharing their tracks with those low-volume routes, which means you need to carve separate approaches through the very high land values of large, dense cities.

niftich 9y ago

There is not much point; the engineering and construction is extremely expensive (and more so in the US [1][2][3][4][5][6]), and there's perfectly good sunk-cost airports that let airlines operate this route at a variety of price-points today. [1] https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/6/4/this-is-why-infrastructure-is-so-expensive https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/6/4/this-is-why-inf... [2] https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-04-08/why-u-s-infrastructure-costs-so-much https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-04-08/why-u-s-i... [3] http://fortune.com/2017/01/23/us-infrastructure-renewal-building-transportation-donald-trump/ http://fortune.com/2017/01/23/us-infrastructure-renewal-buil... [4] https://www.citylab.com/life/2014/04/7-reasons-us-infrastructure-projects-cost-way-more-they-should/8799/ https://www.citylab.com/life/2014/04/7-reasons-us-infrastruc... [5] http://theweek.com/articles/449646/why-expensive-build-bridge-america http://theweek.com/articles/449646/why-expensive-build-bridg... [6] http://marroninstitute.nyu.edu/blog/is-u.s.-infrastructure-more-expensive http://marroninstitute.nyu.edu/blog/is-u.s.-infrastructure-m...

wbl 9y ago
Sounds like the US needs to stop sucking at this.

frankharv 9y ago

Well we have some great hucksters that tried maglev here in Norfolk and we got robbed. https://pilotonline.com/inside-business/news/municipal-government/virginia-still-owed-m-after-maglev-failure/article_6a7898b9-abf8-5b87-acbb-cc93b0fa794a.html https://pilotonline.com/inside-business/news/municipal-gover...