4 ms·

For reference, Boeing 747 average speed is 909 km/h (565 mph) with a top speed 986 km/h (613 mph). However maglev train saves time on landing and coordination m

For reference, Boeing 747 average speed is 909 km/h (565 mph) with a top speed 986 km/h (613 mph). However maglev train saves time on landing and coordination makes it faster compare to air travel.

gregoriol 5y ago
Not sure it has a huge advantage if you take into account the infrastructure: the track is very difficult to build, you need land, you need to take into account every hill or mountain, build bridges and tunnels while a plane can go anywhere without any additional stuff. Also, a new station at the center of a major city requires a tremendous amount of investment and work, and some new stations may end up outside or far from the center so you'll need time to get to the place you go anyway.
- rsynnott 5y ago
  I would assume that ~all significant cities in China already have a train station or two...
  - gregoriol 5y ago
    With existing stations, you'll still need new tracks, and likely larger stations anyway as traffic will go up with new lines. Such projects are likely easier in China where the government has very effective power, not that easy to build in city centers in many other countries.
- BurningFrog 5y ago
  Yeah, high speed rail uses up huge amounts of land. I think acquiring all that land and getting it through environmental review is pretty much impossible in the US.
jbay808 5y ago
And frequency/throughput. At peak hours, the Shinkansen can depart about every two minutes(!). I would regularly step into the train station five minutes before my departure. Or just buy a ticket at the station when I get there, with no reservation, since I know the trains come so often I won't have to wait long. How long do you have to wait if you miss your flight? How certain are you of an on-time arrival? How early do you arrive at the airport, to make sure you'll catch your plane?
- bluGill 5y ago
  At one time (before 9/11) you could walk into the airport in Minneapolis and be in the air to Chicago in 20 minutes (airplanes left every 15 minutes), buy your ticket at the gate. Of course this is a busy route and the airline decided it was worth running empty seats to ensure it could happen. There is no technical reason airplanes couldn't do this for any city pair. There are reasons that airplanes don't operate this way, but they are not because it is technically impossible. Politically you can't get rid of the security theater, and yield management probably is the most profitable way to run airplanes, but both could change if we wanted to.

For reference, Boeing 747 average speed is 909 km/h (565 mph) with a top speed 986 km/h (613 mph). However maglev train saves time on landing and coordination makes it faster compare to air travel.

gregoriol 5y ago

Not sure it has a huge advantage if you take into account the infrastructure: the track is very difficult to build, you need land, you need to take into account every hill or mountain, build bridges and tunnels while a plane can go anywhere without any additional stuff. Also, a new station at the center of a major city requires a tremendous amount of investment and work, and some new stations may end up outside or far from the center so you'll need time to get to the place you go anyway.

rsynnott 5y ago
I would assume that ~all significant cities in China already have a train station or two...
- gregoriol 5y ago
  With existing stations, you'll still need new tracks, and likely larger stations anyway as traffic will go up with new lines. Such projects are likely easier in China where the government has very effective power, not that easy to build in city centers in many other countries.
BurningFrog 5y ago
Yeah, high speed rail uses up huge amounts of land. I think acquiring all that land and getting it through environmental review is pretty much impossible in the US.

jbay808 5y ago

And frequency/throughput. At peak hours, the Shinkansen can depart about every two minutes(!). I would regularly step into the train station five minutes before my departure. Or just buy a ticket at the station when I get there, with no reservation, since I know the trains come so often I won't have to wait long. How long do you have to wait if you miss your flight? How certain are you of an on-time arrival? How early do you arrive at the airport, to make sure you'll catch your plane?

bluGill 5y ago
At one time (before 9/11) you could walk into the airport in Minneapolis and be in the air to Chicago in 20 minutes (airplanes left every 15 minutes), buy your ticket at the gate. Of course this is a busy route and the airline decided it was worth running empty seats to ensure it could happen. There is no technical reason airplanes couldn't do this for any city pair. There are reasons that airplanes don't operate this way, but they are not because it is technically impossible. Politically you can't get rid of the security theater, and yield management probably is the most profitable way to run airplanes, but both could change if we wanted to.