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Rail is just very hard to do. I’m curious if it will end up really being worth it for China. The cost of maintenance and how centralized it is seems much worse

Rail is just very hard to do. I’m curious if it will end up really being worth it for China. The cost of maintenance and how centralized it is seems much worse than airports. Like Boise Idaho is booming right now, right? Well, its airport can just add some terminals for costs that the local tax base can support. Want to connect it via HSR? Okay, be prepared to spent a hundred billion dollars, for a slower ride that almost always needs a transfer.

jeffbee 5y ago
It just sounds like you are dedicated to underestimating the cost of airports and overestimating the costs of railroads. Boise is admittedly an extreme example because of its isolation, but it is within practical HSR distance of Salt Lake City, Portland, and Reno. Can't see why you'd need a transfer for any of the above. Anyway air service Boise-to-Reno has no non-stop option, either. This is a very common mistake people make with California's SF-LA HSR. They say it costs a lot. We should just build airports. But they don't seem to know that airport capacity sufficient to provide as many trips as CAHSR will be capable of providing is estimated to cost over $300 billion, much more than the entire rail project.
- thehappypm 5y ago
  If there isn’t even a flight to Reno, why would HSR make sense?
dirtyid 5y ago
>end up really being worth it for China. PRC air corridors are heavily congested - huge population concentrated on coastal regions + priority access for military aviation which also has to concentrate on coast for defense = massive delays for short hull trips that makes HSR come out ahead. Chinese military watchers occasionally joke that successfully invading TW and moving military aviation further out the 1st island chain would increase efficiency of domestic flights. Except there's probably some truth to it. Maintenance shouldn't be an issue, there's going to be low cost labour and extra infra capacity in PRC for a long time, even accounting for demographic concerns.
- thehappypm 5y ago
  Interesting, sounds like PRC benefits from HSR in a way that even Europe or Japan don’t.

jeffbee 5y ago

It just sounds like you are dedicated to underestimating the cost of airports and overestimating the costs of railroads. Boise is admittedly an extreme example because of its isolation, but it is within practical HSR distance of Salt Lake City, Portland, and Reno. Can't see why you'd need a transfer for any of the above. Anyway air service Boise-to-Reno has no non-stop option, either. This is a very common mistake people make with California's SF-LA HSR. They say it costs a lot. We should just build airports. But they don't seem to know that airport capacity sufficient to provide as many trips as CAHSR will be capable of providing is estimated to cost over $300 billion, much more than the entire rail project.

thehappypm 5y ago
If there isn’t even a flight to Reno, why would HSR make sense?

dirtyid 5y ago

>end up really being worth it for China. PRC air corridors are heavily congested - huge population concentrated on coastal regions + priority access for military aviation which also has to concentrate on coast for defense = massive delays for short hull trips that makes HSR come out ahead. Chinese military watchers occasionally joke that successfully invading TW and moving military aviation further out the 1st island chain would increase efficiency of domestic flights. Except there's probably some truth to it. Maintenance shouldn't be an issue, there's going to be low cost labour and extra infra capacity in PRC for a long time, even accounting for demographic concerns.

thehappypm 5y ago
Interesting, sounds like PRC benefits from HSR in a way that even Europe or Japan don’t.