America's Railroads, made in China?

Peter

Peter

Treehouser
Joined
Feb 3, 2006
Messages
1,742
Location
East Angular
I was listening to a radio programme about this yesterday, seems like a real possibility of a state owned Chinese firm building new high speed rail systems in California. The piece I heard on the radio was highlighting the fact that a lot of the manual labour on the original railroad construction crews in the 1800's were Chinese, paid a pittance to work hard in dangerous conditions, as was the way of the time. 10,000 of them in fact.

Seems slightly ironic that 150 years later it is the Chinese running the show, probably using local labour to do the donkey work.

You can listen to it here for another 5 days. (starts at 2 hrs 50 mins in.)

Bit from the Huffington Post
 
Last edited:
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #3
High speed rail travel is very cool, 220mph in a straight line. Ideal for vast flat lands.

Shame our rail network was systematically destroyed. :cry:
 
Our's too. Shortsighted, stupidity, and special interest groups. Gross inefficiency on management. I have a good bud that works for CSX. He says they make money by accident, not design. The most efficient method of transportation we have. Way underutilized. Part of the reason is how long it takes for shipment. No excuse, really.
 
The next trend in railroads will be the trains floating above the rails held by magnetism. The linear motor car, as they call it here, has been developed and regularly makes runs on the test track at over 500 kph, considerably past 300mph. There is a lot of haggling going on about the enormous costs to build and operate the lines, but the technology is very close to being implemented.

Surprised to read that the Chinese would be building railroads in the US. I thought that the Japanese were still building theirs.
 
They've been talking about a Bullet Train between Sydney and Melbourne for years, 3 hours for about five hundred miles, it will get built one day.

In the meantime "they" have done the same here as Cobleskil said, let the most efficient method of transportation we have go down the drain.:(
 
I rode a train from Stockholm Sweden to Malmo Denmark in 2002, thing was smooth and fast. But the TGV I rode in France was incrediable something like over 300 mph.
 
Air travel gets suckier by the day. Still don't see why the US can't have a decent rail travel system (AMTRAK is as slow as Greyhound).
 
It should be and have been a priority. I don't know why they can't get it right. Part of it is the large size of our country. They built the first cross country RR by hand in the 1800's. It shouldn't be insurmountable to update.
 
Run some herds of buffalo on the plains and the railroads might get built up again quick. Be able to pop one off from your hunting car between a beer and a whisky.
 
I rode from LA to Chicago on a train when I was seven. One of the most fun experiences of my whole life. When you are seven, everybody wants you to sit next to them.
 
There's a lot of "Rails to Trails" activity around here. I've got nothing whatsoever against the bikers, hikers and roller bladers, but it's very short sighted. I'm a "Trails to Rails" kinda guy myself.
 
The bus left me at a diner on Jan 3rd in North Dakota at sunrise.
I hitchhiked and beat the bus to Missoula Montana by an hour.

Phuqers.
 
China just had a crash of one of their high speed trains. I believe it lost power and was rear ended. It left many dead. Their rail system has been plagued by corruption and questionable safety standards. Maybe the same guys that operate the coal mines. :roll:
 
Do the Chinese still use steam locomotives in some places?
 
If they get used as trails, the right of way will preserved if they ever need to revert to rails.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top