coventry801
Train Attendant
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2020
- Messages
- 86
Interesting that Africa got true HSR before North America does.
BTW, that Moroccan train looks suspiciously like an Avelia of some sort, or at least a TGV derivative. Upon further inspection, they are indeed TGV Euroduplexes. They have only 16 trainsets for the current operations.
Is this line also funded and built by the Chinese Communist Construction Company? I hear many of the African nations that have relied on China's investment owe them heavily.
No Chinese money in this AFAICT....Is this line also funded and built by the Chinese Communist Construction Company? I hear many of the African nations that have relied on China's investment owe them heavily.
The problem is political not technological. The technology is well understood by many in the railway engineering field in this country. There is the general feeling by many in the field that the first step toward getting anything built needs to be to shoot all the politicians. (If you don't get this is a joke, I feel sorry for you. I don't want someone making a call so that I have to explain this to the FBI.) If California had moved at something close to the same rate as the HSR in Taiwan, we would be riding trains by now, and the only reasons this has not happened have been financial and obstructionism on many level. Quite a few of the people involved in the HSR in Taiwan were in California at the time the designs were being developed trying their best to apply "lessons learned" to CAHSR. There was also the factor of some people involved in positions of authority "knowing just enough to be dangerous" mudding the waters.HS is popping up everywhere... including India, the Middle East, and SE Asia. The Americas... North and South... lag behind the rest of the world with rail technology. Lots of info available on HS development...
It's not just the politicians who are obstructionist. Haven't there been problems with NIMBYs and landowners along the way who have made acquiring the land needed difficult? There may also be issues the the excessive complexity of managing public contracts, but I guess that can be partly blamed on politicians, too, as they wrote the procurement laws, yet don't fund the agencies sufficiently to allow the hiring of enough experienced staff to manage the contracts.The problem is political not technological. The technology is well understood by many in the railway engineering field in this country. There is the general feeling by many in the field that the first step toward getting anything built needs to be to shoot all the politicians. (If you don't get this is a joke, I feel sorry for you. I don't want someone making a call so that I have to explain this to the FBI.) If California had moved at something close to the same rate as the HSR in Taiwan, we would be riding trains by now, and the only reasons this has not happened have been financial and obstructionism on many level. Quite a few of the people involved in the HSR in Taiwan were in California at the time the designs were being developed trying their best to apply "lessons learned" to CAHSR. There was also the factor of some people involved in positions of authority "knowing just enough to be dangerous" mudding the waters.
NIMBYism, even rational NIMBYism, if there is such a thing, gets a lot if its mileage out of posturing politicians. Landowners are sometimes irrational, but again without being enables by politicians much of this is also curable. The, "it will panic my cattle" is a classic. If you ride the trains in the central valley, the cattle may not even look up even though you on a diesel train blowing its horn for road crossings. Invite the concerned landowners out to watch. There was also in California the truly irrational decision to not be elevated throughout the valley. Elevating the railroad throughout the farming and urban areas was done in Taiwan and it makes a major landowner concern disappear, that is accessibility across the railroad. It also is very useful in reducing incursions and trespassing. It eliminates problems with grades in road crossings and conflicts with underground facilities.It's not just the politicians who are obstructionist. Haven't there been problems with NIMBYs and landowners along the way who have made acquiring the land needed difficult? There may also be issues the the excessive complexity of managing public contracts, but I guess that can be partly blamed on politicians, too, as they wrote the procurement laws, yet don't fund the agencies sufficiently to allow the hiring of enough experienced staff to manage the contracts.
I think the biggest difference is that most who would be disrupted by rail construction can't utilize the service they are being disrupted for. Highways, on the other hand, benefit way more people way more readily.NIMBYs don't seem to be preventing highway construction to the same degree that they stop rail projects. Maybe rail developers need to hire more highway project managers.
Quite the opposite, really, but that's not how the car-centric *think* about it.I think the biggest difference is that most who would be disrupted by rail construction can't utilize the service they are being disrupted for. Highways, on the other hand, benefit way more people way more readily.
Chinese trains are actually knock offs of Japanese trains. It's called stolen technology. The Chinese are masters of it.I doubt it. They would be using Chinese trains if this was the case, not French.
I guess the US space programme could be based on copying the German rocket programme in WW2?Chinese trains are actually knock offs of Japanese trains. It's called stolen technology. The Chinese are masters of it.
As far as the Belt and Road Initiative goes China is now working overtime to try to figure out how to collect on those loans and how to find some quality lipstick to put on the pig short of writing off a whole bunch of loans. Most of the funded projects do not produce anywhere near the returns to pay back the loans at even the favorable terms they were given under. They are trying though to put up a good front and not backing away from it, never mind their annual loan levels have reduced from $75 billion to $3.5 billion.
"Copying" the German rocket program? They recruited as much of the staff as they could, after the war. Think Werner von Braun, "It's not my department where they come down." And many more, not so well known. Search "Operation Paperclip" for more information.I guess the US space programme could be based on copying the German rocket programme in WW2?
Actually it is both Japanese and German. There are quite a lot of almost exact copies of Velaros running around in China.Chinese trains are actually knock offs of Japanese trains. It's called stolen technology. The Chinese are masters of it.
Yup. Same can be said of the Jet Aircraft program in the US too. The likes of Boeing, General Dynamics and Douglas swept up any and every stray engineer involved in the jet program in Germany. The outcome was vast advances in swept wing aircraft design and development of sophisticated aeroelastic wings. Led to the likes of the 707."Copying" the German rocket program? They recruited as much of the staff as they could, after the war. Think Werner von Braun, "It's not my department where they come down." And many more, not so well known. Search "Operation Paperclip" for more information.
And that was not the only thing. The German enthrallment with mechanical complexity hurt them in many ways during the war, thankfully. Read up on Rommel's operations in North Africa. The German tank's issues with the desert climate and the maintenance effort necessary to keep them functional was a major factor in his ultimate defeat. In contrast, the US tanks were mechanically simple using multiple automobile engines that most GI's know how to play with. Read up on the German invasion of the Soviet Union. It is stated in one source that one of the main deterrents to the speed of the invasion other than Stalin's edict of a "scorched earth" retreat, meaning leaving nothing behind that was useful to the invaders, was the rate of progress in the German regauging the railroad line to Moscow from 1520mm to 1435mm so that German equipment could be operated on it. Years back when I was working for the L&N there was a letter circulating in the office that had been written at the time it was done describing how they regauged the Nashville to Birmingham main line from 5'-0" to 4'-8 1/2" in one day. That is 210 miles of main track in one day done in something like1880.Actually it is fortunate that the US did not "copy" the German rocket program but created their own very different programs hiring the brains behind the technology used in the German Rocket program. The one big problem with the German Rocket program was that it was spectacularly mismanaged.
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