Over in China
Hear that loud WHOOSH? That’s the sound of China whizzing past the United States in its development of a high-speed rail technology. China has the world’s longest high-speed rail network. The country’s not satisfied to rest on its laurels though. It has plans to have 8,125 miles of the network in operation by 2012—and 10,000 miles by 2020.
In late October, China inaugurated the world’s fastest train. “The China-made CRH380 train has been clocked at almost 420 kilometres per hour (kph) (262 miles per hour (mph), a world speed record, though it will usually operate at a maximum speed of 350 kph (220 mph).”
According to an article in The Mainichi Daily News, the United States leads the world in freight railroad technology but has little high-speed rail expertise. The United States will most likely “have to import the technology for the 13 regional projects that have won $8.5 billion in initial federal funding, with $2.5 billion more to come this year and hundreds of billions needed before lines are up and running.”
Back Here in the United States
Two newly elected GOP governors have pledged to kill $1.2 billion in funding for high-speed rail in their states—John Kasich of Ohio and Scott Walker of Wisconsin. According to Think Progress, “Walker warned he would fight President Obama to keep the Milwaukee-Madison link killed ‘if he tries to force this down the throats of the taxpayers.’” Kasich has called the high-speed rail project that would link Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati “one of the dumbest ideas that he’s ever heard. He even used his victory speech to announce, “that train is dead.”
Kasich and Walker and politicians like them are definitely not progressive thinkers. I guess they prefer the status quo. Is this what conservatism is all about? Is our country on a high-speed train to becoming the United States of Luddites???
I wonder why Huey Lewis’s song Back in Time came to mind when I was writing this post???
Picture Credit: 颐园新居
Sources:
-Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
ekeyra:
a question for you on fascism and socialism since you seem to know something about those subjects.
what is the difference between fascism and socialism?
ekeyra:
who is Frederic Bastiat? I have never heard of him.
“Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all.
“We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain.”
– Frederic Bastiat
P.S. Im not calling you a socialist its just to illustrate my point.
If you and all your friends think highspeed rail is the way to go then by all means pool your thoughts and ideas and time and effort. I would wish you the best. Its when you start insisting everyone else fund your idea, whether they think its a good idea or not, that I have a problem.
I think you shoot yourself in the foot when you bring up war contractors and and then talk about the glorious synergy of government and business. They have a word for that. Its called facism.
ekeyra,
I think many corporations are corrupt. It’s not just the government. Just look at some of the war contractors that the US has done business with.
I was making a comparison about the Chinese being way ahead of the US in high-speed rail technology–nothing more. I wasn’t making any other comparison. I think we should take a look at ourselves and how we are falling behind other countries because our politicians can’t work with each other for the betterment of our society.
I believe in looking to the future. I think the government can work in collaboration with private industry to develop technologies that will make the US a leader of innovation once again
Disclaimer: Yes reason is funded by the kochtopus brothers, But please note that advocates of the rail system were part of the study. and they are not the only place i get my information.
Elaine, i could not agree more that we shouldnt be wasting taxpayer money and more importantly vast numbers of humans lives in the subsidized slaughter. What i do not agree with is that pouring government money into the roads and highways would lead to any less of disaster. You seem to assume only government in its partisan bickering, mass death and destruction, rampant corruption and ever present hypocrisy is the only way out from the dark ages to the enlightment of all society. China built a high speed rail. Good for them. They also had a public execution of all drug offenders to show their support for the war on drugs. Do you really want to start making comparisons?
Its not a matter of whether or not we can do it. It is a matter of who should be paying for it. I do not so I take great exception to your assumption that because you find a high speed rail the wave of future everyone else should foot the bill.
ekeyra,
Isn’t the Reason Foundation a big proponent of privatization and the contracting out of government services?
Are you suggesting that the United States should forget about working on plans to develop a high-speed rail network? If other countries can do it–why can’t ours? Shall forget about technological progress and remain mired in 20th century methods of transportation?
Heres something from california’s own decades long debacle with high speed rail
http://reason.org/news/show/1003045.html
Just some highlights:
“The current high-speed rail plan is a fairy tale,” said Adrian Moore, Ph.D., vice president of research at Reason Foundation and the study’s project director. “The proposal suggests these high-speed trains will be the fastest ever; the most-ridden ever; the cheapest ever; and will convince millions of Californians they no longer need to drive or fly. Offering up a best-case scenario is one thing, but actually depending on all of these miracles to happen simultaneously is irresponsible public policy.”
Similarly troubling, the report finds that no existing high-speed rail train is currently capable of meeting the speed and safety goals set by the system’s own advocates.
“History tells us that you’ll see construction overruns, higher operating expenses, and a failure to meet ridership projections.” said Joseph Vranich, who SUPPORTS high-speed rail, served as president of the High Speed Rail Association in the early 1990s, and is one of the study’s co-authors.
ekeyra,
Maybe if our country spent taxpayer money on infrastructure instead of depleting the treasury to pay for unnecessary wars and maintaining military bases all over the world–our bridges and highways would be in better shape today. Our country developed the technology that took humans to the moon in 1969. Do you think that the United States–with the help of private industry–wouldn’t be able to construct a high-speed rail system here if we set our mind to it instead of spending most of our energy on partisan bickering.
“Of the nearly 600,000 public road bridges listed in the Federal Highway Administration’s inventory, about 152,000 are classified as either functionally obsolete or structurally deficient, according to a report released this week by the American Assn. of State Highway and Transportation Officials. Fixing them all would cost about $140 billion, the group found.”
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/aug/01/nation/na-bridge1
The feds cant maintain the stuff they’ve already built and you want them to construct a highspeed rail. Have fun on that deathtrap. Oh, and dont think of suing when the envitable fiery crash happens.
Judge limits Metro liability for Ft. Totten collision that killed nine, injured scores
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/05/AR2010110505123.html?hpid=moreheadlines
I’ve been looking into this railroad expansion stimulus and believe it’s a move in the right direction. I find it interesting that the republicans cannot foresee the benefits of a high speed rail–it is not simply throwing our money down a drain like the bailouts and the tax cuts for the rich that they seem to support but rather is actually an INVESTMENT in more than one area. It will create transportation that does not rely on oil so it is more environmentally friendly, it will create jobs for years to come and it will make money. China has moved in the direction of the future in many areas of green energy while us Americans are frantically fighting to maintain our wealth in an expired resource known as oil.
That’s the irony isn’t it! The communist Chinese being the biggest set of “capitalist bastards” in the world. I guess this is what you can do when a government has such a tight control on the people.
Must admit that it always intrigued me as to why the Chinese did not overthrow communism, as where ever one goes in South East Asia, from Thailand right over to the Philippines, all the businesses seem to be run by Chinese.
Even here in Europe, far more Chinese than any other part of the community seem to prefer going into business themselves rather than working for someone else.
These Teapublicans are getting in line to trash the Obama administrations attempts to bring the economy back to the top. High speed rail technology is infrastructure and Billions have been allocated for projects throughout the country and these mental giants are refusing the project money in order to look good to their radical base. This technology will produce jobs and help the environment, but why would any want that?!!!! Idiots.
Amazing people, those Chinese. Respect.
Every nation has it’s day; China’s morning sun has risen.
Still wouldn’t want to live there though.
ekeyra,
Building a high-speed rail network in the US is a waste of time? Developing a high-speed rail technology in the US is a waste of time? The US used to lead the way in developing new technologies. Now we spend our country’s wealth on wars and bailing out millionaires. And our politicians spend most of their time fiddling while our country burns.
Petty politics. That’s what killed the tunnel from New Jersey to New York. That’s what killing rail from Cleveland to Cincinnati in Ohio. Our soon to be Governor John Kaisich (former Congressman, Fox News commentator, and Lehman Brothers crook) has already announced he is killing the railroad. He’s not going to do much for Ohio either. I’m sure his buddies will make out like thieves they are.
I’m an American living here in France the past 12 years, and by the way, I’m not a lawyer.
It seems both TJ Colatrella and ekeyra have a point. The government doesn’t want to pay and neither do the people.
So how do you get world class rail travel for free? You simply let the Chinese win the bid and let them supply the financing. A dangerous compromise, but I’m afraid one that will work unless FDR comes back from the dead.
ekeyra: i dont know where to start dismantling your bullshit
Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop
Lewis Carroll
what a complete waste of time. as for tj i dont know where to start dismantling your bullshit. Oh yes too bad obama didnt spend more of other people’s money. Your starting to sound like krugman. You want a high speed rail, YOU pay for it.
Apparently Obama and Larry Summers didn’t think America was worth investing in…
FDR created 1.8 million jobs in 2 years, with government work projects and Infrastructure, unfortunately as is well known Larry Summers doesn’t believe in Infrastructure..
Infrastructure such as high speed rail pays for itself ten times over eventually..
From high speed rail to repairing the thousands of failing bridges, dangerous dams, our sewer systems so much more we needed to address and could have done, it’s a tragedy for our entire nation that Obama embraced this cadre of proven losers as Larry Summers, Tim Geithner, and Ben Bernanke and their myopic amoral philosophy proliferated by Ayn Rand..