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China just launched the worlds fastest ground transport a 600kmh maglev train now connecting Shanghai and Beijing
(peertube.mesnumeriques.fr)
this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2025
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Saving a couple of hours per person is a lot of hours given the volume of people this infrastructure moves. Also, people are a lot more likely to go on a two hour trip than a 4 hour one. This makes it possible to go from SH to BJ and come back the same day which means you'd have a lot more people travelling and a stimulus to the economy as a result.
I guess we'll see, but I don't really see why they wouldn't bother. I mean it's a way for state to create a whole bunch of employment.
Halving travel time is not a minimal gain, but more importantly it's a demonstration of technological prowess. If China has a commercial maglev operating it's a showcase of things they can build for other countries. It's important to keep in mind that a lot of countries don't have well developed HSR systems or much rail at all. If China can now offer building maglev for them which is ahead of what any other country can do.
Indeed, I'm just noting factors in favor of building a demonstration line even if it might seem wasteful on the surface.
Shanghai-Beijing wouldn't be a demonstration line, it'd be an enormous project.
The Shanghai Pudong line was a demo and frankly it failed to sell maglev as a concept, mainly because of NIMBY limitations admittedly, that's the problem I think.
It would have to be a big project because you don't really get the benefits otherwise. The train needs time to accelerate and decelerate, and it's only worth building a track over a very long distance where it can mostly go in a straight line at top speed.
Capitalist thinking. A government that will do something to actually help the working class, simply because it helps the working class, is beyond western, imperialist thinking.
China still has to spend its limited resources efficiently. It’d help the working class if they gave everyone in China a million RMB tomorrow, but obviously they can’t and won’t do that.
Some would argue that removing environmentally destructive jets from the sky is an efficient and necessary use of resources.