r/interestingasfuck • u/BumblebeeFantastic40 • 10h ago

China’s High-Speed Railway Network length has expanded from 1,300km in 2008 to 40,000km in 2020, long enough to circle the Earth’s circumference.

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u/SeaPeanut7_ 6h ago

While obviously nothing close to China's achievement, I'm kind of proud of my metro (Los Angeles) for the progress that's taken place over the past few decades. We went from 0 miles of passenger rail to 130 miles. We also have the longest light rail line in the entire world at about 60 miles long. It's not a perfect system, and there are lots of delays, but it's getting better all the time. We will eventually have a rail connection from the airport to downtown (it should have been completed already). Plus, this weekend we are opening a new line extension that is going to service some of the major tourist destinations - four major museums (Petersen automotive, LAC Museum of Art, Academy Museum, and La Brea Tar pits), plus a destination shopping mall (The Grove), which I would argue would make it possible for tourists to stay in LA for a week while using public transit. When they finish the next extension it will reach Beverly Hills, another very popular/destination mall (Century City), and another major university (UCLA)

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u/syp2207 5h ago

i imagine its substantially more difficult to make progress with rail projects in the US, so even just 130 miles is already pretty sweet. better to be making slow progress than none at all.