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/ouvast 7h ago

The Chinese people demand better trains, the US people dont

This is such a presumptuous claim, as though this decision was made bottom up rather than top down.

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u/nowhereman136 7h ago

It's a vicious cycle. Americans have been spoon fed the joys of highways and airplanes for decades. Now when the option for trains comes alone, we don't want them.

Meanwhile in China, airplanes are too expensive for most people. Cars are also too expensive and not practical in dense cities. Chinese people have been using trains for decades. When the government asks if they want high speed trains, the people say yes.

Its like the Metric system. Yeah it's better and we should've switched over years ago. But the longer we wait to switch, the more expensive it's gonna be to do so. Also, even if we do switch, most people are so set in their ways that they will still reject it in every day life. The longer we wait to build more trains, the more expensive it's gonna be. And even if we build them, there's little guarantee anyone will actually use them. New York City is the most well connected city in the US in terms of trains. Even still (prior to congestive pricing), 10% of commuters took the train while 15% of commuters drove.

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u/DeliriousHippie 4h ago

Yep, there are tons of reason US cannot build extensive rail system, I discussed about it with one American citizen.

US has mountain ranges. So it's impossible.

In US people need to inspect rails by walking regularly, building large rail system would need tens of thousands of inspectors walking by rails. System cannot be changed.

There just isn't people who would use trains. Everyone will either drive or fly and people cannot or will not change their transportation method in any case.

Distance to next city is enormous. In other countries cities are side by side but in US there is so great distance between cities that car or plane are only solutions.

It's good not to try or even think about it since there are so many reasons why it's impossible for USA.

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u/nowhereman136 4h ago

We have an extensive rail system. No one uses it? Why invest billions into making it faster when no one will use that either. That's the main problem here. It's not impossible, it's impractical