The Fastech 360S Shinkansen to hit 223mph

We'll save our cracks about their looks on the latest revision of the Shinkansen (ok, just one: man, that's an engine face only a train manufacturer could love), but we're not prepared to knock Japan's latest and greatest, which they're trying to get to hit 223mph in trial runs. Apparently they even think they'll get that up to the train's maximum speed of 250mph by early 2008, which will make their Tokyo-Aomori shuttle doable in three hours. What's that mean in American? LA to SF nonstop in like an hour and a half.

[Via slashdot]

[TZK @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

Looks like an iTrain.

[Brado @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

I thinks those "ears" go down because if they are what I think they are (wind-breaks for, well breaking), then they'll never hit the top speed.

[sr20de @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

It's a shame the USA and the American people have all but thrown away rail travel. Amtrak is a disaster. We will not see anything this efficient or this useful in my lifetime, and I doubt ever, in America. Having been on the TGV in France several times, I can say that it's a fantastic mode of transport and incredibly safe, as well.

[Buzzcut @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

Actually, they say in the article that the distance is the same as LA to SF, and it will take 3 hours.

They also say that the "cat ears" are emergency air brakes.

Could a train like this be operated in the US? Where would it go to? DC/ NY/ Beantown? LA/ SF? That's about it. Every other city combo probably doesn't have enough traffic to support a train like this, or are so far away from each other than a plane makes more sense.

The biggest hurdle? When Spain built a high speed line from Madrid to Barcelona, the spent A BILLION DOLLARS PER MILE to build the railway. That's a lot of fucking money! The whole Iraq war "only" cost $200 billion dollars (so far).

So your LA to SF line would cost like $350B. Like I said, that's a lot of fucking money.

[Thanol @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

@4 a billion dollars? Really? Is that inlcuding R&D?

[Tofer @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

I live in France where we have the TGV, it is now operational between Paris and the South of France, as well as towards the West & SW part of the country.
At 190 miles/h, it is very fast and quiet. And I can tell you that it is crowded !
It's only a political decision, yes it is costly but for the consumer it is really better than the plane (round trip from Paris to Marseille South of France at 50$)

[key @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

uh,

#1: the Spanish govt is spending a TOTAL of 47 billion on rail 2004-2007 to complete a nationwide high-speed network (4,500 miles)

http://www.railway-technology.com/projects/spain/

There are other decent US city combos, Houston-Dallas, Miami-FL-Orlando.. etc

[TVGenius @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

They've talked about building a new San Diego airport down the hill near Calexico, CA, since SoCal has sprawled to a point where there's no land to build a larger airport. Part of that plan includes a high speed, possibly maglev, train that would connect SD to its airport, and potentially be extended through Yuma, Phoenix, and maybe even Tucson and El Paso.

[bloodomen @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

Totoro???

[Quentin @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

Hello, there's also another very good point about fast trains such as TGV or Eurostar (a tgv that goes from france to England).
It takes you from a city center to another city center : For example, when you travel by plane from Paris to London you only fly during an hour but it takes you at least one hour to get to the airport then another hour to register your luggage and pass security and once arrived the same process so by plane you alway have to ad about 2 to 3 hours more traveling.
By train it's a lot faster, train stations are always in city centers. Safer, faster, less polution.
In my opinion Fast train rocks !!!
Im french so excuse my low english level.

[carter @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

Shinkansen rocks. It's a dedicated system, a parallel series of tracks and stations built alongside the existing system. Nothing else runs on shinkansen lines apart from shinkansen, and they depart every 10 minutes or so ... So why fly? JR also has a maglev train that has been tested at 580 kph (~360 mph).

[Alex @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

I agree with the earlier comments trains: are sooooo much more practical than planes. And it *is* a political decision whether or not to develop a decent high speed train system (it might be too late here in america already, people just love their cars way too much!).

I know people in France who commute to work by TGV, 200 km... in 40 minutes, that's the time it takes me to drive to work (45 miles, oh and by train it takes me well over an hour).

And a little bit of train pornography (train speed records):
http://www.h2.dion.ne.jp/~dajf/byunbyun/speeds/records.htm

[carter @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

Yes it's the Totoro bus! They just need to paint some stripes on the sides ...

I completely agree w/ the city centre to city centre convenience of rail - e.g. Eurostar London/Paris is excellent, and will be even better once the UK infrastructure gets up to speed. Dedicated rail networks cost billions, but especially where compete with short haul air, this can't be too much more expensive than airport infrastructure.

[zotou @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

Trains are great for the smaller countries like France, London, and Japan. The US is just WAY to big to make an affordable train solution work. As a size comparison, Japan is about the size of Calafornia... thats 1 state of 48 continental states. So in price, what would cost all of Spain 47 billion to make a rail solution, it would cost at least 30x more in the US. Just food for thought

[Buzzcut @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

That press release is vauge. $41B Euros were allocated over a few years, but it does not say how much was spent on what is existing, nor how much will be spent before their 4500 mile system will be complete.

The $1B per mile figure could have been the worst case scenario, the most expensive mile. If you took $41B and divide by 4500, it works out to about $10M per mile on average. You have to think that cutting across the countryside is going to be cheaper than going through a city, thus the discrepancy.

In any case, that's still a lot of money. Cost is a serious issue, but not the only one. You know how NIMBY is. If it costs $41B in Spain, with its non-litigous society, it will cost 10 times that in the US because all the lawyers have to be paid off.

The problem with going from city center to city center in the US is that most city centers are ghettos. Does anyone want to go from downtown Detroit to downtown Cleveland? Most businesses in the US are now in the 'burbs, in part to be closer to airports.

It would actually make more sense to integrate high speed rail stations right into your bigger airports. You could fly into Ohare, for example, and take a high speed train to Milwaukee, or Indy.

[Chris @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

I am not sure I would want to get on a high speed train operated by Amtrak... They don't instill a whole hell of a lot of confidence in me at 80 mph, let alone 250 mph.

I lived in Tokyo for 6 years and truly loved the Shinkansen. It made domestic air travel totally pointless, for the most part. The difference is that JNR is heavily subsidized, but also runs the local commuter train services, subways, etc. Its an entire package deal. So, while certain lines might not be fully profitable, they are offset by the hugely profitable Tokyo Yamamoto line, or some other subway line.
Further, the US has no train infrastructure. The majority of the lines across the USA are owned by freight companies and the north south routes are so heavily populated, that speeds are limited and updates limited due to "envir" concerns. Further, to build more lines would enact eminent domain laws on such a grand scale, the out cry would be massive.

[I Hate Driving and I Live in L.A. @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

#4 Buzzcut -

I know whatcha sayin - I live in L.A., and I hate driving. Go figure.

USA is such a huge country, there's so much more room to expand before population and 'space' per capita becomes an issue, like it is in a small country like Japan. So probably no trains until we run out of oil, no more cars or flying, then America will rethink what its country means to itself and its own people that it's been faking out for so long, shielding the populations eyes from seeing what's really what in the rest of the world..........
but fortunately for the rest of us, the Internet came, and now there are a lot of pissed off, frustrated people out there who now know there are far better way of doing things in far off places that America needs to learn from........

Not only that
Japan is only 236,147 Sq Miles with 130 Million People
USA is (so big) 6,018,181 Sq Miles with 300 Million People
(California is 155,973 sq. miles with 35 Million People)

You do the math on "per capita" square mileage.........

They should at least build 1 Line, and I mean ONE LINE each of a fast train system, between cities that could use it (I guess they tried with the ACELA and that failed miserably) - but a line between L.A. and Las Vegas can't be that hard to do, surely! Some sort of MagLev Train would be nice!

[xfrosch @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

Every other city combo probably doesn't have enough traffic to support a train like this, or are so far away from each other than a plane makes more sense.

Pshaw. It's just a matter of priorities and competent management.

Chicago to Detroit is 300 miles. Detroit through Cleveland to Pittsburgh is 300 miles. Pittsburgh to Philadelphia is 300 miles. Pittsburgh to DC is only 250.

If you built a shinkansen in the Portland-Vancouver corridor, you could turn I-5 into a bike trail. Not to mention shut down a runway at SeaTac.

[rapide89 @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

It all makes interesting reading just a few points i always thought contigeous usa is a little over 3,000,000 sq miles and for my 2 cents worth i think the usa is idealy suited to vft's especially in the northeast corridors also could someone advise me as to what has happened to the mag-lev devolpment in pittsburg

[Raymond @ Dec 19th 2005 1:01AM]

I live in "America", and I say that America is just plain cheap! Over here, there needs to be a Shinkansen and a 400mph Transrapid Monrail!
Unfortunately it's too late for that.

The transportation infrastructure here has for so long been tied in a knot. Maybe the hurricanes have taught her a lesson. Did yu see all that traffic on the freeways? No Shinkansens mind you that.