http://english.cri.cn/6909/2011/05/12/2741s636998.htm
It will travel from Beijing to Shanghai in around 5 hours, and carry up to 1,004 passengers.
So with a population of 19.6 million, and running the train 20 hours a day (2 round trips), the entire population of Beijing could be moved to Shanghai in a mere 23 years!
Was this a “shovel ready” project? How many jobs were “saved”?
Well, unlike the US “project”, this was built from the ground up as a high speed passenger only line – not an attempt to retrofit old freight lines.
Of course there will be more than one train set – so it won’t be one trip every 23 years. From a strategic standpoint, this uses electricity which could be generated from coal or nuclear – unlike airplanes which only run on Jet Fuel. China is extremely dependent on imports for its oil needs.
The article talks a lot about the toilets. At 180 MPH, I hope it has a holding tank and doesn’t dump on the tracks like old American trains did (“don’t use this toilet while train is stopped in a station”)
Art – Good point on the essentials (toilets)! Would that we in the U.S. were as forward-thinking as the Chinese.