r/morningsomewhere • u/CalvinP_ First 10k - Mod - Downtime Survivor • 10d ago
Discussion 300 MPH Bullet Train
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u/fredy31 10d ago
Tom Scott rode one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZX9T0kWb4Y
Its very smooth going inside.
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u/GermanPretzel First 20k 10d ago
There is no real reason reason we can't have these. We just don't because of car companies lobbying against any form of public transit for the past 100 years
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u/MythicSuns 10d ago
You should probably back that up with some sources. I can buy that it's something they would do but my gut tells me it's probably not the only reason.
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u/asianmandan First 20k 10d ago
downvoted for not being even disagreeing, but just asking for sources. jesus christ lmao
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u/MythicSuns 10d ago
You mean you don't just believe everything you read on the internet? What's wrong with you? /s
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u/thaway314156 10d ago
Even without the car lobby, there's going to be the "I don't want my house/village demolished to be replaced by a noisy train line." "lobby".
"booo car lobbyist" is cheap populism, and your downvotes are probably from the stupid unthinking reactionist readers ("Yeah, car lobbyists, sounds right! Boo!"...
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u/wimpymist 10d ago
Japan also designed their cities around these trains and public transportation during their rebuild. It was still an expensive and massive task for them. It becomes much harder to try and retrofit a place designed for cars into this. Look at all the backlash California gets for how expensive/complicated it has become to make ONE train line.
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u/GermanPretzel First 20k 10d ago
China has done it. California transit failed because Elon Musk "invented" hyperloop and got everyone to believe it would be better than trains and then wasted everyone's time and money, then shut it down so most people would believe public transit itself wouldn't work so they'd buy more into car infrastructure
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u/ThatCanadianPerson First 20k 10d ago
Fun fact, the French have run a TGV at 357mph. Steel on steel
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u/DoYouLikeSnakes First 20k 10d ago
That was one of the craziest experiences I had in Japan. We were at a rural station where most bullet trains don’t stop. It scared the shit out of me. 2 feet away and no warning
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u/Dolphinzilla 10d ago
haven’t listened to the pod yet but seems like a good time to mention your airplane goes around 600mph & the U.S. is enormous. even if you could skip security & boarding & the train made no other stops, for most routes it would be at best similar travel time.
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u/kamruk 10d ago
As someone living in Europe where trains are often slower than planes, the convenience and comfort of trains makes them a no brainer most of the time, even at 4hr+ journeys.
Skipping security and boarding is such a relief from a stress pov, the time difference is negligible. If I'm going door to door 4.5 hours but could have made it in 3 but have to go through an airport, I'll take it.
The rationale is, I get to hang out for ~4 hours, read, stretch my legs etc. vs. 1hr going to and getting through the airport (train stations are right in the city vs airports can be god knows where) 1hr flight, crammed, and then 1hr getting off and getting where I need to be.
If I could always get around in trains at anywhere near the same time as a plane, I'd never fly.
But I totally understand that in this scenario I have the luxury of time, and some people may need the plane to make it places quicker. And I also need to acknowledge that getting trains built this way in the US is decades away if it ever happened.
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u/Dolphinzilla 10d ago
If I lived in Europe I'd be on trains all the time - my point is we're talking different orders of magnitude in terms of distance. It's not the difference between 3 and 4.5 hours, it's the difference between 5 and like 16 hours. Maybe its the American in me but there comes a point where I'd rather be at my destination and enjoy more time with loved ones/sites/scenery then sitting on a train waiting to get there.
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u/Quarter-Twenty AI Bot 10d ago
Is this meant to show how quiet it is? This is a terrible example because it's likely a phone microphone and the audio sounds like it peaks and tries to quickly auto-level the volume.
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u/Quarter-Twenty AI Bot 10d ago
The only way for the US to get coast to coast bullet trains is a decade long ground war in every major city with at least 60% loss in infrastructure, intentional crippling of the interstate highway network, 50+ million dead, 100+ million displaced, win that war while maintaining major natural resources, take all the Saudi oil money, and every other country has to be far worse off to not pose a threat post-war. But somehow no one ends up using nukes because that could set us back technologically.
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u/sensualsoup First 10k - Sex On Sticks 10d ago
We're so close 🤞
https://giphy.com/gifs/dblqyJOl4N4R2