• AfricanExpansionist@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      n China, the trains are awesome and pretty much everything else sucks hard.

      Chinese train stations are a fucking nightmare compared to the rest of the world. First, they have a funneled entrance from the subway that goes through multiple choke points. For example, at Shanghai Hongqiao, you’re in a mob of hundreds, forced to go up two long escalators.

      Next, people there don’t have freedom of travel, so there is a security check to actually enter the station, where they look at your papers and make sure you’re approved for your destination. The queues are super long and people constantly cut in line. It’s rage-inducing.

      Then they subject you to a baggage check, metal detector, and frisking.

      Now you’re inside the station, but you can’t just go to the platform. Instead, you wait at a secure gate until maybe ten minutes before scheduled departure. Again, it’s a giant mob of people, trying to form a line in a station that’s also just overcrowded. They finally open the gate and everyone rushes through and down to the platform.

      You have to arrive an hour ahead of your train’s departure else you’re going to have a very stressful time.

      I

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.mlOP
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      1 year ago

      That’s the huge advantage of trains in my opinion. Instead of having to drive out to the airport, and deal with check in, boarding, and so on, you just go to the train station downtown and get off downtown of the city you want to go to. That alone saves a ton of time and hassle.

          • andruid@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            Are airports louder than train stations? Near freight trains and air port and the freight trains are much worse for me personally. Though I would hope passenger train systems are designed for less noise.

              • andruid@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                Thanks for the data, and yep that seems to be the case that passenger trains are quieter for the people living near a station vs planes taking off and circling a runway.

                Honestly neither bother me too much, but I thinkings a matter of good spacing. No one’s lives 1 mile from the run way or 25 meters next to the tracks from here, which is good thing for both.

                Another to add passenger trains can make simple intercity travel easier, when for planes it’s just not economical.

    • thejml@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I worry that the more useful and prevalent high speed trains become, the more the population will use them… and the more likely the long useless queues will also move to trains.

      Trains can have more stations to spread out the load, but then they won’t be as high speed.

      Still, I’ll happily take advantage of the currently short queues.

      • geemili@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I think this is unlikely to happen. Going through security is one of the big sources of useless queues at airports, which trains don’t have. Trains also tend to have more doors to get, which should reduce the length of queues to get on the train.

      • 𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒏@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        I feel that could be resolved by adjusting ticket prices and providing alternative options, like regional buses/coaches. Another possibility is adding more doors to each carriage, spreading out queues across the platform, but at the cost of less seating

        Where I am, the regional/inter-city train costs are very competitive with the alternatives, and sometimes enable more flexibility with travel. It’s still nowhere near the affordability of some parts of Asia though, and is overpriced IMO. My biggest gripe though has got to be only 2 doors on each carriage side, one at either end. And they’re narrow AF, good luck carrying a bike on board. What sadist designed these trains 😭

  • Electricorchestra@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    I wish when governments said they want to be competitive with China they did like the one thing China does that would raise our quality of life. As in make trains.

    • driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br
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      1 year ago

      People: Can we have competitive with china [trains]?

      Governments: we have Competitive with china at home.

      Competitive with china at home: Low wages and no labor rights.

      • iopq@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        China: working from 9 to 9 six days a week, with lower wages

                • hellishharlot@programming.dev
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                  1 year ago

                  In the US it’s usually 2 part time jobs or 1 ft and 1 or or 1 ft and gigs. Regardless the idea isn’t that they make enough with one job and get spending money from the other. It’s basically that you need to make as much as the top 15% of earners in the US to be ok in most areas. So we work as hard as we can to survive

  • zephyrvs@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    I remember how maglev was supposed to be the future when I was growing up but most European projects went way over budget and were eventually scrapped so I’m really happy to see that the Chinese finished this thing and that it actually works and delivers in terms of speed.

    This feels so much more futuristic than boring tunnels.

    • pulaskiwasright@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Unfortunately, the west’s political systems disincentivize projects that take longer than an election cycle. Everyone needs short term wins to secure re-election and it has stopped us from doing most things that inherently take a long time to show results.

      • Chewy@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 year ago

        And all the NIMBY’s who definitely don’t want a train line going “here” where they live, since it would be way better “there”. And then the local politicians who listen to them.

    • silly_crotch@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      My knowledge might be outdated but my understanding is that maglev is still unreliable and frequently breaks down or has to operate at slower speeds. Not yet a completely mature technology I think… but very interesting for sure.

    • silly_crotch@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      My knowledge might be outdated but my understanding is that maglev is still unreliable and frequently breaks down or has to operate at slower speeds. Not yet a completely mature technology I think… but very interesting for sure.

  • Pasta Dental@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    I hope there are not too many tunnels or that they found a way to relieve the pressure when going through them at high speed. This is a thing I noticed in France when taking the TGV (300kmh), when going inside tunnels at a rather high speed, there is a lot of pressure, it kind of feels like a plane landing, but shorter and more intense

  • heird@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Tom Scott just did a video recently of the Japanese Maglev in which it goes to 500km/h so 310mph meaning it was faster than this Chinese test…

  • Tylerdurdon@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I feel like it’s a lie because of how the Japanese have engineered their trains. Theirs have a huge leading “nose” structure to help them move the air in a fluid manner. I’m thinking the engineering behind that hasn’t just suddenly been out done.