HSR and the Stimulus Deadlines
Tim Sheehan has another great HSR article in the Fresno Bee, this one on the deadline pressures facing the Central Valley segment of the HSR project. Basically, for contracts to be signed by September 2012 – a condition of the federal stimulus funding – a lot of things have to go right for the timeline to be kept, and there isn’t very much room for error:
But no detailed environmental reviews have been finished, no property has been acquired and no construction contracts have been awarded….
The first hard deadline for the federal funds involves environmental-impact reports, or EIRs, detailing the potential effects of the train system on Valley communities, farms and wildlands. Final versions of those reports must be certified by the end of September.
Consultants have been working on the Valley EIRs for more than a year, and the authority plans to issue drafts in February for 45 days of public comment and debate.
That is about two months later than what the authority set as its target last year. Consultants will then make revisions or come up with responses based on those comments, before final versions are opened for public comment.
California High Speed Rail Authority officials Rachel Wall and Jeff Barker both told Sheehan that they believe the timeline, while ambitious, could be kept. Sheehan quotes a USC transportation professor who is skeptical that the deadlines will be met, especially since a final EIR is necessary for construction contracts to be put out to bid. And as Barker explains, those contracts will still involve a great deal of design work, with actual construction probably not happening until a year or two later:
But because only 30% of the engineering is expected to be completed on the project by the time contracts are awarded next year, much work will remain on the drawing board until perhaps 2013 and 2014.
“We won’t have 10,000 hard hats on the ground laying rail in September 2012,” said Barker. “Final engineering will be the first phase of work being done.”
And there’s another deadline to consider. Not only must the contracts be in place by September 2012, but construction must be complete by September 2017. Added incentive, obviously, for the segment to be finished on time – and hopefully on-budget.
Which raises Sheehan’s third possible obstacle – funding, and in particular possible state legislative obstruction of that funding:
Prop. 1A requires that an independent panel of transportation and rail experts approve budget requests before any bonds are sold.
The same panel late last year issued a report questioning the authority’s lack of a detailed financing and income plan, lack of a business model for operating and managing the system, and lack of staffing to oversee the project.
Some legislators also have criticized the authority’s preliminary estimates of revenues and ridership as “unrealistic.” One example: a projection of as many as 102,700 riders daily on the statewide system, including 4,500 boardings daily in Fresno.
Sheehan is likely referring to Senator Alan Lowenthal, whose uninformed criticism of the system’s ridership has been particularly obnoxious. Barker’s response was to note, correctly, that a legislative vote against the budget request would indeed be a vote against the HSR project, given the tight timelines. And as I have said several times before, there is just no evidence at all that the legislature actually would do that – and it’s even more unthinkable when you consider the strong support for HSR from Governor Jerry Brown and Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein.
That being said, the timelines ARE tight. That’s not a bad thing, though. It’s time for infrastructure projects to be delivered more quickly in this country. Especially when it comes to sustainable infrastructure, we don’t exactly have time to wait around. This means that the CHSRA needs to step up its efforts to resolve any outstanding questions about the route in the Valley, ensure that an agreement is reached with farmers and with small towns like Corcoran, and that nothing else blocks the project.
We should absolutely expect some nuisance lawsuits to be filed against the EIR, likely by HSR deniers and passenger rail opponents – I’m sure Gary Patton is already thinking along these lines, in order to keep his oil company friends happy. Hopefully those will not delay the project to the point where stimulus funds are lost.
Overall, the timelines indicate that HSR supporters need to keep working hard to ensure the project comes along as intended. Once the construction process begins, it will create further momentum for HSR that will help attract new funding, ideally from Congress but almost certainly from abroad, to begin building the rest of the line to SF and LA.
High speed rail in California is a bright spot that is getting attention from across the country. Let’s make sure these deadlines are met so that not only California’s future, but America’s future, can be built starting in the Central Valley.
The Chinese would have the entire segment done by 2012, and the whole 800 miles done by 2017.
Queue the China bashing…
James Fujita Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 1:10 am
I am not the sort of people to fall for nationalistic, jingoistic, xenophobic, hyper-patriotic hooey.
And, as an Asian American, I am sensitive to claims of racial “bashing”.
That said, I do not see what is wrong in demanding that U.S. and California safety, environmental and labor regulations be upheld, no matter who ultimately ends up with the contracts to build the trains and the tracks.
Let the Chinese bid, but let’s remember that fast and cheap are not the only values we uphold.
Spokker Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 2:24 am
Damn, the Japanese really hate the Chinese.
Useless Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 6:58 am
@ Spokker
> Damn, the Japanese really hate the Chinese.
No one likes China and Chinese, not even HKers and Taiwanese, and Chinese have only themselves to blame for this near universal dislike of China and Chinese.
wu ming Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 11:09 am
it pales in comparison to how much the chinese hate the japanese.
Useless Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 11:37 am
@ wu ming
> it pales in comparison to how much the chinese hate the japanese.
Well, Japan maybe hated by China and Korea, but China is hated by Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Vietnam, India, and Taiwan. Far away, Africans have intense hatred for Chinese colonizers.
Accordingly, China at the moment is the second most hated country in the world, after Israel.
GoGregorio Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 12:50 pm
What about Russia? Won’t anyone please join me in hating Russia?
thatbruce Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 1:16 pm
Я имею выставку сна, наталкиваются на меня.
( or in other words, ‘yawn’ )
Alon Levy Reply:
January 26th, 2011 at 3:42 pm
Это курам на смех.
adirondacker12800 Reply:
January 26th, 2011 at 6:58 pm
zimno
Alon Levy Reply:
January 27th, 2011 at 2:25 pm
It’s been known to make some women collapse, that refrain I posted.
wu ming Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 12:54 pm
i know, i lived in taipei when they brought in the mainland tourists. still, you are unsettlingly gleeful about all of this hatred.
Alon Levy Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 8:48 pm
I hear that a lot of people hate a weird country in North America where the government likes to fabricate stories about WMDs in some countries and invade them.
James Fujita Reply:
January 26th, 2011 at 3:58 pm
yes, and then regime change came to that nation. you need to keep up with the news ;)
how are those Chinese free elections going, BTW?
Alon Levy Reply:
January 26th, 2011 at 9:40 pm
Yeah, and then people started hating said country slightly less. The regime change turned out to change very little as far as foreign policy goes.
Useless Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 6:56 am
@ Alex2000
> The Chinese would have the entire segment done by 2012, and the whole 800 miles done by 2017. Queue the China bashing…
Chinese seem to be building fast in China because they don’t have politics, environment, funding, land procurement issues, and public protest to hold them back. Going by US regulations in the US, Chinese would be building at a pace no faster than US contractors.
For example, Koreans have all but locked up Brazilian HSR contest( enough so that Rotem is already setting up a factory ground in Brazil), because they were the only bidder ready to get the system in service before 2016 Olympics, while Chinese could not have guaranted the 2016 completion date.
Clem Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 11:43 am
The Chinese are building fast in part because they use crappy materials. Fast forward to 2030 and we shall see who’s sitting pretty.
StevieB Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 3:01 pm
The Chinese are providing materials for the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Do you doubt the quality of the bridge materials?
Peter Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 3:05 pm
No, because there are actually inspectors in this country who don’t need bribes to get by.
Alon Levy Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 8:49 pm
American inspectors? I feel a whole lot better now.
I agree with what Alex2000 said in his message. The Chinese builders are really organized. I saw a video where a hotel was built in 7 days.
Spokker Reply:
January 24th, 2011 at 10:20 pm
Popular thinking in America sees Chinese citizens as slaves to the government who are paid poor wages and worked to death.
wu ming Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 11:12 am
well, popular thinking in america is usually ignorant at best on most topics. for starters, your post assumes that china is a communist economy, which hasn’t really been the case since you were born, most likely. the entities that pay chinese laborers poor wages are predominantly corporate, and many are the same multinationals that employ many americans.
James Fujita Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 11:33 am
popular thinking in America is correct when it comes to Liu Xiaobo, though.
wu ming Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 12:55 pm
inasmuch as most americans would even recognize the name, much less know why he was given the nobel or jailed by the PRC.
James Fujita Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 1:18 pm
let’s see…. given the Nobel Peace Prize for speaking out against human rights abuses, jailed for pretty much the same.
Spokker Reply:
January 24th, 2011 at 10:21 pm
High profile stories such as this one solidify this belief. http://www.pcworld.com/article/168866/iphone_suicide_case_spotlights_techs_dark_side.html
Out of sight, out of mind is good enough for American consumers, but I wonder if they would go for Chinese workers coming here and building our high speed rail line.
jimsf Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 5:03 am
no. they would not go for that.
Jerry Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 2:29 pm
@ Spokker
“Out of sight, Out of mind” translates into some languages
as: “Invisible, Idiot”. Would that apply to the consumers
you mentioned?
YesonHSR Reply:
January 24th, 2011 at 10:26 pm
I’m just hoping that they come through with the money for the high-speed rail system even if they don’t build it..BTW that USC transportation professor is as bad as any Reason/Cato paid mouthpiece — I think he is on their staff!!
Useless Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 7:00 am
@ James
> I agree with what Alex2000 said in his message. The Chinese builders are really organized. I saw a video where a hotel was built in 7 days.
And no inspection took place in between. Typical in China.
Ted Crocker Reply:
January 26th, 2011 at 11:26 am
Here’s a Chinese apartment building that fell over when the foundation was undermined while building the adjacent apartment building.
http://gizmodo.com/5304233/entire-new-13+story-building-tips-over-in-shanghai/gallery/
In this article, the quality of coal ash being used in the making of the concrete HSR beds is called into question and may prove a costly maintenance issue sooner rather than later for China.
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/01/is-china-overreaching-on-high-speed-rail/69490/#
As Clem says, we’ll see who’s sitting pretty in thirty years.
Progressives have worked for years to write legislation which slows down large construction projects. Environmental and zoning laws and lots of opportunities to sue all help to slow US construction to a crawl.
Somebody mentioned the Chinese. China produces ten times the volume of steel and concrete that we do. That’s all going into construction. The US simply doesn’t have the industrial capacity or the trained people to build at Chinese rates. In China people can be thrown off their land and sent to jail if they complain. It’s not democratic but it is a quick way to handle complaints and “grassroots community activists”. Chinese engineers and construction companies have far more experience of large, fast construction projects than anybody still living in the US.
If you want to build quick then keep things simple. Don’t build 10 mile viaducts through Fresno when you can simply go around the town. Make compromises that cut costs and increase speed. Finally, make sure you have good technical people in charge of the project, preferably people who have experience of managing large, complex construction.
Robert Cruickshank Reply:
January 24th, 2011 at 11:03 pm
Those laws need to be reformed if we are to survive our present crisis, as I have explained. CEQA is being used to undermine environmentally friendly projects. It’s a ridiculous situation.
Alon Levy Reply:
January 24th, 2011 at 11:58 pm
People are obsessed with China. Somehow, the fact that France and Spain build for cheaper (Spain by a large margin) and have a democratic process and militant unions is too inconvenient to be mentioned.
Andre Peretti Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 6:45 am
French high-speed rail lines never go through built-up areas. If they had to, the costs and delays would be comparable to California’s. French justice is very slow and eminent domain procedures invariably lead to a succession of appeals and counter-appeals which may delay a project for 20 years.
California has chosen an expensive solution which the more modest French economy couldn’t afford.
tjon Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 11:42 am
French LGVs generally don’t go straight to a terminal, as CAHSR is planning.
But then again they don’t have FRA regulations do deal with… .-.
thatbruce Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 1:01 pm
Or to paraphrase, the French ( and most European) high-speed services operate in a regulatory environment which permits high-speed train equipment to operate on the same track as non-high-speed equipment, thus permitting high-speed services to use existing stations within built-up areas without the expense of building a dedicated high-speed line through said built-up area to reach the station.
The US on the other hand, has a regulatory environment which does not easily permit this sort of track sharing, which in turn puts the costs of (re)building grade-separated tracks into built-up areas onto the shoulders of the high-speed rail entity.
James Fujita Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 1:35 pm
It’s a good thing Japan is not in France, then. Completely separated high-speed services, with the exception of the mini-Shinkansen in the mountains. Doesn’t seem to bother them.
Shinkansen do run side-by-side with Tokyo and Osaka commuter trains. Same stations, but different tracks and different platforms. Never mixed traffic.
thatbruce Reply:
January 27th, 2011 at 2:37 pm
Same stations, but different tracks and different platforms. Never mixed traffic
The differing distances between the rails also tends to discourage routing commuter trains down Shinkansen tracks or vice versa.
James Fujita Reply:
January 27th, 2011 at 2:54 pm
actually, a couple of the private railways between Osaka and Kobe are American standard/ Japanese broad gauge and one of them (I forget if its Hankyu or Hanshin) actually shares a ROW with the Shinkansen for a short while.
they don’t share the same tracks however. there’s simply no logical compelling reason for the shinkansen to mix with the slower commuter trains.
Alon Levy Reply:
January 27th, 2011 at 2:23 pm
Does anyone know how this works in Korea, near Seoul Station? (Useless, do you know?) Are there dedicated, or near-dedicated, KTX tracks?
Useless Reply:
January 27th, 2011 at 4:13 pm
@ Alon Levy
Heavily mixed traffic.
First 13 mile or so from Seoul are legacy tracks shared by all sort of trains(KTX, conventional express, commuters, even cargo). Then they split up when they clear the urban area, with KTX trains taking the dedicated HSR track and conventional trains taking the legacy track. They merge again when they arrive near destination. This approach eliminated the need for expensive land procurement in urban area as existing tracks and stations were utilized.
The layout is strikingly similar to CAHSR’s route from San Francisco to LA, and KTX system has been extensively studied by CAHSR authority as their base model, and this is why Arnold Schwarzenegger was most interested in KTX(4 tweets about KTX-II, as opposed to 2 tweets about CRH and none for Shinkansen) during his Asian HSR tour, because it was the closest system to planned California HSR system.
Eric M Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 11:07 am
I think people are zeroing in on China (myself included at times) is because they have the financial reserves, which they have indicated they are willing to put towards this project. Japan has as well. I would bet if Alstom or Siemens makes an offer to finance and build our system, there would be a shift away from Asian manufacturers towards European ones.
Useless Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 11:39 am
@ Eric M
> I think people are zeroing in on China (myself included at times) is because they have the financial reserves
But not the product for sale.
James Fujita Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 12:39 am
Those environmental laws keep us from enjoying the levels of smog that they have in Beijing.
We in the United States also have this weird obsession with freedom, human rights, democracy, that sort of thing. I know, it’s sooooo annoying to have to treat workers with dignity, but there you have it.
If China wants to build our trains, they can bid for the project the same as everyone else. They can obey U.S. environmental and labor laws while they’re at it. Our laws may not be perfect, but they beat the alternative.
And forcing Fresno to endure a greenfield station when there’s a whole underused downtown just waiting to be redeveloped around high speed rail? That’s amazingly shortsighted.
jimsf Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 5:05 am
yes. it is.
Useless Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 7:03 am
@ James Fujita
> If China wants to build our trains, they can bid for the project the same as everyone else.
No they can’t. Their product is illegal under the US laws.
dave Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 9:17 am
Don’t you think that’s one of the reasons they teamed with GE? I think those details could be worked out, so be afraid Useless, very afraid.
Peter Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 9:24 am
Meh, he’ll just trot out another WaPo article as “proof” of his position.
Useless Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 10:00 am
@ Peter
> Meh, he’ll just trot out another WaPo article as “proof” of his position.
You meant Financial Times and Wall Street Journal articles.
Peter Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 10:01 am
Sorry, forgot about those.
Peter Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 10:06 am
Because they make all the difference.
Useless Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 9:59 am
@ dave
> Don’t you think that’s one of the reasons they teamed with GE?
No, GE was merely playing along with this scheme to protect its business interests in China. GE knows it has no chance in the US HSR projects, but they must pretend to go along with scheme to protect its vast business interests in China. GE may hope to supply other legal product like subway cars in the US, but bullet trains are out of question.
GE’s teaming up with CSR doesn’t change the illegality of product.
Useless Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 10:11 am
For those who are interested in the true capability of Chinese bullet train engineering, look no further than CSR’s CRH6. This one is an indigenous design with a top speed of 250 km/hr. This is the best Chinese could come up with by themselves at the moment.
Peter Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 10:22 am
If this is the CRH6, then no wonder it only goes 250 km/h. Apparently they weren’t even trying. Why would they develop faster trains with indigenous technology if they have that capability through licensing agreements with foreign manufacturers?
Useless Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 11:09 am
@ Peter
> Why would they develop faster trains with indigenous technology if they have that capability through licensing agreements with foreign manufacturers?
Licensing agreements explicitly prohibit exports.
Eric Fredericks Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 9:16 am
I wouldn’t say CEQA totally keeps us from smog. It is far easier for a developer to build greenfield developments under CEQA than infill in most cities.
The CHSRA is not an environmentalist project; it is a developer project.
schrodinger Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 12:04 am
One of the issues with electric cars like the Leaf is that the range is short. Using electric trains for long distance and then renting an electric car for short range trips around your destination city would give a potentially workable and oil free transportation system. If you can find a renewable source of electricity then you have something that will work after fossil fuels are depleted.
I think the house just passed this make it in america
if a company wants to shop globally for things with their own money its fine, but this says that you spend american tax dollars, they must be spent to buy american ( planes trains buses turbines etc)
jimsf Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 5:23 am
make it
What are the odds that if CA doesn’t make it by the Sept 2011 deadline, that the feds will give us some leeway? Does this require an act of Congress, or is it simpler than that?
I am not worried about the 2017 completion date. They can’t pull the funds back after we’ve already spent them.
YesonHSR Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 8:51 am
They will make it with this segment…they need to start some kind of construction by sep2012 and as they stated it wont be 10,000 people working on that date, it probally will be grading and moving power lines and that type of prep work.
Peter Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 8:59 am
I think it depends on how the contract for the funding is written.
Eric Fredericks Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 9:22 am
My guess is that they probably would. It would take Congress intervention I’m sure, but I think it is doable. Congress knows that CA HSR is a game changer and that the deadlines are really tight, especially because of CEQA in California. Most other states I believe only have to deal with NEPA.
I agree with you Donk that if construction starts, it would be hard to pull those funds away. But I would expect by that point money wouldn’t be hard to find. Once environmental document hurdles are cleared, you will see this project change overnight. I suspect the offers will start rolling in then.
Eric Fredericks Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 9:27 am
I should clarify–I know other states don’t have CEQA, I meant that I believe many other states don’t have laws anywhere near as stringent as CEQA. They have laws more similar to NEPA or only have NEPA.
Elizabeth Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 1:23 pm
Read the contract yourselves:
http://cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=9508
Eric Fredericks Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 4:44 pm
I like the Station Area Planning section.
The Fresno Bee’s blog has more about the meeting between Obama and Fresno’s mayor which covered HSR. She indicates she will return to DC in February for more meetings with the administration and Congressional representatives (FYI, Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin is a Republican)
Her comments about the Obama meeting say they discussed things I might expect like the importance of the project, getting it done quickly and efficiently, watching costs, etc.
But, she also indicates that there have been discussions among some about requesting an Executive Order or other high-level authority/support to expedite construction of HSR.
She also says that talking with mayors and legislators from other parts of the country that they see California’s HSR plan as making more sense than some proposals in parts of the midwest or east coast.
The full report with her quoted comments is at
http://fresnobeehive.com/news/2011/01/a_memorable_night_at_fresnos_a.html
i am surprised at the level of comments on here but how so and so hates so and so very much. and from all different types of people. i think we need to differentiate between people and their governments. i thought this blog was about railways which is an international industry. lets talk about hatred somewhere else or better still nowhere at all !
it is worth remembering that in north america and even the uk much of the original railways were built with the aid of chinese workers. and it was ex world war 2 german scientists who enabled the u.s. space programme and got the man to the moon (allegedly ! lol )
as fas as high speed is concerned the project needs to get to shovel and bulldozer mode like now as I read today that the republicans (for want of several better words !) are now trying to get rid of high speed rail as well as other valued and needed projects like health care. apparently the president will be speaking out in support of high speed rail later today.
James Fujita Reply:
January 25th, 2011 at 2:46 pm
personally, I do distinguish between a government and its people. I do not hate the Chinese, but I am very concerned about the Chinese government.
Unfortunately, the bidding process will be very much a competition between countries, with governments standing behind private companies. Furthermore, private companies will be pointing to the work that they have done in their home country as examples of what they can do in California.
A breaking news. An explosion reported onboard Chinese HSR train.
http://news.searchina.ne.jp/disp.cgi?y=2011&d=0125&f=national_0125_086.shtml
An electrical box onboard a CRH(Model not disclosed) train G1018 preparing to depart from Guangzhou exploded, and the train lost all power. 1000 passengers evacuated the train.
CRH trains break down once every 3~4 month, and this is the most serious CRH failure reported to date.
Peter Reply:
January 27th, 2011 at 10:18 am
I doubt that many of us can read Chinese.
Useless Reply:
January 27th, 2011 at 10:44 am
@ Peter
> I doubt that many of us can read Chinese.
In Japanese, actually.
Unlike most ignorant and “politically-correct” China apologists, I have an in-depth understanding of China, Chinese business culture, and Chinese HSR industry, and this is why I am dead against bringing in any Chinese product into the construction of CA HSR system.
Chinese don’t think like you and I do; they really don’t care about human life(Everyone’s expandable, including Mao’s eldest son), and they think it is a fair game to cheat when no one’s looking. Basically, Chinese really don’t understand the foreign technology they are incorporating into their bullet trains, and this is why they break down often and why they cannot immediately fix any problems arising(passengers are left trapped in a broke down train for hours in the middle of nowhere), because it is not their technology and they don’t understand how it works, even on knock off parts they produce.
This is why Chinese bullet train models must not be allowed in the US even if the IPR and crash standard were non-issues.
thatbruce Reply:
January 27th, 2011 at 12:18 pm
this is why they break down often and why they cannot immediately fix any problems arising(passengers are left trapped in a broke down train for hours in the middle of nowhere)
Firstly, the article says that the passengers were ‘immediately evacuated’. Other failures on the Chinese High-Speed Rail may well have left them trapped for hours in the middle of nowhere.
However, there are plenty of examples around the world where an equipment failure has left passengers trapped for hours in the middle of nowhere, such as DB, Eurostar, Amtrak, Continental, United and even Singapore Airlines, because the operator was unable to immediately fix the problem that occurred. This doesn’t translate to these operators, or their country, not understanding the technology involved.
Peter Reply:
January 27th, 2011 at 12:29 pm
Ever hear of DB not evacuating its ICE trains last summer when the air conditioners were overwhelmed and the temperature in the trains rose above 50 degrees Celsius, and people started collapsing?
Useless Reply:
January 27th, 2011 at 1:06 pm
@ Peter
And how often does that happen? With Chinese bullet trains, once every quarter.
Peter Reply:
January 27th, 2011 at 1:46 pm
Well, DB has been trying to cut corners for many years to make its balance sheet look better. Look up Berlin’s S-Bahn meltdown. Stretching out the maintenance intervals for the trains worked out well for them. They’re just lucky they had no accidents.
Alon Levy Reply:
January 27th, 2011 at 2:21 pm
You’re being sarcastic, right? Because Eschede happened because of the same maintenance-is-for-sissies regime.
Peter Reply:
January 27th, 2011 at 2:38 pm
True, I was thinking about the S-Bahn, but Eschede was also related. That one was more a matter of “no need to test new equipment before running it at 250 km/h”, though.
adirondacker12800 Reply:
January 27th, 2011 at 4:35 pm
There were many breakdowns in safety that caused Eschede. If any of them had not happened we never would have heard about it or in passing “… at Eschede the train was stopped before it derailed… ” or “… the train derailed but no one was seriously injured..”
thatbruce Reply:
January 27th, 2011 at 11:35 am
A translation program comes up with:
… Passengers shelter in a high-speed train explosion in the electrical system short
2011/01/25 (Tue) 18:58
Hiroshi Take high-speed train was ahead of departure in the south of Guangzhou Railway Station at around 4:00 pm G1018 in train No. 23 was having trouble containing the electrical box. People’s Daily Online Chinese media and the “cause trouble”, “The spark came out strong,” said others. Hong Kong’s Ming Pao “electrical box exploded. 1,000 passengers were evacuated,” it said.
According to China Net, passengers transfer to a spare car train and left 50 minutes late. “Failed” because, in high-speed railway train Hiroshi Take the subsequent 6 flights 10-30 minutes late. Technical staff will have until 5:20 pm and finished the repair of the train caused the problem. It was a short electrical system.
Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao said, to loud explosion and a box containing electrical, fire and sparks flying. An outage of all vehicles, 1,000 passengers were immediately evacuated. (Editor: Hayato Kisaragi)