[RandomThoughts3]

It’s brand new and they have put in place modern technologies everywhere. So it works very well.

Amusingly, China uses pieces of technology which were developed in Europe for its train system. Signalling is a good exemple (CTCS is basically ETCS). Europe is as usual deploying at a snail pace while China put it everywhere.

It was obvious from the start it would end up this way. China is an actual country while Europe is a loose collection of countries which don’t really like each other supposedly spearheaded by Germany which actually only cares about pushing policies in its own interest and actively hinder anything else, and France which remains stuck thirty years in the past and is actively being sabotaged by most of the things the EU forces it to do regarding infrastructure (more true in energy than in rail that being said).

[oceanplexian]

The New York Central 999 broke 160km/hr in the 19th century. The US had commercial express train service running at similar speeds in the early 1900s. Outside the TGV Europe isn’t a few years behind they are like a century behind.

[maartenscholl]

I guess it is a century behind because Europe hasn't scrapped their commuter rail for roads. I took a train from Manhattan today and its theoretical max speed is 110 mile/h, so the US has fallen behind Europe by your logic.

[RandomThoughts3]

That’s non sense. TGV speed record is 320km/h by the way and 160km/h is a pedestrian daily occurrence on the French rail system. Meanwhile the US has somehow decided trains are for freight and as no decent rail system in place for travellers.

The discussion makes sense with China which is pushing forward quickly using new tech. The US is not even part of it.

[nh2]

It doesn't have much to do with "China being an actual country".

Germany alone is also an actual country and the trains inside it's borders are super slow.

In China and Japan, many long distance trains get 320 km/h average speed!

The German ICE "machine" could theoretically also do that speed but there are barely any tracks where this is possible, so the average speed is around 3x slower.

In France and Italy it is much better. TGV and Frecciarossa trains usually operate much closer to their specced speeds.

[em-bee]

germany is making the big mistake of mixed use tracks. in china high speed tracks are dedicated to high speed trains, and a high speed connection means dedicated high speed tracks for the whole trip. germany is creating a patchwork of high speed routes thinking that this is enough to make high speed trains work.

[RandomThoughts3]

The slowness regarding rolling out things like ETCS, ATS and standardised European infrastructure as everything to do with Europe not being an actual united political entity. As you rightfully pointed, some EU members rail strategy is very dubious.