[rbrownmh]

> "Passenger planes with speed beyond Mach four" and "superconductive magnetic levitation railways at 500 km/h" probably seemed like reasonable extrapolations of current trends at the time.

I'm a bit upset we can't have this today.

[byearthithatius]

"The Shanghai maglev is the world's first commercial high-speed maglev and has a maximum cruising speed of 300 km/h (186 mph). Prior to May 2021 the cruising speed was 431 km/h (268 mph)..."

That is right around 500 KM/H. I think we are technologically capable of this if a government really _wanted_.

[m4rtink]

The Chuo Shinkansen is currently being built for a 505 km/h maximum speed & does use supercomducting magnets for that:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%AB%C5%8D_Shinkansen

[byearthithatius]

Oh NICE! See we basically did it:) Good job, humans.

[melling]

“Planned opening 2034 or later.”

[tibbon]

We're finally testing supersonic planes again... 22 years after the Concorde stopped.

[inglor_cz]

500 kph is too much, but 250+ kph high speed trains surely proliferated nicely since then, at least in the Old World.

Even Uzbekistan and Morocco now operate high speed trains, and a high speed connection of the Baltics into the rest of Europe is being built.

(It is a bit weird that the New World as a whole is so bearish on HSR. For example, a Trans-Canadian high speed rail would connect all the major metropolises in a single line, as most of the Canadian population lives close to the US border. At the very least, a Toronto - Ottawa - Montréal - Québec line would make a lot of sense. Further west the terrain might just be too unforgiving.)

[badc0ffee]

The terrain is sort of difficult in the Canadian Shield, but it gets easy in the prairies, and then very difficult as you head west into the Rockies. I think the bigger problem going north and west of the Quebec City/Toronto corridor is the sparse population.

With a single line, you would also need to choose between serving Edmonton (like the CN mainline) or Calgary (like the CP mainline). VIA rail currently skips Calgary even though it's the bigger/faster growing city.

Really, you need at least 3 lines because you also have to go both north and south of Lake Huron. And that's not even getting into Atlantic Canada.

[inglor_cz]

Looking at the Canadian population density map [0], the Windsor-to-Québec line seems to be hitting the sweet spot for having enough people, and the total distance of about 1000 km between both ends would fit into the pattern as well.

Edmonton and Calgary would require two lines, yes, and quite long ones. These may be already too far away.

[0] https://natural-resources.canada.ca/maps-tools-publications/...

[giantrobot]

Population density maps alone will always lead you astray when it comes to building things like HSR if you don't also map in the terrain. It's not super challenging to build light frame buildings and asphalt roads on steep grades, marshes, curvy river valleys, frozen tundra, or even cliff faces. It's much harder to build train tracks, factories, skyscrapers, and other heavy buildings in such places.

A lot of people can live in a place it's where it's difficult to build traditional rail, let alone HSR. Also places where HSR might work can be filled with people and existing construction which you can't always just uproot for rail.

[inglor_cz]

Some countries that built extensive HSR networks (Italy, Spain, Japan) have a lot of challenging terrain.

If you travel, say, from Rome to Florence by Frecciarossa, the line goes through six galleries of total length of some 40 km.

Human settlements are a bigger challenge. People don't like to be uprooted, and small communities along the way don't benefit from HSRs, so they have an incentive to oppose them.

[byearthithatius]

China almost got 500 KPH. They were running >400 KPH up until 2021.

"The Shanghai maglev is the world's first commercial high-speed maglev ... Prior to May 2021 the cruising speed was 431 km/h ..."

[pc86]

What changed in the last 4 years?

[byearthithatius]

A German maglev accident made industry experts reconsider safety buffers from what I got reading about it.

[LargoLasskhyfv]

That accident happened long ago, on a testing track, due to bad signalling/communications, leading to maintenance equipment still on the tracks, and the maglev running into that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lathen_train_collision

The slowing of this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_maglev_train is caused more by economical factors like ridership and electricity costs.

[kansface]

I was going to comment that air fair is comparatively cheaper since 1995, but its only ~15% in the US (and increasing).

[bestouff]

Regular (French) trains could already do >500km/h back then : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TGV_world_speed_record

[melling]

Not really. They are test trains and don’t carry passengers. Fastest passenger trains are 320km/hr

[bluGill]

Knowing the energy costs (read CO2) that both would require I'm not very upset.

[melling]

Run the electric trains on green energy. It’s 2025. I was told 10 years ago renewables were ready and cheaper than fossil fuels. What’s taking so long?

In the meantime, those really inefficient gas guzzling cars still rule.