High-speed rail in China isn’t all it’s cracked up to be:
Liu’s legacy, in short, is a system that could drain China’s economic resources for years. So much for the grand project that Thomas Friedman of the New York Times likened to a “moon shot” and that President Obama held up as a model for the United States.
Rather than demonstrating the advantages of centrally planned long-term investment, as its foreign admirers sometimes suggested, China’s bullet-train experience shows what can go wrong when an unelected elite, influenced by corrupt opportunists, gives orders that all must follow — without the robust public discussion we would have in the states.
And where we have robust discussion, it gets canceled (as in Florida). Unfortunately, the discussion in California hasn’t yet been sufficiently robust.
“…when an unelected elite, influenced by corrupt opportunists, gives orders that all must follow — without the robust public discussion we would have in the states.”
Or, as Thomas Friedman would have put it, “the government directly implements the optimum solution.”
It’s not a train wreck, it’s a high speed train wreck which is clearly better.
I wonder how much money was spent on these trains. It sounds like the organization spent a lot of public funds and in addition ran up more than $270 billion in debt (which turns out to be 5% of China’s current estimated GDP) in a mere eight years. It’ll be interesting to see if this scandal spurs a vast pullback of the power of the typical Chinese government agency to create law and borrow.
it gets canceled (as in Florida)
I missed that one. Is this the same project that was offered as a sop for the loss of Constellation?
Yes. The incoming governor looked the deal over, and decided that the state couldn’t afford the “free” federal money.
“…when an unelected elite, influenced by corrupt opportunists, gives orders that all must follow — without the robust public discussion we would have in the states.”
It isn’t much better when an elected elite, influenced by corrupt opportunits, gives orders that all must follow.
monorail, monorail, monorail!
High speed monorail?
Ayn Rand’s Rearden Metal!
Apparently, the Chinese budget is about $1.27 trillion (2010 estimate). So we have a foobar that is about 20% of the current budget, plus whatever annual costs it imposes. And we want the US to replicate this success, why?
Paul,
Confucius Shrugged?
Hey, the Chinese rail system doesn’t suck. High-speed is actually fast. The mag lev in Shanghai is really fast. Doesn’t go very far, costs too much to operate, but it hauls ass.
Of course, this is China, not the US, and the trains are convenient, inexpensive, and usually pretty full.
Hey, the Chinese rail system doesn’t suck. High-speed is actually fast. The mag lev in Shanghai is really fast. Doesn’t go very far, costs too much to operate, but it hauls ass.
So you haven’t actually ridden on the Chinese rail system, but a different system that happens to be in China? What are we supposed to deduce from your comment?
And there are still Floridians who think the governor made a big mistake in rejecting this boondoggle. They’re apparently unable to figure out this was just Tampa to Orlando, and that getting more metro areas into the route would be vastly more expensive, and that under most situations (depending on average highway speed and number of stops in the rail route) one could drive and get there sooner, and that going by train left you without a car upon arrival.
How about high-speed gondola lift?