Quote:
Originally Posted by electricron
Beijing to Shangai is 811 rail miles, and the fastest one stop, at Nanjing South, trains take 4.5 hours to travel that far, averaging 181 mph.
China spent $32 Billion to build it, the initial projections was as low as $16 Billion, a year later projections rose to $25 Billion. So even in China they experience a doubling of the costs to build, where all the land is owned by the government and there are no property taxes to pay, and costs of labor are significantly lower than in Europe or America.
The good news to report is that they report a profit of $1 Billion a year, with 165,000 passengers daily, which is 25% lower than the projected 220,000 daily passengers. 80,000 daily passengers still take the old slow trains between these two cities, so not everyone is willing to pay extra for the faster service.
FYI, 165,000 passengers x 365 days = 60.225 million passengers each year on this one HSR line. That's twice what Amtrak gets nationally.
I do not foresee Amtrak being able to run the 959 rail miles between New York City and Chicago with just one station stop. If it is going to cost CHSR between $63.2 billion and $98.1 Billion to build a 525 rail miles HSR line between Los Angeles and San Francisco, what do you think it would cost to build a HSR between New York City and Chicago? Twice as much as CHSR because it is twice as far? That could be six times more than China's $32 Billion between Beijing and Shanghai, potentially as much as $196 Billion. Would anyone believe any dollar figure Amtrak or anybody else would suggest?
All the $$$$ amounts written in this response was found at Wiki for CHSR and Beijing to Shanghai HSR or calculated from them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Califo...igh-Speed_Rail
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijin...-speed_railway |
Just FYI, there are no one-stop trains on the Jinghu HSR anymore. Ever since they increased the speed from 300km/h to 350km/h a couple of years ago, the fastest trains now make two stops, one at Nanjing South and another at Jinan West. You can take these fastest trains from either Shanghai Hongqiao Station or Shanghai Railway Station, though the train from Shanghai Railway Station is about 10 minutes slower due to the older line in the centre of Shanghai until reaching the new HSR line in the city's suburbs.
The real competition on this route, at least for me, is the overnight D train that runs from Shanghai Railway Station to Beijing South and takes about 12 hours (it runs on the old conventional rail line and has a maximum speed of 160km/h). You can leave Shanghai at either 7pm or 9pm and get to Beijing at either 7am or 9am (and vice versa), which is perfect if you have an early morning meeting and you don't want to stay in a hotel the night before. The first class bunk (four to a room) costs 675RMB (about US$95), only a little more than a second class seat on a G (HSR) train.