Petrichor ᚄᚔᚅᚐᚁᚆᚃᚒᚔᚂJul 22, 2023
Extraordinary that there's virtually no coverage in western media of China's extraordinary expansion of its railway network, and no questions about why we can't or don't do the same
#Railway #China #Europe #US
Show threadTorb 🦋Jul 22, 2023

@sinabhfuil @feijoa Part of it is probably with China’s particular brand of capitalism you always try to meet growth targets by just having extreme amounts of economic activity by doing infrastructure projects, often regardless of if that infrastructure is truly needed.

Anyway, between US infrastructure neglect and China’s overbuilding the middle ground of building railway that is actually needed exists (and is probably better demonstrated by some other countries).

Show threadAustin (=> @[email protected])Jul 22, 2023

@torb @sinabhfuil @feijoa We actually have a word for the phenomenon: 基建狂魔 (lit. "infrastructure monster"). Also, local officials attract these projects to show off (though I suppose that's similar to the rest of the world).

Of course, how the labour for building these infrastructure is treated remains to be discussed...

Japan is probably the middle ground here (at least in terms of railways).

Show threadColm Ó Donnchadha
@austin @torb @sinabhfuil @feijoa
Hokkaido is the same size as Ireland yet only has one high speed líne connecting to the rest of Japan, no internal high speed lines, and many cities not rail connected
And Shinkansen lines started in 1964
Jul 22, 2023 at 5:56pmWeb
Show threadAustin (=> @[email protected])Jul 23, 2023
@ColmDonoghue @torb @sinabhfuil @feijoa I meant Japan in general… But also JR Hokkaido has been operating at a serious loss and standard lines are being abandoned in favour of buses. Like in other countries, population density is quite low in rural Japan, though the effect is not as pronounced as in other regions as profits from a large urban area tend to subsidize costs in rural areas. Anyways, they’re still building the Shinkansen to Sapporo...