And Canadian airlines.
Wow. China has around 50,000 km of high-speed rail, and they only started building it in 2008. On directly competitive routes, Chinese HSR has driven a 24.6% drop in flights and a 28.2% decline in air passenger volume. Which, unsurprisingly, is exactly why airlines in the U.S. have been lobbying against high-speed rail for ages.
Gerald Butts (former senior Liberal advisor) points out that Canadian airlines lobby hard against rail, too.
"Wow. China has around 50,000 km of high-speed rail, and they only started building it in 2008.
"On directly competitive routes, Chinese HSR has driven a 24.6% drop in flights and a 28.2% decline in air passenger volume.
"Which, unsurprisingly, is exactly why airlines in the U.S. have been lobbying against high-speed rail for ages."
Ah, finally took a moment to track down this quote - it is not M Butts.
It is M Butts quote-posting @aaliamauro's threads post - https://www.threads.com/@aaliamauro/post/DWpmp--D7Ye (Sorry for linking to a META site, but at least you have been warned.)
It appears part of a coordinated publicity campaign to highlight China's HSR accomplishment of 50,000 km - China has had more than ⅔ of all HSR since 2023.
Amazing, but there's room for improvement! It has been 10+ years since Japan's 603 km/h record.
Wow. China has around 50,000 km of high-speed rail, and they only started building it in 2008. On directly competitive routes, Chinese HSR has driven a 24.6% drop in flights and a 28.2% decline in air passenger volume. Which, unsurprisingly, is exactly why airlines in the U.S. have been lobbying against high-speed rail for ages.
Gerald Butts
Brian Gordon
Amgine