A Picture Worth a Thousand Words

[SuperDuper! 230]

Bullet trains are over rated and fail to deliver for the suffocating costs involved. It just don't work in the USA.

http://highspeedboondoggle.com/

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

UK Train

Much better looking than most FSU trains, the locomotive is comparable, but the FSU coaches are seriously WW2 vintage. 3rd class on an FSU train (cheap) puts you in a seat in a putrid car full of drunks, pickpockets, gopniki. 2nd class, almost the same price as plane tickets, gets you a sleeping berth and better accommodations but still no assurance your "neighbors" won't be obnoxious drunks. You can only assure this by purchasing 4 tickets and "buying out the couper" You bring your own food and drink. 1st class is nice but costs more than airplane tickets

Trying to peddle the idea that all the trains in the rest of the world are gleeming bullet trains is silly. I have traveled by train a lot in Europe and in general an Amtrak train is as good or better, I did not travel by bullet train unless you count UK "intercity" trains. Bullet trains are expensive to ride. Seriously, it is the ground equivilent of the SST and we see how well that did. They represent maybe 1 in 20 trains in those countries, if that much (just judging from what I saw at stations)

Also you need to have really good track condition for these high speed trains. We don't have it. The cost just to upgrade the track would knock the project out of the realm of feasibility.

[luckytxn 2,264]

Wonder what a real average train looks like in China.