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That's because they mostly avoided mountains on their high speed routes. The Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen mostly follow the coastline and the Tohoku Shinkansen

That's because they mostly avoided mountains on their high speed routes. The Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen mostly follow the coastline and the Tohoku Shinkansen mostly goes through a valley. There are lines that do bore through mountain ranges, but nothing to the extent of several hundred miles as would be required for a line through the California coastal range.

jbay808 7y ago
Except the one they're building now... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%AB%C5%8D_Shinkansen https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%AB%C5%8D_Shinkansen "About 90% of the 286-kilometre (178 mi) line to Nagoya will be built underground or through tunnels"
- Gibbon1 7y ago
  I feel like this sort of thing just proves that the problem with building high speed rail in the US is cultural[1] and political[2] not technical or economic. [1] Americans have been carefully propagandized to believe that governments can't do anything right. And cars represent manhood and freedom. [2] For instance Ubber and Lift are funding the same anti public transportation organizations the Koch brother(s) were.
  - WillPostForFood 7y ago
    Americans have been carefully propagandized to believe that governments can't do anything right Then the people decide to give the government a chance, pass a proposition asking for rail, and then the government completely screws it up. Terrible route, corrupt, massively over budget, graft, and effectively cancelled after a decade of waste and work. So now even progressive people in progressive California are thinking the government can't so anything right, not because of propaganda, but because they see the failure.
- HenryKissinger 7y ago
  As someone who loves tunnels, I'm going to write myself a note to try this line when I make my first trip to Japan.
  - m4rtink 7y ago
    Well, then definitely try the Kurobe Gorge mountain railway! It's a originally industrial railway in a deep valley that was used for dam construction. On the hour long journey it goes through none less than 42 tunnels & the view (when not underground :) ) is breathtaking. :)
- MrFlynn 7y ago
  And the current estimated cost of that hsr system exceeds the estimated cost of the entire 520 mi (840 km) phase 1 system in California. Imagine scaling the cost of a similar design to travel the distance from SF to LA, ignoring the fact that the Japanese tend to build these grand infrastructure projects far more cost effectively than we do.
rangibaby 7y ago
The maglev Shinkansen is literally a tunnel bored from Tokyo to Nagoya

jbay808 7y ago

Except the one they're building now... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%AB%C5%8D_Shinkansen https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%AB%C5%8D_Shinkansen "About 90% of the 286-kilometre (178 mi) line to Nagoya will be built underground or through tunnels"

Gibbon1 7y ago
I feel like this sort of thing just proves that the problem with building high speed rail in the US is cultural[1] and political[2] not technical or economic. [1] Americans have been carefully propagandized to believe that governments can't do anything right. And cars represent manhood and freedom. [2] For instance Ubber and Lift are funding the same anti public transportation organizations the Koch brother(s) were.
- WillPostForFood 7y ago
  Americans have been carefully propagandized to believe that governments can't do anything right Then the people decide to give the government a chance, pass a proposition asking for rail, and then the government completely screws it up. Terrible route, corrupt, massively over budget, graft, and effectively cancelled after a decade of waste and work. So now even progressive people in progressive California are thinking the government can't so anything right, not because of propaganda, but because they see the failure.
HenryKissinger 7y ago
As someone who loves tunnels, I'm going to write myself a note to try this line when I make my first trip to Japan.
- m4rtink 7y ago
  Well, then definitely try the Kurobe Gorge mountain railway! It's a originally industrial railway in a deep valley that was used for dam construction. On the hour long journey it goes through none less than 42 tunnels & the view (when not underground :) ) is breathtaking. :)
MrFlynn 7y ago
And the current estimated cost of that hsr system exceeds the estimated cost of the entire 520 mi (840 km) phase 1 system in California. Imagine scaling the cost of a similar design to travel the distance from SF to LA, ignoring the fact that the Japanese tend to build these grand infrastructure projects far more cost effectively than we do.

rangibaby 7y ago

The maglev Shinkansen is literally a tunnel bored from Tokyo to Nagoya