Greener Future:
Looks like the Chinese are staying a step ahead of the US in the green how to department. The Chinese Ministry of Railways has announced that it will buy 80 "very high speed trains" from Bombardier's Chinese joint ventre Bombardier Sifang to add to China's fast-growing network of high-speed rail. The ZEFIRO 380 trains are both very efficient (more on that below) and very fast, and should help make transportation in China greener, especially if train trips displace plane trips.
The order is for 20 eight-car trainsets and 60 sixteen-car trainsets, for a total of 1,120 cars.
The ZEFIRO 380 has a maximum operating speed of 380 kilometers per hour (236 miles per hour) and is designed for efficiency.
$300 Billion to be Invested in High-Speed Rail Through 2020
The contract is estimated at 27.4 billion Chinese Renminbis ($4 billion US, 2.7 billion euros). But this is only part of it. As Alex recently wrote, "China is investing over $300 billion in high-speed rail through 2020, in a bid to speed ahead of the rest of the world's train systems."
This announcement is just another reminder that we need a high-speed rail system in North-America. It might not make sense everywhere, but there are many major cities that could certainly benefit from modern high-speed train links.
Source: Treehugger
Those are some amazing trains there! I'm no expert but I think European and Asian countries that can invest in rail travel actually will. It's probably not a fair comparison since we in the US have such a small percentage of rail travelers. That said, what we have here in the Northeast really stinks!
ReplyDeleteOMG! you got on the Front Page of Yahoo! you are so damned LUCKY! this is a GREAT piece! thank you for bringing such a great article to me again! Terry (an Unbiased!) Cheers, Ian! TV~
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