re: China's high speed rail

Conrad,
I think a well-developed train system would benefit China greatly, one
that would interconnect small villages to the large population
centers, etc. (social issues and problems aside, ie, bring development
to far-flung rural areas). Like you gave the US as an example when
this country was first developing its infrastructure.

But the article was about an uber-expensive experimental high speed
rail that connected two cities, that will be a drop in the bucket in
terms of passenger volume, and in my opinion was simply for bragging
rights of a very fast train for a country obviously trying to puff up
its chest on the world stage. It will not benefit the average person,
and they cannot afford to build out an entire high speed train system
throughout the country. Not very communistic when you don't do things
that benefit the populace. But, maybe I don't understand communism.
Either way, it is not the bang for your buck you are looking for when
you want to move MASSIVE amounts of people from point A to B. Regular
trains would do that.

Avi,
See above for clarification. I called out a few countries (the
governments, not the people) with glaring examples of what I am
talking about. And these were not opinions, these are facts. These are
countries that clearly are making unintelligible choices in how they
spend their money with a clear neglect of the common person for the
advancement of a government goal at the cost of everyday people. It is
certainly not a critique on the many fine people of all of these
countries who want a better life for themselves and their family, and
I am in full support of that. But when countries with very large
populations who are struggling to feed, clothe and provide shelter for
their people spend tons of money on things like this, it should be
criticized.

Even with our basic needs met, here in the US we constantly criticize
our government's spending, as we should in a healthy democracy. Some
would say we take the prize in stupid spending!

Anyway, sorry for consuming time on the list for non-structural
engineering. I am a bit of a transportation engineer at heart.

Andrew Kester, PE
Florida

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