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Thread: What do you think of high speed trains in China?
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[quote=THE_GREEN_MARTIAN,431131]Antwerp, Belgium, 09/06/2011, Hello, Good question! Theoretically, I like high speed trains, as they can compete with (polluting) domestic flights, and they give the railways a fresh, modern image! :-) However, in practice I generally don't take them... In the last 11 trips through China, I travelled almost 80.000 km by train, but less than 1000 of that was by high speed train... I think some sad mistakes were made, such as the fact that those trains usually stop in new stations in the middle of nowhere, far away from the city center. This way, you need at least an hour extra on either side of the trip, reducing much of the time gained by the higher speeds... Furthermore, the connections on which they are used are often badly chosen! Between Beijing and Shanghai for example! I used to be able to take a Z-train around 19:30, to arrive around 07:30 in the morning. The result is that I can do what I want on both the departure day as on the day of arrival, as I'm travelling while sleeping! Soon, the high speed line will open, reducing travel time to about 4 to 5 hours... Seems nice, but in practice completely useless, as you need to travel during the day. This way, you need to go to the station (1 hour), check-in and wait for the train (1 hour), travel by train (4 to 5 hours) and travel to the city center once again (1 hour), resulting in a time-loss of about 8 hours, from door to door. And all of it is during daylight hours! (For example from 10:00 to 18:00) So I'm not impressed... The result is that I loose time and money! :-/ In the future, I'll have to take the T-trains between Beijing and Shanghai, which are less attractive than the cancelled Z-trains on that connection... It would be something else when you could take a sleeper HST between - for example- Beijing and Guangzhou or even Kowloon, or between Beijing and Lanzhou, or further, in about 10 to 11 hours... That way, you can really win time, as those connections now take much longer than just one night... But usually the real comfort is more basic on such a HST... Last year I took such a HST between Shanghai and Beijing during the night (A Japanese style trainset), and I have to admit that I almost felt like a zombie after arrival in Beijing, whereas I usually felt great after a night in a smooth RW25T carriage of such a - now cancelled - Z-train on the same connection... :-) Another good example of HST trains is the service between Guangzhou and Shenzhen, which is more like a IC train in Europe. This connection is short and quick enough to be practical... :-) So my answer is not "yes" or "no", but "yes, if" or "No, unless"... :-) For the time being, I'll gladly continue to cross China in green trains, or in K, T or Z trains... ;-) Best regards, Joeri Vanvaerenbergh[/quote]
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