cal127
High Supremacy Member
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- Feb 26, 2002
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Massive loss is because very few passengers so not sure where's the time saving or carbon reduction.
Carbon footprint from the HSR per passenger is likely way higher compared to the average passenger on the road.
Some Japs are in fact quite happy with the current speed of shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka. The maglev plan is a waste of both financial and engineering resources to some lobbies. But Abe-san cannot lose his face, so on it goes. Maglev technology can eventually pay off under certain circumstances. That however assumes that oil will be much harder to come by at much higher prices than today coupled with a lack of synthetic fuel suitable for mass production. At that point civil aviation will have an infarct and we'll have to look at substitutes for domestic flights. The Maglev will win thanks to its speed. That's however with a lots of "ifs" and predictions that are nowhere near to happen in the next couple of decades. The Chinese can keep holding that bag of dicks in the meantime.

