China's train maker CRRC recently unveiled the high-speed train at a railway industry trade fair, in Berlin, Germany. According to the manufacturing company, the train is developed with indigenous technology developed by China. It said that the train prototype has already conducted a successful test run in Chengdu province of China.
Yeah, all too often with these technological marvels it’s tempting to ignore how to get them adopted in the real world. You can have the fastest train, but if it’s too difficult to build then adoption will be hard. And as with so many other things, standardization is a giant leap forward. I think with something like Maglev we’ll need to see some pretty significant standardization before it sees much adoption.
I’m a little reminded of how my own city has rail transit. There is the Portland Streetcar and the MAX light rail. The streetcar primarily travels with other traffic, while the MAX is primarily on its own right-of-way. They both use standard gauge and the same cantilever setup, so if the Streetcar needs to move along the MAX network it just switches lines and away it goes. It also means the equipment can be delivered directly via intercity rail without complicated setups.
Yeah, all too often with these technological marvels it’s tempting to ignore how to get them adopted in the real world. You can have the fastest train, but if it’s too difficult to build then adoption will be hard. And as with so many other things, standardization is a giant leap forward. I think with something like Maglev we’ll need to see some pretty significant standardization before it sees much adoption.
I’m a little reminded of how my own city has rail transit. There is the Portland Streetcar and the MAX light rail. The streetcar primarily travels with other traffic, while the MAX is primarily on its own right-of-way. They both use standard gauge and the same cantilever setup, so if the Streetcar needs to move along the MAX network it just switches lines and away it goes. It also means the equipment can be delivered directly via intercity rail without complicated setups.