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Comment by ragebol | Hacker News Reader

The Shinkansen is just so awesome. GF an I toured Japan last October and we did all inter-city travel by the Shinkansen, using a Japan-Rail pass, so you can just walk through the entry gates. The punctuality is also unparalleled. On a different train, we arrived well in time for departure, only to find the train was delayed! Oh noes! The guy at the counter walked up and off the walkway to our platform to personally excuse himself for the 15 minute delay. Of course, the train was exactly 15 minutes late.

I wish Europe would have this level of high-speed rail. I'm starting a remote job next year, traveling to the office twice month. That trip will cost me ca. 6hrs one-way but with a Shinkansen, maybe 3 hours. The continent would be so much more close-knit with such train service.

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Europe could have that tomorrow, if it would really put its act together and regulate its train system more tightly. I did both a super-long distance commute (900km) bi-monthly and a regular daily commute (100km) using German trains for two years each. It was horrible. But with some proper coordination the network could become viable overnight: For example: Deutsche Bahn knows it unreliable even using their own weird definition of delays, but still they do noting to work with this information. Every time you book a train they will offer a journey with a time to switch trains below 5 or 10 Minutes, although the probability of reaching that is below two thirds.

I wish the US could have the level of European HSR.

We’ve spent 50 years explaining why it won’t work here and widening highways. Now to even acquire the land is incredibly expensive.

Now our dream is to go 700 mph so we can take the long way over cheaper land instead of directly at slower speeds.

Huh? A comfortable ride means the track needs to be straight - especially at high speeds.

A straight-ish track is a baseline requirement for high-speed, to maintain top speed (220mph in the most recent generation) you need a turn radius of a few miles.

That hasn't been strictly true since the tilting APT ran commercially in 1981. It was designed for sustained 160mph on 100mph line-curves.

The patents for the tilting mechanism were bought by FIAT who debugged the technology and it's now common on UK railways in the Pendolino trains.

Shame the Pendolinos very rarely (if ever) get up to full speed as our track maintenance and rail infrastructure in general is so poor.

The UK is also one of the most expensive places in the world to travel by rail, but that's a whole different story...

The best part is trains every 10 minutes or so. And so comfortable. I actually looked forward to the train journey.

Yep. Sort of the opposite of how we feel about plane flights. I would take a train to destinations within the U.S. if we had high-speed rail.

My take on HSR preferences, based on what I've personally experienced:

Japan=>Other Asian systems (Korea, China)> Europe (Italy, France, Germany, Spain) >>>U.S (Acela)

I am talking about the whole system, not just trains or ticketing or something specific.

Haven't been in any other countries' HSRs, so don't know.

Comparing Japan to China, the amazing thing is how organized the Japanese stations are. Being able to just walk on board a train that comes every 3 minutes is mind blowing.

I took high speed rail in China, and the one leg up China does have is the display showing the current speed! :)

Taiwan is very good too, and very affordable.

Also, be careful, just because a train is on your track 1-2 minutes before schedule doesn't mean it's yours... they put them close together and yours may be arriving exactly on time!

From personal experience, it's an easy mistake to make when you're running to make a connection... always check the number.

Can anyone explain unlike other countries how has the Shinkansen not crumbled like the trains in California or New York. Did they bet on the right technology early on and/or are they just better at upgrades ?

> Can anyone explain unlike other countries how has the Shinkansen not crumbled like the trains in California or New York.

Crumbled in what sense? Ridership?

BART Muni Caltrain all have a lot of delays and breakdowns. Some of them are also not safe to travel in (but this is besides the technical points.)

European countries have an interest in cutting down on the number of cars on the road. The Paris climate accord means that we all have to drastically cut CO2 emissions. Also European cities are suffering from air pollution.

This means that governments invest very heavily in trains and other mass transit. Trying desperately to keep cities livable and functional.

So… you're wondering if japan performs basic maintenance & rolling stock replacement?

Maintenance. Some countries invest a lot in active maintenance (Japan, Switzerland), some invest a bit (Germany, UK), some just don't or throw away their money (USA).

Service performance. Train ride in Japan is comfortable, fast, and on-time. (Highway in Japan has quite low speed limit that standard intercity train is faster on many routes)

Japanese train is quite expensive, but people feels that it's worth the money. Couple that with the fact that Japanese Taiheiyo belt is among the biggest, most densely populated area in the world, you can see where this is coming. At least 10 trains (14 on peak hour) of ~1300-seat, 400-meter-long Shinkansen trains depart Tokyo station for Nagoya/Osaka every hour from 6.00~24.00. It's even more frequent than subway service in many cities.

The fun thing about rail service is that maintenance cost does not go up very much with more train. So Shinkansen (especially the Tokaido Shinkansen) bring in a LOT of money, enough for the operating company (JR Central) to invest in building the new maglev Chuo Shinkansen all by itself.

Of course, local train lines outside major cities in in Japan are also struggling.

Owning a car is hard in Japan. There is generally no parking on any roads so you need a garage at home and parking off-street at work. Also, culturally, it is not seen as weird or cheap for a CEO to cycle to work, even in large enterprise companies. In the West, we are a little more status-driven by our vehicles I think ;-)

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