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Wen丨Xiaofei is a little annoyed
Editor丨Xiaofei is a little annoyed
Preface
The construction of high-speed rail has always been the strength of the mainland, not only has the world's largest high-speed rail network, but also will help neighboring countries to build together to achieve common prosperity.
But when it comes to the total length of the railway, although the mainland has invested a lot, the longest country is actually the United States, but the United States' high-speed rail is completely insufficient compared with the mainland, why is the United States, as a world power, so slow to build high-speed rail?
High-speed rail and railroads in the United States
The construction of railways in the United States can be said to be in the first echelon of the world, as early as 1825 during the first industrial revolution the first railroad was built in the United Kingdom, the total length is only a short 21 kilometers, but it is such a sample that other countries see hope for the future.
In 1839, the United States gave birth to its first railroad, and then relied on its original capital accumulation to begin large-scale construction, this process lasted for 80 years, the United States successfully entered the "railroad age", during which the United States also experienced the Civil War, even so the American railroad journey still reached a terrifying 50,000 kilometers.
And this data, the mainland in the late 70s of the last century was realized, the development of the continental railway is 100 years behind, and then after the end of the American Civil War, the North and the South unified the laying conditions, the development of the railway has become more rapid, to 1916 the total mileage of the United States railroad has come to 410,000 kilometers, this number is more than the world countries combined.
Logically speaking, with such a tough foundation, high-speed rail should not be a problem for the United States, why can high-speed rail in the United States fail now?
It's not that the United States doesn't want to lay high-speed rail, but the domestic resistance is too great, when Obama took office, he planned to build 13 high-speed rail lines, promising to let 80% of Americans take high-speed rail, but the president of the United States has changed 2 people, and the plan is still in a state of shelf, and the specific reason is not that the government does not do things, but that he is called the United States, so it can't work.
First of all, the United States is vast and sparsely populated, even if the government spends a lot of budget to lay high-speed rail in place, if no one does it, there will not even be money for operation and maintenance in the later stage, so the United States may face significant financial pressure if it rashly lays subways.
And this high-speed rail is not said to be the rigid needs of the Americans, because after the precipitation of time, the United States has long formed its own set of travel norms, their aviation industry and automobile industry are very developed, the number of airports has come to 20,061, and the airport has been the standard configuration of a city.
And there are many airlines, and there is competition between them, so American air tickets are relatively cheap, so even if high-speed rail is laid, it is difficult for the government to return the price to the cost, let alone cars, and their high-speed network is also very large.
And most of the highways are free of charge, so Americans will choose to drive if they want to go out for a short distance, and they will choose to take a plane if they want to go out for a long distance, and the location of the high-speed rail is a bit awkward.
In addition to these realities, there are also some hidden problems, if the decision to build high-speed rail is bound to be a long-term project, the governor of the United States only serves for four years, and whether it can survive is unknown, so if there is a sudden change, the high-speed rail project will even be shelved.
Combined with a combination of multiple circumstances, the total length of high-speed rail in the United States is only 5,380 kilometers so far, while the mainland's high-speed rail has reached 42,000 kilometers by the end of 2022, ranking first in the world.
High-speed rail construction in the mainland
Don't look at the development of high-speed rail in the mainland today in the forefront of the world, but at the beginning it can be described as difficult, high-speed rail debuted in the world in 1964 Japan's Shinkansen, but the mainland in 2004 began to develop, although he and the train are used tracks, but there is an essential difference between the two, we can only learn from the technology and experience of other countries, parts are also dependent on imports.
This situation has been maintained until 2008, the mainland finally accumulated a certain amount of experience, began independent research and development, in 2010 the mainland for the first time launched the self-designed high-speed rail 380-A, the mainland with the acquired efforts to successfully make up for the previous shortcomings, so far the mainland began to lay high-speed rail.
Now the high-speed rail has basically achieved comprehensive popularization, making it more convenient for us to travel, but some experts ridiculed that building high-speed rail is a loss-making deal. This sentence pulls us back to reality, yes, even if the mainland has a population of 1.4 billion, the high-speed rail is still in a state of perennial loss, and even 95.5 billion can be lost in half a year, so why does the country know that it is losing money and still wants to build?
First of all, the main point of view is to build roads first, in 1997, the average speed of trains in the mainland was 43 kilometers per hour, and it even took several days to go from Beijing to Shenzhen, which is still a light person, if it is to transport goods, it will be slower, so the high-speed rail must be repaired, and although it seems to be a loss on the surface, but the actual benefits are immeasurable.
Take the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway as an example, it used to take 14 hours from Beijing to Shanghai, but now the emergence of the high-speed rail directly shortens the time to about 4-5 hours, and such a simple shortening of time has obviously driven the GDP growth of surrounding cities.
According to the data released by the Railway Bureau, every 100 million yuan invested in the high-speed rail project can drive the surrounding GDP growth of 180 million, while the total investment of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway is more than 200 billion, and the conservative estimate of GDP growth has reached more than 400 billion.
And for us ordinary people, in the past, we used to go far away by car or train, no matter which one was very slow, and now with the popularization of high-speed rail, he has gradually become our preferred means of transportation, some people say that airplanes are faster, why doesn't the country vigorously develop airplanes?
China has a set of data China's 1.4 billion people, about 1 billion people have never taken a plane, it is undeniable that the plane is indeed fast, and the safety factor is also the highest in the means of transportation, but if you just talk about cost performance, the plane in the mainland is completely blown up by high-speed rail.
Not to mention the high price, the airport penetration rate is also one of the important reasons, so the high-speed rail has an irreplaceable position in the hearts of the people of the mainland, so there is really no comparison between the mainland's high-speed rail and the United States and high-speed rail, if you just look at the data, the mainland does win the United States too much, but considering the actual situation, it is just a difference in choice.
summary
If the United States wants to build a high-speed rail like ours, it can only be said that it is thankless, no one can do it, and the follow-up operation and maintenance is estimated to be a problem.
At this stage, high-speed rail is the best choice for us, it is more cost-effective than airplanes, it is faster than ordinary freight, although it is a loss on the surface, but it is actually a sacrifice made by the country for GDP growth and national happiness.