Does anybody have experience in China? I heard a lot that their train system is much better at this point. So, for example, the same distance will take almost two times less in China.
In my experience (primarily in the south), high speed rail in China is fast if you only consider station to station time, but the amount of bureaucracy at either end is comparable to flying. You can't buy tickets without ID, you can rarely find same day tickets, there's no option for standing carriage, there's numerous security checkpoints and lots of lining up. It's best to arrive at the station an hour plus beforehand with prebooked tickets. Meanwhile the stations themselves are often way outside the urban centers you probably wanted to visit and there's not much nearby to do that isn't overpriced shopping mall/chain store stuff. You also can't leave and reenter the stations at will, you have to pass through security each time, just like an airport.
I found traveling by slow train or long distance bus much more pleasant in China because you can just walk in, buy a ticket to wherever and head out the same day. They take ages and there are all the usual delays, but the experience is much less stressful and more comparable to the train experience people from other countries might expect.
All that said, I'd still pick Chinese high speed rail over flying just for emissions reasons if nothing else.
They have lots of options (fast/slow/sleeper/premium/etc..): https://www.travelchinaguide.com/china-trains/display.aspx?t... and also pricing is more predictable. In general, it's only a bit cheaper than flying but China rail stations are usually in the center of their cities, so you save 30minx2 vs the airport.
in beijing and in changsha the primary high speed railway stations are almost as far out from the city as the airports. shanghai is also at one of the airport (the one that is closer to the city at least). i believe several other cities are similar. the problem is that chinese cities are huge, so looking at the map it feels like the trainstations are in the city, but then the same is true for many airports.
The trains in China are amazing. Most of the current track has been built in the last ten years. They’re done connecting major cities, so now we’re seeing high speed lines to places like Beijing suburbs, which turn multiple-hour car rides into 40 minute train rides.
For trips up to about 1500km I’ll favor the train because it’s just more comfortable — security checks are sane, no luggage check, and more leg room. Beijing to Shanghai could be faster by train or by plane depending on which airport you fly into, and where your destination is within the city.
Beijing to HK is a different story. The fastest trains to Shenzhen (right across from HK) are currently 7h50m, compared to a 3.5 hr flight. An overnight sleeper is a good option, especially if you have 3 friends to travel with.
It’s brand new and they have put in place modern technologies everywhere. So it works very well.
Amusingly, China uses pieces of technology which were developed in Europe for its train system. Signalling is a good exemple (CTCS is basically ETCS). Europe is as usual deploying at a snail pace while China put it everywhere.
It was obvious from the start it would end up this way. China is an actual country while Europe is a loose collection of countries which don’t really like each other supposedly spearheaded by Germany which actually only cares about pushing policies in its own interest and actively hinder anything else, and France which remains stuck thirty years in the past and is actively being sabotaged by most of the things the EU forces it to do regarding infrastructure (more true in energy than in rail that being said).
The New York Central 999 broke 160km/hr in the 19th century. The US had commercial express train service running at similar speeds in the early 1900s. Outside the TGV Europe isn’t a few years behind they are like a century behind.
I guess it is a century behind because Europe hasn't scrapped their commuter rail for roads. I took a train from Manhattan today and its theoretical max speed is 110 mile/h, so the US has fallen behind Europe by your logic.
That’s non sense. TGV speed record is 320km/h by the way and 160km/h is a pedestrian daily occurrence on the French rail system. Meanwhile the US has somehow decided trains are for freight and as no decent rail system in place for travellers.
The discussion makes sense with China which is pushing forward quickly using new tech. The US is not even part of it.
It doesn't have much to do with "China being an actual country".
Germany alone is also an actual country and the trains inside it's borders are super slow.
In China and Japan, many long distance trains get 320 km/h average speed!
The German ICE "machine" could theoretically also do that speed but there are barely any tracks where this is possible, so the average speed is around 3x slower.
In France and Italy it is much better. TGV and Frecciarossa trains usually operate much closer to their specced speeds.
germany is making the big mistake of mixed use tracks. in china high speed tracks are dedicated to high speed trains, and a high speed connection means dedicated high speed tracks for the whole trip. germany is creating a patchwork of high speed routes thinking that this is enough to make high speed trains work.
The slowness regarding rolling out things like ETCS, ATS and standardised European infrastructure as everything to do with Europe not being an actual united political entity. As you rightfully pointed, some EU members rail strategy is very dubious.
