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Japan in driver's seat for Indian bullet train deals

22 Comments
By Neha Dasgupta, Rupam Jain and Yuka Obayashi

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© Thomson Reuters 2018.

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22 Comments
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Great project for India. Population density really makes it a no brainer in the long term for them and they have quite a strong rail culture as well.

One day, bullet train around the entire circumference of Australia and straight across the middle, Sydney to Perth ;)

Should only cost oh, maybe $500 billion and take 100 years to build lol.

What be a wonderful though.

Maybe better of waiting for ultra cheap plane technology.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

People in India better behave and stay clear off the tracks if Indian government initiaties a Japanese style Bullet Train.... Ive seen India's train where people clamour and ride on the top of those things.... not so with ultra high speed bullet trains...... and the cows in India.... another problem that India will have to deal with.

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Old, but reliable technology. Hyperloop is much faster and energy efficient, it will start to replace bullet trains in coming decades.

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Really good news, although am skeptical about the part on technology transfer. India does not have a good track record of foreign businesses operating freely in India so a technology transfer clause needs proper guarantees and a reliable court system for dispute settlement

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@Matt Hartwell

Great project for India.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation/railways/when-japanese-bullet-train-flopped-in-taiwan-lessons-for-india/articleshow/60731283.cms

When Japanese bullet train flopped in Taiwan: Lessons for India?

ET Online Sep 18, 2017, 04.42 PM IST

NEW DELHI: Bullet trains are not a hit everywhere. While a debate is raging over viability of India's bullet train project which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last week, it would be worthwhile to know how bullet train fared in Taiwan. It flopped, actually.

The success and the failure of this project depends on the location of stations.

Due to Shinkansen's inability to share tracks with existing trains, most of Taiwan's Shinkansen train stations were put on the outskirt of Taiwan's cities, making the train access as difficult as getting to and from the airport. This depressed ridership, resulting in financial difficulties of Taiwan HSR.

Same problem is ruining the Texas Central HSR which is backed by JR Central and uses Shinkansen system. Because a Shinkansen train cannot reach the AMTRAK station in downtown Houston, the end terminal would be the outskirt of Houston, and it would take another hour to get to Downtown Houston by some other means of public transportation. To reach the downtown Houston, the Texas Central HSR must build a new track all the way to downtown by demolishing thousands of homes, dig a miles long underground tunnel at tens of billions of dollars, or use something other than Shinkansen, namely French TGV or Korean KTX-II.

So unless India is willing to displace hundreds of thousands of families to build brand new tracks that run through India's downtowns, India Shinkansen could flop like Taiwan Shinkansen for exactly the same reason; the accessibility problem.

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Will be interesting to see if the Indian custom of 3rd-class customers riding on the train roof continues with the shinkansen!

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Sourced from reuters and mostly inaccurate article, example the MoU was signed way back in Dec 2015. And Japan is not in the drivers seat, Modi is in the drivers seat, he could have easily given this project to China or France, also its not about this project but all the other projects which will follow..

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Shinkansen's inability to share tracks with existing trains

There are dual gauge tracks in the Seikan tunnel allowing Shinkansen and regular trains to share them.

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@JonathanJo

There are dual gauge tracks in the Seikan tunnel allowing Shinkansen and regular trains to share them.

Train compatibility is more than just the track gauge compatibility.

Shinkansen is the textbook Jalapagos example in the bullet train world.

Japan has no train crash standard of any kind what so ever,(Shocking, but true) so no consideration was given to crash strength in development and manufacture of Shinkansen models believing that Japan's advanced TPS and complete grade segregation would prevent collision and this was held true in Japan. This makes Shinkansen a death trap in the event a collision does occur, especially against freight trains or locomotives.

Japanese high speed railway's axle load limit is 11 tons vs 17 tons in everywhere else. This lower axle load limit reduces construction cost and railway maintenance cost, but makes it impossible for Shinkansen to comply with international train crash standard.

Because of above reasons, Shinkansen trains cannot share tracks with existing legacy trains; it must have a completely dedicated and segregated track all to itself. This means new stations must be built in areas where there is less population, usually the outskirt of cites, instead of city centers. That would defeat the purpose of bringing the bullet train line to a city and the usage is depressed.

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It seems that very soon only USA will be a country that do not have bullet trains in the world. Japan must be glad India will manufacture. India will have increased tourists.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

It seems that very soon only USA will be a country that do not have bullet trains in the world

It doesn't need them. The US already has the world's best freigtht rail system and the highways are free. Hardly any Americans want all their expressways tolled, which the Japanese must do to maintain Shinkansen ridership.

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Hardly any Americans want all their expressways tolled, which the Japanese must do to maintain Shinkansen ridership.

Expressway tolls have nothing to do with the Shinkansen, or making people ride instead of drive. It's common sense, if you're going a long way, to sit in comfort and read/snooze instead of spending hours in a state of alert awareness, arriving tired, stiff and worn out, hours after your mates who chose to ride.

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"It's common sense..."

Not if you're a 4-member family. The cost of visiting in-laws in another city is prohibitive when your only options are the Shink or (artificially expensive) automobile. Families I know in Japan skip or minimize such trips. This usually isn't a problem in other developed countries with free expressways.

The Japanese pay a huge financial cost for their bullet train, way, way beyond their ticket prices. In addition to the financial punishments meted out to the millsions of motorists, it also includes how Japanese taxpayers are funding Indian commuters and many others, given how the Japanese govt is funding these overseas Shinkansen systems.

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In USA, majority of states, there is no trains. People just use their cars or airplane rides.

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In USA, majority of states, there is no trains. People just use their cars or airplane rides.

Is that so. And these are just the passenger lines. Maybe "majority" was the wrong word. From Las Vegas, you can get to any major city you like, and even Montreal.

https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/public/documents/Maps/Natl-System-Timetable-0317.pdf

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State of Washington installed railroad system similar to Japanese bullet train, but not by Japanese. Last year, it fell on cliff while tried to run to. State boarder and many riders were killed. There are wood burning trains still running in former cowboy towns. One passenger unit, several animal units. Las Vegas and Palm Bbeach, Calif. tried to have Japan's bullet train several times. But Japan denied. Multi billionaires were hoping to invest. There is no inter continental railroad system in USA.

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@Jeff: Highway? Don't you mean Freeway?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

US shut down is partial shut down. So, India project, Japan will continue. Then, there will be other kind of trade increase. Japan is poor in natural resource. Factories use automation to cope people shortage but there in India Japan can relax.

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It seems that very soon only USA will be a country that do not have bullet trains in the world

USA and UK will have a Hyperloop soon, which is a newer and better technology, compared to Shinkansen.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

@bosphoorus:

Are you sure?

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What is hyperloop? I know UK is very small country and it does not manufacture cars in USA.

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I assume it doesn't snow in India. After Shinkansen is activated, I am sure its tourism will bee boomed. Shicansen usury have dining room unit curried food there might not be too hot.

Former. British colonies in Asia have been eager to work. together with Japanese industry.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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