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© KYODOHitachi expanding North America train business with new U.S. plant
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Sh1mon M4sada
Hitachi - Oh yeah, that's what we're talking about, time to send CRRC home Mr Biden. Inflation would be totally gone if Tesla Semi was doing freight, and Hitachi diesel-electric locos are carrying commuters.
Septim Dynasty
More quality problems, I assume?
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-61021701
https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/derby-news/hitachi-trains-fail-after-beating-5894651
WA4TKG
Don't know if you're joking or not there M4sada...but it IS pathetic the US doesn't use more trains / metro systems than it does. People are too obsessed with their cars.
I enjoyed NOT owning a car in Tokyo and having more money to SPEND.
No gas, no insurance, nevermind parking.
Sh1mon M4sada
Very serious, and I agree with you, more public transport would completely decouple USA from midle east oil, not to mention climate friendly. USA needs more Hitachi trains. Send the Chinese CRRC (CCP subsidised) crowd home while they're at it.
1glenn
The opposition of the American oil cartel to high speed rail has been bad for the well being of the country. Perhaps Hitachi's political clout will help offset Big Oil's. America remains the only major country without high speed rail.
Samit Basu
@Septim Dynasty
It depends on crashworthiness standard.
Japan doesn't have a train crash standard, so Japanese vendors struggle supplying trains built to a specific crash standard due to increased weight, as has been the case with Hitachi in UK(cracking) and Nippon Sharyo with AMTRAK(Contract cancelled after Nippon Sharyo couldn't meet FRA crash standard).
Subway cars may not have to meet a crashworthiness standard due to heavy PTC(Positive Traffic Control), so Japan's chances are better there.
lostrune2
it's a culture thing - Americans value more the freedom of cars and not having to share their space with other people
Even in the presence of HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) Lanes in US highways to reward carpooling, carpooling continue to decrease for decades
Desert Tortoise
Hitachi doesn't make diesel-electric locomotives. GM Electro-Motive Division or GM-EMD and GE make those. Most Hitachi rail equipment is pure electric, whether heavy rail, light rail or subways. They do sell what are called DMUs, Diesel powered Multi-Unit trains. These look like any other light rail system but instead of a pantograph on top taking power from overhead rail lines each car in the train has it's own diesel engine usually mounted under the passenger compartment. Instead of a locomotive pulling a string of unpowered passenger or freight cars, each car has its own much smaller engine.
Desert Tortoise
Both wrong. What killed off passenger rail in the US were faster and larger post WWII airliners. By the early 1950s most passenger rail lines were losing money. Where an old DC-3 took a couple of days to cross the US before WWII something line a Lockheed Constellation or a Douglas DC-6 could do it in hours. Southern Pacific Railroad ceased all passenger operations in 1953.
Another factor is that almost every rail line in the US is owned by a freight railroad. Amtrak or the major commuter rail lines like Calrail, Metrolink, etc., have to pay the freight railroads to use their tracks, and operate only on a not to interfere basis with their freight trains. Union (Useless) Pacific Rairoad won't allow Amtrak to use their rail lines over the Tehachapi Mountains for example so there is no direct rail service from LA through the high desert to Bakersfield and north to Sacramento or the Bay Area. You can take Metrolink from LA Union Station to Lancaster C but from there you have to take a couple of buses to Mohave and then to Bakersfield to get on an Amtrak train to the Bay Area. You find similar situationa all across the US. I think the only trackage Amtrak actually controls is the Northeast Corridor. Everywhere else they are at the mercy of freight railroad schedules. One last drawback is that a lot of those freight lines are bumpy and curvy, not flat and straight and trains have to creep along at low speeds in places.
Desert Tortoise
How much diesel fuel do you think those big locomotives burn? It's not like the US has a lot of electrified rail lines. Those only exist for heavy rail in the northeast. Everywhere else trains are pulled by big thirsty diesel locomotives.
Sh1mon M4sada
Hitachi invented them....
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BEC819_series
Sh1mon M4sada
@Desert
more specifically:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_800