Railroad adventure VI: Taiwan High Speed Rail
My blogging has suffered from all the work of finishing my book, on which I also spent much of my free time in Japan. So I have many things still to say about what I have been doing in the last few weeks, which have included trips for lecturing to Taiwan and Japan.
In Taiwan, I had the pleasure of experiencing the Taiwanese bullet train. Very pleasant.
The rail line was of course very straight. To take this photo, I stepped over the yellow line. Immediately, a guard blew his whistle and signed for me to step back behind it. I had of course checked carefully that there was no train anywhere close to where we were.
The train eventually arrived. Exactly on time, of course!
We made up to 290 km/h, but I have picture evidence only for 287. You'll just have to trust me for the last 3 kms! Despite the speed, the train ran more smoothely than the small train between Ludvika and Västerås, and of course much, much faster. Actually, I think this was much smoother than SJ's vaunted X2000 express train. The Swedish government is cutting funding for track maintenance, apparently wishing to go down the same drain as the USA both for communications and for highschool education (where Sweden is already almost there).
The happy travellers on the way back from the conference, together with our gracious Taiwanese minders.
In Taiwan, I had the pleasure of experiencing the Taiwanese bullet train. Very pleasant.
The rail line was of course very straight. To take this photo, I stepped over the yellow line. Immediately, a guard blew his whistle and signed for me to step back behind it. I had of course checked carefully that there was no train anywhere close to where we were.
The train eventually arrived. Exactly on time, of course!
We made up to 290 km/h, but I have picture evidence only for 287. You'll just have to trust me for the last 3 kms! Despite the speed, the train ran more smoothely than the small train between Ludvika and Västerås, and of course much, much faster. Actually, I think this was much smoother than SJ's vaunted X2000 express train. The Swedish government is cutting funding for track maintenance, apparently wishing to go down the same drain as the USA both for communications and for highschool education (where Sweden is already almost there).
The happy travellers on the way back from the conference, together with our gracious Taiwanese minders.
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