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Thread: US transport chief rides 300-mph Japanese maglev

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    US transport chief rides 300-mph Japanese maglev

    May 12th, 2010 11:29 AM
    US transport chief rides 300-mph Japanese maglev

    Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood shops for bullet trains in Tsuru, Japan

    By Jay Alabaster / Associated Press

    TSURU, Japan — U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood took a ride Tuesday on the fastest passenger train in the world, a Japanese maglev, as part of Tokyo's sales pitch for billions of dollars in high-speed train contracts from the U.S.

    Washington is attempting to drive development of a new train network that will eventually span the country, but the U.S. has almost no domestic experience or technology. Japan, with one of the most advanced train systems in the world, is an eager seller, though it has had scant success with exports so far.

    LaHood, who in the past few months has also ridden high-speed trains in Spain and France, said he was impressed with Japanese technology but that was only part of the equation. He said potential manufacturers need to "come to America, find facilities to build this equipment in America, and hire American workers."

    "It's getting America into the high-speed rail business, but it's also putting Americans to work building the infrastructure," he said.

    During his short visit to Tsuru, a quiet town in the shadow of Mt. Fuji about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Tokyo, he came straight to the Maglev Test Line in Yamanashi prefecture. The train hit speeds of 311 miles per hour (502 kph) during a 27-minute run.

    Unlike standard trains that ride along on metal rails, magnetic levitation trains float along suspended by powerful magnets. The Japanese version, developed mainly by operator JR Central, uses superconducting magnets to hover above the track.

    The train set a speed record for a passenger train of 581 kilometers per hour (361 mph) in 2003, which JR officials say still holds today.

    After decades of testing, the train has been approved by the government and is to begin service in Japan in 2027 between Tokyo and central Nagoya.

    "I explained this is proven technology that is already in practical use," said JR Central Chairman Yoshiyuki Kasai.

    The U.S. in January awarded $8 billion in starter funds to several regional projects, and is due to give $2.5 billion more this year, LaHood said.

    Japan's high-speed rail services are among the most advanced in the world, with hundreds of trains running each day and an average annual delay that is typically less than a minute. No passengers have died from a collision or derailment in nearly a half century of service. The only derailment was during a major earthquake in 2004.

    For the sales pitch in the U.S., top government officials are working closely with the country's main train operators.

    But unlike in Europe, where border crossings and interoperability are prerequisites for doing business, Japan's trains have been developed on an island with homebrew technology. Other Japanese industries with enviable but non-compatible technologies, like its mobile phone operators, haven't fared well in repeated attempts to go abroad.

    In addition to the obvious financial benefits, Japan's sleek bullet trains are a point of pride for the country, and the media is closely following the sales race in the U.S. On Tuesday at the Otsuki research facility, dozens of photographers attempted to snap pictures of a 330-foot (100-meter) experimental train as it flew back and forth on the test track.

    http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/la...seeks-us-sales
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    Have sort of mixed feelings about this......

    There's no question that the existence of these trains here would be a major upgrade to the infrastructure of this country. Efficient, fast, Green transportation? What's not to like?

    Except for the part where the trains would be made by Japanese corporations. Surely there must be a company here in America capable of taking on the future of public transportation, hopefully employing a lot of well paid union jobs in the process?

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    I know where there are some abandoned factories we could get real cheap
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    The idea of a high speed bullet train operated by Americans seems like a really bad idea. As a people, we can't even get into a movie theater without being directed by a series of ropes. The whole thing reminds me of the episode of the Simpsons when Springfield got a monorail and figured things would work out swell if Homer was hired to drive the damned thing.
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    Quote Originally Posted by kwame k View Post
    I know where there are some abandoned factories we could get real cheap
    Yeah, this could resurrect Detroit if they went about it the right way. Maybe that's why Michael Moore had the article on his website?

    LaHood should get Granholm on the line and make this happen.

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    Fuck Granholm........never been a fan..........she had a chance a few years back to just sign a pledge that Michigan would get something like 10% of it's energy by renewable sources by 2015 or something like that......refused to sign it and Michigan lost millions of Federal dollars because of it.

    Thank God that twit is out of office this year!

    I remember watching a speech Obama gave here in '08.......saying that Detroit should be the world leader in manufacturing Green Technologies, that we had the skilled labor, factories and resources already in place! The only thing Michigan is leading the world in right now is Rust and Decay

    Fuck, it's worse here now than when I left for Colorado and I only left Jan of '09!

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    Yeah, she's the typical DLC'er. All for the corporations... nothing for the working class. And in Michigan's case, even the corporations aren't doing so well.

    I'm not a fan of her either, but I thought she might take advantage of this obvious opportunity to make up for some of her failures.

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    The small business tax here is killing all these offshoots of the auto industry but the reality is the auto industry is kicking ass. Ford posted a quarterly earning of a billion dollars, GM's paid off it's loans with interest, Chrysler is coming out with the new Phoenix engine, that according to my buddy who's building it, will be the engine of the future and what will give Chrysler a competitive advantage.....

    I still think it was all smoke and mirrors, to an extent with the auto industry.......here's the way I see it now in hindsight. The auto companies had signed shitty UAW contracts for years and were too bloated with factories, dealerships and employees. If they didn't use the panic, the sky is falling and tried to get the UAW to take a pay/benefit cut, fucked their retirees, closed factories, laid-off a ton of workers, closed a shit load of dealerships and their only excuse was they needed to trim the fat to be more profitable in a global market.......every motherfucker and their brother would of thrown a hissy fit and probably trashed and vandalized anything with a Big 3 logo on it.

    The smart play was to say if they didn't get the bailout they would go bankrupt.......have the government tell them that they had better streamline their companies and trim all the fat or else the government would do it for them. Make a few execs squirm on Capitol Hill, give some TV time to a few Senators up for reelection, looking like they really give a flying fuck about the Big Bad Auto Execs and at the end of the day do exactly what happened but without any repercussions from Joe six-pack!

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    I rode the Bullet Train from Tokyo to Fukuoka in '85 or so, that thing was fuckin' sweet.... I can only imagine what this thing is like....
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    Quote Originally Posted by kwame k View Post
    Fuck Granholm........never been a fan..........she had a chance a few years back to just sign a pledge that Michigan would get something like 10% of it's energy by renewable sources by 2015 or something like that......refused to sign it and Michigan lost millions of Federal dollars because of it.

    Thank God that twit is out of office this year!

    I remember watching a speech Obama gave here in '08.......saying that Detroit should be the world leader in manufacturing Green Technologies, that we had the skilled labor, factories and resources already in place! The only thing Michigan is leading the world in right now is Rust and Decay

    Fuck, it's worse here now than when I left for Colorado and I only left Jan of '09!
    I helped Michigan by buying a new Kalamazoo belt sander with a MADE IN USA Dayton motor. It's top quality and will last generations.
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    Given a level playing field....I'd put Michigan up against anyone!

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    I would lean towards buying a Ford since they didn't take any bailout money. I have not been impressed with too many GM products. My sister bought an Acaidia and I drove it. Poor visiability and it shifts shitty. Whoever designed the interior and how the seat move and fold over did an excellent job though. That is the best aspect of the car.

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    Quote Originally Posted by kwame k View Post
    Given a level playing field....I'd put Michigan up against anyone!
    I would love to see Michigan come back. My dad would always drive to Detroit to pick up a new car. He took me out of school for a week to fly to Detroit to pick up an new Cadillac and we got snowed in the Renassance Center in the blizzard of 78. I have never seen so much snow in a city ever. The hotel was running out of food and all the employees were snowed in with us. The last two days we ate nothing but shrimp cocktail. It was a fun place to run around as a kid though and hey it had an indoor swimming pool.

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    I remember going to the Pontiac factory when I was really little and I can remember the engines and transmissions being mated with the chassis of the car. We actually got to see them put the engine in the station wagon my dad bought. That thing was a beast too. He used to pull a HUGE trailer with the thing. LOL!

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    I can still smell the funky grease smell of that factory thinking about it.

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    Remember that blizzard well......we lived in Northern Michigan an hour and a half from the Mackinaw Bridge, on the Lake Huron side.....the morning after the blizzard we had to jump out the second story window to dig out the front door.....our plow truck was buried, too. We had snow banks on the side of the road way over 6 feet tall....kinda fun on the snowmobiles and my brother jumped a two lane road with his......he was the coolest among our friends!

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    I grew up in Sun Valley, Idaho and live in Jackson Hole now. Both are ski resort towns. I lived in upstate New York in the snow belt but I never saw snow like the blizzard of 78 in Detroit. Our hotel room was way up the center tower in the Renaissance Center and I would lean against the window and look down. With all the snow and darkness at night and the lights from the building it looked like you were looking down into the Death Star on star wars. Sometimes it would clear up and you could see Windsor across the river but it was really coming down hard for days.

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