Are China’s high-speed trains heading off the rails?

www.washingtonpost.com...

BEIJING — China’s expanding network of ultramodern high-speed trains has come under growing scrutiny here over costs and because of concerns that builders ignored safety standards in the quest to build faster trains in record time.

The trains, a symbol of the country’s rapid development, have drawn praise from President Obama. But what began in February with the firing and detention of the country’s top railway official has spiraled into a corruption investigation that has raised questions about the project’s future.

Last week, the new leadership at the Railways Ministry announced that to enhance safety, the top speed of all trains was being decreased from about 218 mph to 186. Without elaborating, the ministry called the safety situation “severe” and said it was launching safety checks along the entire network of tracks.

I almost feel like we 'dodged a bullet' when the states started to reject the idea of setting up a high-speed rail line after reading this. But upon reconsideration, we might have followed reasonable safety standards and could have ended up with something important to our infrastructure.

I imagine we may never know.

Any members out there living in states that are still willing to "play ball" with the idea?

I still think its something we need to look at here in the states. Our safety records ae a bit better than Chinas, and when it comes to bullet trains, I cant see the US skimping out in the manner China did.

Im not saying it would never happen, but I dont beleive it would occur to the extent China has.

Will the high-speed trains link to the FEMA camps?

It's scary, the idea of committing to something so expensive when our dollars is bleeding to death and the vultures are already portioning out their future 'winnings.'

I suppose we do need to refocus our efforts towards infrastructure restoration and re-development. But almost every train company I hear of in our country is heavily subsidized by tax dollars.... I can only assume this would be as well... does anyone have any ideas about the business plan of such a project?

the U.S. is providing Israel with at least $8.2 million each day* in military aid.

* The source for US military aid to Israel during Fiscal Year 2011 is the Congressional Research Service’s “U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel,” written by Jeremy M. Sharp, Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs, updated September 16, 2010. According to this report, the Obama Administration requested $3 billion in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) for Israel for the fiscal year 2011.

source

Israel spends roughly nine percent of its gross national product to guard from potential threats. Its military expenditure amounted to USD 17 billion this year, of which US aid is USD 3 billion.

if america stopped throwing tax payers money at israel ,you could pay for these high-speed trains no problem.

Indeed the report was true after the accident we had last week. They really cut corners in safety to speed up the construction of their high speed rail