Happy Fiftieth Birthday, Bullet Train

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Wed Oct 1, 2014, 01:07 PM - Edit history (1)

It started operation fifty years ago today.

Tōkaidō Shinkansen

Old school videos of what is now known as the "Series 0" trains:

[MisterP]

1. "it'll never WOOOORK!" (it works)

"it'll never turn a PROOOOFIT!" (it does)
"nobody'll RIIIDE it!" (they do)
"it'll get BOOOOMBED" (it isn't)

now imagine if they proposed treating planes or cars exactly the same way they do rail: after Carmageddon or Bridgegate the Cato Institute would've recommended burning all 253 million cars in the country, and the GOP would've been stumping to tear town every airport and spike every runway ever since, what, TWA 514?

of course I wouldn't want to do this blindly or rush it--but it's an infrastructure backbone and by the time even CA has it it'll be 70 years behind Japan (even Morocco's getting one before us): heck, TX gave a franchise for a HSR route with zero state or Federal dollars (especially since all the cities follow the train tracks from Ft Worth to San Antone), but Southwest, McDonald's, BK, and Days Inn held their breath until Austin dropped all the loan guarantees