China-led Consortium Makes Sole and Winning Bid for Mexican Bullet Train

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Wall Street Journal

China-led Consortium Makes Sole and Winning Bid for Mexican Bullet Train

China Railway Construction Corp. Leads Group Awarded $3.7 Billion Contract


[font size=1]
China Railway Construction Corp. won the contract to build a train in Mexico similar to this one being
completed in Turkey. Zuma Press [/font]

MEXICO CITY—The Mexican government on Monday awarded a $3.7 billion project to build a bullet train in central Mexico to a Chinese-led consortium, saying that the single bid met the project’s technical and financial requirements.

~snip~
The Mexico-Querétaro train will run for 130 miles and reach speeds of 186 miles per hour. It is expected to complete the trip in just under one hour, compared with the two-and-a-half hours that it takes to make the trip by road. Officials say the railway is expected to transport 27,000 passengers a day, replacing as many 18,000 road trips and avoiding the need to double the Mexico City-Querétaro highway to four lanes each way in 2017.

The railway is one of several that the administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto plans to build as part of an ambitious infrastructure program including long-distance passenger rail travel, which has been virtually non-existent in Mexico for decades.

Others are a train between Mexico City and Toluca and a passenger rail to cross the Yucatan peninsula. Bids for the trans-peninsular train, which would join the city of Mérida with Caribbean tourism sites in Quintana Roo state, are expected next year.


Read more: http://online.wsj.com/articles/china-led-consortium-makes-sole-and-winning-bid-for-mexican-bullet-train-1415050745?tesla=y&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10733299186635963427804580254972593240284.html

[IronLionZion]

1. Lets get the Chinese to build bullet trains in America too

I'm glad Mexico is getting some much needed infrastructure. Maybe the US can take notes on this.

[quadrature]

2. reminds me of Brazil ...

Carnival ... si
Olympic and soccer stadiums ... si
world class mega-slums ... si

electricity ... no
water service ... no
underground sewers ... no

[davidpdx]

3. Anyone want to guess when the first death or major injury will happen?

If you built cheaply made shit, it will kill people. China has had plenty of accidents with their trains. All it takes is one or two small mistakes and you'll have trains flying off the rails. Good luck with that Mexico!

(And before someone accuses me of it, I'm not saying I want someone to get killed or injured. I'm saying IT WILL happen)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. Meanwhile, the Japanese have had no passenger fatalities on their

Shinkansen since 1964.

[Art_from_Ark]

8. Absolutely correct

The Japanese Shinkansen bullet train system, which celebrated its 50th anniversary this past October 1st, has an impeccable record for safety-- and punctuality.

[davidpdx]

12. Wish I could say the same for Korea

We have had our share of problems over here as well, though not as bad as China.

[davidpdx]

10. I would welcome the Japanese building something

If it were built by the Chinese I'd only ride it if I decided I had a deathwish (which at this particular time I don't).

I just hope when they get the rail projects going in the US (someday!) we aren't going to let the Chinese underbid all the projects and build cheapshit that will kill people.

[mahannah]

4. No US bid? We just do bullets.

[MisterP]

5. I'm surprised the name alone hasn't gotten the post-1994 GOP behind HSR

usually that's enough reasoning for the new Republicans

[jtuck004]

7. If we could get all the gun toters to imagine the extension they would get when carrying this,

I can't see how it would fail.

[Art_from_Ark]

9. When they found out it was bullet *trains*,

and not bullet *training*, they lost interest.

[davidpdx]

11. Good one Art

As always Art's antlers are astute.