- [Narrator] China has the largest high-speed rail network
in the world,
spanning over 40,000 kilometers.
And of the 10 fastest trains in the world,
four are in China.
And China's busiest high-speed train,
the Beijing-Shanghai Rail, runs 217 miles per hour.
The US, however, tells a much different story.
Its high-speed rail system spans 735 kilometers,
and its fastest train, Amtrak's Acela Express,
goes just 150 miles per hour
and only for a few minutes on part of the track.
Since 2008, China has rapidly built up
its high-speed rail network.
The US in that time
has had several high-speed rail projects
shelved or delayed.
Here's how the US has fallen behind China
in high-speed rail technology.
One key difference between the US and China
has to do with the tracks the trains run on.
- In the case of the US, as we can see,
a lot of the Northeast Corridors
are based on hundreds years of the old tracks.
There are also tunnels and the curvatures and bridges
that are really owed
that cannot really allow the trains to run
at the faster speed.
- [Narrator] These tracks were originally built
for freight and passenger trains
to use at the same time
so they have many points of intersections and crossings,
and the Acela runs on this track.
But China has tracks that are dedicated to high-speed rail.
- They are really required to have a more smoother curves,
also they needed to have more slower gradients,
and so that allow the trains to run smoothly and safely.
- [Narrator] One of the reasons trains in America
can't reach their top speeds
is because of how the tracks are designed.
- Even though the trains are capable for Amtrak to run 186,
they'll never see more than 160 miles per hour
because the infrastructure is still being developed
and isn't quite there yet.
- [Narrator] It comes down to curves on the tracks.
Many conventional passenger trains in the US
only operate 10 to 15 miles per hour faster
than freight trains on the curved portion of tracks.
But China built its high-speed rail on elevated tracks,
traveling on what's called viaducts.
- So the tolerances in high-speed
are pretty precise, pretty tightly defined,
and so the track and overhead wires need to be designed
in a way to be able to allow those higher speeds.
- [Narrator] There's also a difference
in where stations are located.
In China, stations for high-speed rails
are located in both suburban and rural areas of the country,
whereas in the US,
stations are primarily located in urban centers
like New York City, Boston, and Washington, DC.
- When you're looking to identify
where a high-speed line should go,
it really starts with where are the two population centers
you're trying to connect.
And the magic formula is really find two city pairs
that have a minimum of 3 million people on either side
and a distance of about two to 500 miles.
- In order to achieve a higher speed,
definitely, a dedicated passenger rail system
is more needed.
- [Narrator] Despite the fact
that the US has been slow to develop high-speed rail,
railroads actually used to dominate
interstate transportation,
but that shifted during the mid-20th century
when the Interstate Highway System was born.
Since then, American history
has been littered with high-speed rail plans
that never really took off.
- Automobile and air travel and car travel
has essentially become the major modes of travel in the US.
To make that kind of behavior change,
that basically needs a lot of efforts
to help people understand
why this is a need to have another mode
and what are the benefits of that.
- [Narrator] China's high-speed rail, however,
consistently had backing from the government,
investing billions of dollars,
including initial partners with foreign firms.
Contracts were awarded on the condition
that foreign companies assemble the trains
and also train Chinese engineers.
- So they're trying to understand
that the foreign technologies,
how it works,
but they're also trying to make for certain innovations
on top of that.
- [Narrator] Eventually China developed
its own train manufacturing company, the CRRC.
And now the CRRC
is one of the largest train manufacturers in the world.
- In the case of China,
because it's a central government system,
so large infrastructure projects like high-speed rail system
can be really developed
based on the kind of consistent plant.
- [Narrator] The US has also had foreign companies
come to the country to develop a high-speed rail network,
but it's been met with several challenges.
Take for example, Illinois.
Back in 2019, Nippon Sharyo of Japan
tried to build a high-speed rail in the states.
However, the company struggled to adapt designs to the US
and faced delays in getting new rail cars.
And changing administrations doesn't help.
California approved a plan in 2008
to build a high-speed rail network,
but the project has been delayed
because of a lack of funding and inconsistent support.
- The train technology is already here.
What we're seeing right now in the US
at this specific moment in time
is not that dissimilar
to what was happening in Europe in the 1970s
where there was initially a lot of concern
or objection about trying to do something new.
And it wasn't until the first system
started to be put in place
and people saw the real promise
that high-speed was able to deliver on.
And then once the political
and public support was behind it,
it really took off and grew.
(gentle music)