China's amazing high speed rail system

[bigfatjerk]

Remember the amazing rail system that Obama and others in the US wanted to strive to compare to?

Well maybe not anymore.


Today, Liu Zhijun is ruined, and his high-speed rail project is in trouble. On Feb. 25, he was fired for “severe violations of discipline” — code for embezzling tens of millions of dollars. Seems his ministry has run up $271 billion in debt — roughly five times the level that bankrupted General Motors. But ticket sales can’t cover debt service that will total $27.7 billion in 2011 alone. Safety concerns also are cropping up.

Faced with a financial and public relations disaster, China put the brakes on Liu’s program. On April 13, the government cut bullet-train speeds 30 mph to improve safety, energy efficiency and affordability. The Railway Ministry’s tangled finances are being audited. Construction plans, too, are being reviewed.

Liu’s legacy, in short, is a system that could drain China’s economic resources for years. So much for the grand project that Thomas Friedman of the New York Times likened to a “moon shot” and that President Obama held up as a model for the United States.

Rather than demonstrating the advantages of centrally planned long-term investment, as its foreign admirers sometimes suggested, China’s bullet-train experience shows what can go wrong when an unelected elite, influenced by corrupt opportunists, gives orders that all must follow — without the robust public discussion we would have in the states.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/chinas-train-wreck/2011/04/21/AFqjRWRE_story.html

[StoopTroup]

Well....then Barry was pretty smart waiting before he started spending dough huh?

[Leroy Lizard]

Well....then Barry was pretty smart waiting before he started spending dough huh?

That's pretty amazing spin even by your standards. ;)

[REDREX]

If Amtrak took it over it would be even worse

[StoopTroup]

That's pretty amazing spin even by your standards. ;)

Yea yeah....

Who spun it? I'm just chiming in asking stupid questions about stupid posts. What's your excuse again?

[lexsooner]

Remember the amazing rail system that Obama and others in the US wanted OU to strive to compare to?

Well maybe not anymore.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/chinas-train-wreck/2011/04/21/AFqjRWRE_story.html

Obama wants OU to have a rail system? Now how are we supposed to have a first rate football program and a fine regional university if we put all that money into a rail system?

[Leroy Lizard]

Yea yeah....

Who spun it?

You did.

[AlbqSooner]

Jackass see Jackass do?;)

[bigfatjerk]

Obama wants OU to have a rail system? Now how are we supposed to have a first rate football program and a fine regional university if we put all that money into a rail system?

Nice catch didn't even realize I put OU in there. Sorry.

[SoonerNate]

This Obama guy needs to go back to Africa where he was born.

[cccasooner2]

Remember the amazing rail system that Obama and others in the US wanted to strive to compare to?


It's too bad he did not have the Bush vision and put men on Mars first before undertaking such an expensive endeavor.



.

[StoopTroup]

It's too bad he did not have the Bush vision and put men on Mars first before undertaking such an expensive endeavor.



.

lol

[StoopTroup]

You did.

STFU you liar.

Are you off your meds?

Also....I've been wondering....Is being on sabbatical like maybe doing time in a California Correctional Facility and being able to have internet access and screw with people who are really involved with things that are Sooner?

Did you know the dude that yelled "Boomer Sooner!" as his last statement before they executed him by drug injection?

http://gbiz.org/California-Yellow-Pages/Fresno/Fresno-County/Corrections-Dept/5594442400/index.htm

[OU_Sooners75]

This Obama guy needs to go back to Africa where he was born.


My Aunt was born in France, yet she is a natural US citizen...hmmm....

You are aware that his mother is a US natural Citizen, right?

[OU_Sooners75]

STFU you liar.

Are you off your meds?

Also....I've been wondering....Is being on sabbatical like maybe doing time in a California Correctional Facility and being able to have internet access and screw with people who are really involved with things that are Sooner?

Did you know the dude that yelled "Boomer Sooner!" as his last statement before they executed him by drug injection?

http://gbiz.org/California-Yellow-Pages/Fresno/Fresno-County/Corrections-Dept/5594442400/index.htm

LOL....I think being on Sabbatical is like being jobless...Or being a professor that has no tenure and is looking for a job!

[bigfatjerk]

It's too bad he did not have the Bush vision and put men on Mars first before undertaking such an expensive endeavor.



.

Bush and Obama are basically not any different. Neither one really has vision. The thing is I think in some areas private companies can make affordable high speed rail work. This was more of a failure of the Chinese system than a high speed rail system. Government funded and ran systems always mess up somewhere because they aren't built to do with efficiently. That's been a problem with government since man started creating them.

The US will never have an extensive high speed rail system because it's population density is relatively low. In some areas like New York, LA, a few other cities it'll work. But it just won't work in the rest of the country because there's just not enough people to support it.

[Leroy Lizard]

STFU you liar.


:rolleyes:

[C&CDean]

Good God y'all, how many HSR threads are we gonna have on here?

[CatfishSooner]

Is it bad that I'm glad the Chinese screwed this uP?

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

rPILhiTJv7E

Anyone else seen this video about Chinese Ghost towns

[cccasooner2]

Anyone else seen this video about Chinese Ghost towns

If this video was part of a special on the CNBC financial channel, yes. The special was about the mother of all mothers of a housing bubble. Trillions spent on developing cities few can afford to live in.

[StoopTroup]

LOL....I think being on Sabbatical is like being jobless...Or being a professor that has no tenure and is looking for a job!

I think I hit the nail on the head and he's in prison.

[Romulus]

HSR?

[soonerhubs]

HSR?

Www.homestarrunner.com