TEMPERING PRINCIPLE WITH PRACTICALITY.  China's bullet trains are subject to slow orders.

Chinese bullet trains will be slowed from 220mph to 190mph as of July 1^st. The reduced speed will allow for safer travel as well as a possibility of greater variation in ticket prices for travelers. Cheaper tickets will be issued for trains running at speeds from 125mph – 155mph and run on existing trucking rails rather than on main high speed commuter rails.

I wish that transportation journalists would understand something about railroad technology.  Presumably "existing trucking rails" means a track structure capable of carrying freight and passenger trains dependably at safe speeds.  The Providence to Boston stretch of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, for instance, is capable of  supporting 150 mph Acela Expresses as well as a few freight trains hauling that part of New England's gross regional product that doesn't get exported in an electronic format or a lobster barrel.  There's all kind of trackage in the Midwest currently capable of carrying proper freight trains that, at relatively little expense, could carry diesel passenger trains cruising at up to 125 mph.  The ability of a railroad network to safely mix passenger and freight trains permits a level of cost recovery no dedicated passenger line (which I think "high speed commuter rails" refers to) can achieve.  China has inadequate freight railroads, which leads to monstrous highway traffic jams, often as a consequence of attempting to move coal loads.

Meanwhile, the new Chinese dedicated high speed train lines might not be constructed to the standards of the North Shore Line's Skokie Valley Route, let alone The Pennsylvania Railroad's electrified Broad Way.

While held in extreme prestige, the Chinese rail system does have its critics. Chinese engineers have said that the operation of such high speed bullet trains is risky and there are fears that the fast and continuing expansion of the railroads is more due to local Chinese politics rather than an actual social need for high speed rail transportation. The high price of train tickets and the multibillion dollar price tag for rail expansion projects has also raised eyebrows in a country where millions of families live in poverty.

Gotta like that social justice argument: when the Interstates went into the cities, the associated urban renewal had the effect of uprooting the poor to allow the suits five more minutes to savor their breakfast, something that understandably contributed to urban rage.  But the urban poor of the United States had access to beater cars, and the poor of all races had access to all the available seats on the bus.  The poor of China have no cars, and sold-out local trains can mean waits much longer than your worst nightmare about the Chicago Transit Authority.

During the Lunar New Year holiday many Chinese working class travelers complained they could not afford high speed train tickets and that tickets for regular trains were sold out. A migrant worker became an internet sensation when he stripped to his underwear to protest outside a train ticket office after he waited 14 hours in line but could not get train tickets for himself and his family.

And Illinois riders have faster trains on the old Gulf Mobile and Ohio in their future.  Florida's governor turned down stimulus money for a probably ill-conceived demonstration project.  That money will be used to expedite improvement of the St. Louis service.  Additional track capacity for double-stack trains, to take some of the pressure off the Overland Route, will be beneficial to Union Pacific, the freight railroad that owns much of the trackage.  That double-stacking business has become lucrative enough for the Heart of Georgia Railroad (yes, its reporting marks are HOG) to undertake their own march to the sea.

But it still seems strange, akin in my thinking to a southern barbecue shack offering filet mignon along with pulled pork. Southern short lines are about hauling the basics: pulpwood, sand, and coal. I guess I still have trouble envisioning a set of TTX well cars with blue “China Shipping” containers rolling through the likes of Vidallia, Ga. But roll they will.

Same basics, new boxes. Most of the containers will be hauling cotton (imagine the Christmas gift that would have made) and kaolin (the stuff that makes coated paper shiny).  More traffic, though, to cover the common and joint costs of the major railroads, who do the contracting with Amtrak and the commuter rail authorities to run the passenger trains.  Encouragingly, container trains are engineered to run at higher speeds than trains of tank cars, something that reduces the friction of scheduling passenger trains.