Cuthbert 80
Member
2 weeks ago I took the 10am G79 train from Beijing to Shenzhen. Now....I've taken many high speed trains from around the world including Shinkansen and TGV's but I must say that I have never seen anything quite like the Chinese bullet trains in terms of consistent speed and smoothness of ride quality. It was a slightly surreal experience.
Basically, as soon as you accelerate from a station, you speed up to around 300 km/h (I was always at 307km/h) and the speed just stays there like its nothing. It generally does not slow down unless....you approach another station for a short stop. Of course the curves are very gentle to maintain high speeds as well as having very long straight sections but I'm guessing these trains are able to hold such an amazing average speed due to the lines being nowhere near full capacity in terms of frequency?
I'm aware of the crazy amount of Shinkansen trains that are run each hour during peak times but even the TGV trains run a high number of trains per hour at peak hours too.
What also struck me was the ride quality. I took the CRH380B and the ride was easily the most smoothest that I have ever experienced. Felt a lot more smooth than any Shinkansen that I've rode on. Is this mainly due to the ballastless track?
I made a short video to highlight the sense of speed at mostly 307 km/h as well as the consistency of it:
[youtube]WeS9l5IrjI8[/youtube]
Basically, as soon as you accelerate from a station, you speed up to around 300 km/h (I was always at 307km/h) and the speed just stays there like its nothing. It generally does not slow down unless....you approach another station for a short stop. Of course the curves are very gentle to maintain high speeds as well as having very long straight sections but I'm guessing these trains are able to hold such an amazing average speed due to the lines being nowhere near full capacity in terms of frequency?
I'm aware of the crazy amount of Shinkansen trains that are run each hour during peak times but even the TGV trains run a high number of trains per hour at peak hours too.
What also struck me was the ride quality. I took the CRH380B and the ride was easily the most smoothest that I have ever experienced. Felt a lot more smooth than any Shinkansen that I've rode on. Is this mainly due to the ballastless track?
I made a short video to highlight the sense of speed at mostly 307 km/h as well as the consistency of it:
[youtube]WeS9l5IrjI8[/youtube]
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