"Countdown commencing: 3, 2, 1, go!" With a command from the control center, the vacuum high-speed train, having completed its connection, set off once more.
Soon, another intersection appeared ahead of the train. As the vacuum high-speed train passed through, a staff member reported, "Vacuum High-Speed Train No. 2 has entered the main conduit and is commencing acceleration!"
"No. 2 is entering acceleration. Acceleration level set to 2, current speed 20 kilometers per hour, continuing to increase acceleration level."
"Acceleration level is currently set to 5, current speed 50 kilometers per hour... 100 kilometers... 200 kilometers... 300 kilometers... 500 kilometers." As the staff members continuously reported, the speed of this vacuum high-speed train had surged to 400 kilometers per hour within a mere ten seconds.
"That speed already exceeds that of all current trains, doesn't it!" exclaimed a parent, swallowing hard.
"The fastest speed currently recorded is 378 kilometers per hour, achieved by Fusang. However, that is only the publicly available data. In reality, the fastest is our newly built Maglev train in Modu. During its test runs, it has already reached a speed of 430 kilometers per hour!" explained Elder Chen with a smile.
"It's a shame that this Maglev technology is now meaningless in the face of your vacuum high-speed train technology!" said a parent with a touch of dejection.
Construction of the Modu Maglev train began in 2001, and it was actually test-run in 2003. It was originally intended to be the most advanced high-speed rail technology in all of Huaxia, but unexpectedly, it has now been directly superseded.
"Even without our vacuum high-speed train technology, the Maglev train built by Modu was destined to be phased out; it's a train with no practical future!" Elder Chen sneered.
"I say, Old Chen, everyone knows you were the most vocal opponent of building that new Maglev train. Yet, the Maglev technology was still introduced, the tracks and prototype vehicles were built, and it even began test runs, all quite smoothly with no issues. Are you perhaps feeling a bit resentful now?" a parent asked with a chuckle, inadvertently revealing a bit of the story from when the Modu Maglev train was first being built.
Much like the debates that many Huaxia citizens are aware of surrounding the construction of large particle colliders, there was also a heated debate back then about whether to build the Maglev train.
Firstly, Huaxia had very clearly formulated its own railway development plan. That is, after the 21st century, high-speed railways were to be built extensively to achieve rapid growth in domestic transportation capacity. After all, the idea that "to get rich, first build roads" had been proven infinitely correct through countless practices.
However, a divergence of opinion arose regarding how to develop high-speed railways. Some experts advocated for building new traditional high-speed railways, meaning those that still relied on tracks but primarily utilized EMU trains and high-speed rail.
The advantage of such railways was that they had been developed for decades worldwide. Germany, Fusang, the United States, and France all had a wealth of mature technology that could be directly utilized. Moreover, the costs were controllable, and they could be implemented immediately.
However, some experts argued that while these high-speed railways were indeed very mature, their development had reached its limit. They could at most reach speeds of 300 kilometers per hour; any faster would lead to serious safety hazards.
More importantly, a large number of patents for this high-speed train technology were held by foreign companies. If Huaxia were to follow suit in its development, it would inevitably be subject to technical coercion from these foreign entities.
Huaxia had experienced countless times how, once equipment purchased for millions of US dollars encountered problems during use, it could not be repaired locally. It would require thousands of US dollars to invite engineers from the foreign company to come and perform the repairs.
Some might think that thousands of US dollars isn't expensive. However, this thousands of US dollars was not the total cost, but the daily rate for one engineer. From the day they started their journey from their home country until their return, it was thousands of US dollars per day.
And if any parts needed to be replaced in the process, the cost would be astonishingly high.
The parts-to-whole ratio is a term frequently encountered in vehicle sales, referring to the ratio of the price of a complete vehicle to the price of all its corresponding parts sold separately.
Among them, Mercedes-Benz is particularly outstanding, with a parts-to-whole ratio exceeding 600%. This means that for a Mercedes-Benz car valued at 1 million yuan, if one were to assemble a new car by purchasing all the parts through official channels instead of buying the whole car, it would cost 6 million yuan to achieve this.
This parts-to-whole ratio is already terrifying, but for some equipment whose technology is monopolized by foreign countries, the parts-to-whole ratio can exceed 3000%, and for high-speed trains, it is also above 1000%.
In other words, if Huaxia chose to purchase traditional high-speed rail technology at this time, the annual maintenance costs would be extremely high, essentially akin to giving money to foreign companies.
Therefore, some experts proposed that rather than following foreigners in developing high-speed trains, it would be better to "overtake on a curve" and develop the Maglev train, which was still in the experimental stage. This way, Huaxia could directly leapfrog to widespread Maglev trains throughout the country.
This would avoid most of the aforementioned problems associated with high-speed trains. Furthermore, foreign Maglev train companies were very supportive. Germany's international Maglev train consortium proactively contacted Huaxia, expressing willingness to provide its technology and form a joint venture company with Huaxia to jointly develop Maglev trains and share technology for mutual benefit.
Consequently, the domestic Maglev faction quickly gained prominence and engaged in a debate with the high-speed rail faction.
Huaxia naturally attached great importance to this matter. They invited scholars from both factions to a joint meeting for discussion. However, neither side could persuade the other. Ultimately, the decision was made to first attempt to build a Maglev railway domestically, then operate it, explore truth through practice, and let facts speak for themselves!
This was quite remarkable. Before high-speed rail was built on a large scale, Maglev train technology was directly implemented in 2001. It successfully opened in 2003, though the route was only about 30 kilometers long, connecting Pudong Airport to the Modu city center. This was considered a line with very high passenger traffic.
Elder Chen was part of the faction that strongly opposed the Maglev train, so he naturally had nothing good to say about it.
"It's not that I have a prejudice against Maglev train technology, but I could tell from the very beginning when it was being constructed that this was something that could not last and was not suitable for future development! The problems that have emerged during the test runs over the past few years have fully proven my point!" Elder Chen declared loudly.
"Firstly, there's the issue of the cost of building a Maglev train. Setting aside the cost of a single Maglev train itself, the construction cost per kilometer of Maglev track alone is as high as 800 million Renminbi!"
"For a 30-kilometer track, considering both directions for travel, it cost a total of 48 billion Renminbi to build. If we also include the costs of stations and trains, the overall construction cost has reached 55 billion Renminbi, and the daily operation and maintenance costs are as high as millions of Renminbi."
"But what has been the situation with the Maglev train in actual operation?"
"Currently, the ticket price for the Maglev train is 50 yuan for a single trip and 80 yuan for a round trip. The VIP carriage is slightly more expensive, 100 yuan for a single trip and 160 yuan for a round trip. This price is quite steep, more than ten times higher than our normal train ticket prices. The general public widely disapproves of this price."
"Although this has reduced the travel time from Pudong Airport to the city center to under 10 minutes, if one is willing to spend an hour, they can accomplish the journey for just three yuan by taking the subway. Most people would rather take the subway than spend 50 yuan to ride the Maglev train."
"As a result, during the operation of the Maglev train, it has mostly been running empty, with an utilization rate not exceeding 30%. There are currently 24 trains per day, meaning 48 round trips. On average, each train receives about 5,000 yuan in ticket revenue. Let's assume a daily revenue of 250,000 yuan. This amount cannot even cover the Maglev train's daily maintenance cost of 1 million yuan. Therefore, the entire Maglev train is currently incurring huge losses every day, losing our people's hard-earned money!"
"If Maglev trains are to be promoted nationwide in the future, the quoted price of 800 million Renminbi per kilometer will remain. For 10,000 kilometers, it would require 80 trillion Renminbi. This is a price that our current domestic economy simply cannot afford!"
"Moreover, the 800 million Renminbi per kilometer quotation is for plains areas. If Maglev tracks need to pass through mountainous regions or areas with significant altitude variations, the construction costs for the tracks will double. And if the pricing were to be set at 50 Renminbi for 30 kilometers, then even if we built the Maglev, not many people would be willing to ride it."
"For a journey of over a thousand kilometers from Modu to Didu, wouldn't the ticket price be nearly 2,500 yuan one way? Who could afford that? Which ordinary person could pay for it!"
"Furthermore, the power consumption of Maglev trains is also terrifying. To meet the power demand of the 30-kilometer train, a dedicated backup power plant needs to be equipped to prevent issues caused by power outages that would lead to the train stopping. If Maglev trains were to be built nationwide, all of them would require power, and the country's electricity expenses would increase by about 1%. This would also place a tremendous load on the entire power grid."
"Therefore, I have always firmly believed that this type of Maglev train has no developmental significance, and the conclusions drawn from practice have proven my point!" Elder Chen concluded, displaying a smug expression due to his foresight!
"But Elder Chen... vacuum high-speed rail is essentially also Maglev technology, isn't it?" a parent interjected unhelpfully, causing Elder Chen's expression to instantly sour.
That's right, vacuum high-speed trains essentially use Maglev technology to operate!