Chilean authorities Friday inaugurated the South American country's first high-speed train service. The convoy, which has four cars and can accommodate 236 passengers, links connects Santiago with Curicó in two hours and three minutes at a maximum speed of 160 km/h. Curicó is a rich agricultural production area known for its wine cellars.
Not particularly, but it’s important progress for a country with essentially zero inter-city trains running.
Such a pity too, the shape of the country just really seems to make so much sense for trains - just run a big north-south line and connect basically everything anyone would care about.
160 is fast?
Sure is compared to most trains in US.
Class 6 and above are pretty zippy
and about as common as a bigfoot
The US is a poor standard for high speed rail, or even trains in general. A better comparison would be with France, where trains can go up to 320kmph.
Chile is also… Not as flat as France.
Something also built by china might be a good comparison. The new high speed trains in Indonesia (also built by china) regularly go up to 350 kmph.
Not particularly, but it’s important progress for a country with essentially zero inter-city trains running.
Such a pity too, the shape of the country just really seems to make so much sense for trains - just run a big north-south line and connect basically everything anyone would care about.