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HSR outside of Waterloo Region
#1
I'm in China right now, and thought I'd share my experience with high speed rail so far.

We wanted to travel from Beijing to Xi'an (about 900 km, similar to Windsor to Québec). We booked our tickets one day ahead, and about half the trips still had seats available.

The morning of our trip, we arrived at the train station about an hour early, since we needed to book tickets for the return trip and had forgotten to get them earlier. (One of the first differences you notice entering a Chinese train station is the security presence. There are usually a few mobile police stations outside, and to enter the station there is a checkpoint with a metal detector and bag scanner. These checkpoints are very fast, so not much of a delay.) Once we had our return trip tickets, we went into the main station, found the waiting room for our platform and took a seat there.

About 15 minutes before the train was scheduled to depart, staff started checking people's tickets and letting them on to the platform. (Controlling access to and from the platforms means there is no need for ticket inspections on the train, and seems much more reliable than random checks for preventing fare evasion.)

By the time we got onto the platform, the train was already there. The train we were taking was a Fuxing, which have fairly comfortable seats. The pitch is 1 metre so there was plenty of legroom, but the seat back was clearly designed for someone a bit shorter than me.

We departed on scheduled and were soon crossing at 309 km/h. The track we were on was elevated almost the entire way with only a few station approaches at grade, and a few short tunnels in hillier areas. There were some parallel viaducts being built so I was able to see their construction method. The towers are cast in place, then precast spans are lifted by a crane and bolted into place. It looked like the other track for the return trains was all embedded track, but some other tracks were concrete sleepers in ballast, so that might have been a coincidence.

We stopped at 2 stations along the way before arriving in Xi'an four and a half hours after leaving Beijing. After disembarking, we had to pass through a ticket check to ensure no one had ridden past where there ticket was for. We then headed down to the attached subway station, (through another security checkpoint,) and took a subway to our hotel.

Returning, we weren't able to get express tickets, so we ended up on a train that took about 6:30 and stopped at about 10 stations on the way. Other than that, the trip was about the same but in the opposite direction.
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#2
Thanks for sharing, that sounds awesome!

It never occurred to me about the ticket checking technique and how it could result in efficiencies, but you're absolutely right! The Shinkansen (Japan) employs this same technique, entering the platform area via fare gates... I think I just assumed at the time that fare gates were the norm everywhere in Japan and didn't put too much thought into it.

I'm curious about how easy it sounded like it was for you to get your tickets - my husband went with his class in University to China a few years ago, and from what I understood getting tickets was a big deal (couldn't be bought on-site, had to surrender their passports, etc.). It sounds like maybe things have relaxed a fair bit?

Enjoy Xi'an, I had some friends go there and they loved it, especially cycling along the walled portions of the city.
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#3
Buying tickets has certainly been relaxed! We bought them in person because the website only supports using a residence card, not a passport. You have to give your passport to the ticket agent so they can record your details, but they don't keep it for more than a minute or two. I wouldn't describe it as surrendering my passport.

Other than that, there's not much to say about the purchasing process. We told the agent where and when we wanted to go, she told us the price, we gave her the fare and our passports, she recorded our details and gave us the tickets.

We're back from Xi'an already. We had a good time there, but found there were too many people at many sites. (This is largely our own fault. We usually visit China during major holidays so my wife's parents can spend time with our daughter, but then wherever we go is flooded with everyone else who's on vacation at the same time.) The first night we were in Xi'an, we went to a park to see their Spring Festival lights, and when we were leaving there were so many other people leaving the subway station had been temporarily closed.
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#4
We're also planning to go to Jinan, and possibly take a low-speed train while we're there, so I might have more experiences for comparison soon.
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#5
(02-09-2019, 10:27 AM)Canard Wrote: It never occurred to me about the ticket checking technique and how it could result in efficiencies, but you're absolutely right! The Shinkansen (Japan) employs this same technique, entering the platform area via fare gates... I think I just assumed at the time that fare gates were the norm everywhere in Japan and didn't put too much thought into it.

Via Rail also does that at major stations before you get to the gate, but then they also check on board. Then again, Via Rail doesn't check before boarding say at Kitchener.
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#6
That sounds awesome!! Thanks for sharing.

I'd love to experience 300+ km/h
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#7
I've been on the TGV in France and ICE in Germany, both at 300+ km/hr. Pretty wild experience when you can barely comprehend what you're passing. It's almost a shame because the countryside is so beautiful.
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#8
I think it must be the proximity to wayside equipment and the shockwaves entering and exiting tunnels, but for me the Shinkansen felt FAR faster (and more terrifying/exciting) than the TGV or ICE, which are relatively smooth and past mostly through farmland and fields (stuff far off in the distance). The Shinkansen just explodes through mountains and suburbs and you're constantly like gripping the armrest going "OH MY GOD" haha (but QUIETLY so as not to disturb others)
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#9
I got to experience Italy's Frecciarossa at 300km/h back in 2016. Wish we had that here

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#10
(02-09-2019, 10:18 PM)jason897 Wrote: I got to experience Italy's Frecciarossa at 300km/h back in 2016. Wish we had that here


To be entirely fair, riding Via Rail on a holiday weekend out of Toronto, you often get to experience flying past cars at close to that speed... Tongue
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