Electric cars are only existing right now because the car industry wants to continue to sell very expensive individual vehicles, not for efficiency nor the environment. Electric cars are, in a way, greenwashing. They are certainly better than cars with ICE but there's still so many issues with cars and their infrastructure that them being electric will not change that much.

But buy buy buy, they're "good" for the environment. Buy!

while their energy density is much better than that of ICE cars

Ummmm, no? Battery energy density is much worse than the energy density of gas. Electric is better for the environment but what you said is factually incorrect.

Gas has a Energy density (MJ/L) of 34.2 while lithium ion maxes out at ~4.2.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density

Public transport is excellent in towns and cities, where there's a high enough density of destinations people are trying to get to, and stops where they can get on and off the public transport, but little use anywhere more spread out. I live a few miles from the nearest town, and there aren't many other houses around here; we have a bus service, but it's infrequent, and it wouldn't really make much sense to make it more frequent as there aren't enough potential passengers. Cars make much more sense around here.

Seems like the photo was taken with a really crappy camera. Or someone just put a yellow filter over it.

Funny thing: tech in China was actually behind by 10+ years compared to western standards. Look at an episode from the 1985 edition of Journey to the West, the special effects look like a Doctor Who episode from the Tom Baker Era.

I still remember getting our first color TV in 2002, and that involved moving our old BW TV to the Master Bedroom. Dial-up Internet was also being used in 2007. Both of these examples were in metro Shanghai, which was the hub of development during these times.

A picture from 1940s would most likely be BW (as is the case with 60s era pictures of my great grandparents). While what you see is considered "90s-2000s" era for China.

But it can play choo_choo.wav if you want.

I actually got to ride one of the steam locomotives in a heritage railway in Connecticut. The Essex Steam Train uses a China Railways SY class 2-8-2. There's another one in New Jersey as well. The stuff made by Tangshan Locomotive and Rolling Stock Works is interesting because it produced the last steam trains in the world that were built for non-tourist purposes. Hopefully China sees the historic value in preserving them and keeps some in a functional state for the long term. They apparently have one heritage railway, the Tiefa Coal Mine System, with a couple of the steam trains still running for tourists.

It's also quite amusing to see the cognitive dissonance when you point out that the Chinese system (classified as communist by many here in the U.S.) was the one that has pulled off the greatest improvement in living conditions in human history, pulling hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in basically a generation.

"But muh capitalism!" (Don't worry, capitalism is proceeding to do the opposite.)

I could be wrong as I know little about the topic but I should imagine people like this train driver has seen, in a single lifetime, such drastic change. Kind of like saying "I remember how bad things were compared to now".

In fairness, when my mom was a kid phone and fridges were new here in the US.

The wealth in the US is held by a few so the country doesn't do things for the many.

get ready for high-speed public transportation with US-American characteristics

I thought the same. Like it’s the Train of Theseus or something.

And his skin colour changed. Obviously fake.

Not to excuse them, but they do have an absolutely fucking absurd population and population density, so it should be noted that they're doing hilariously better than much of the world, proportionately.

I'd say they're a lot like japan: Very good in some ways, still quite amazingly shitty in other ways, and they've ended up like that because they're fairly non-corrupt (at least on a local level, in the case of china) and actually prioritize genuine economic growth (as in: having industry) rather than making people happy or jerking off the friends of politicians.

the driver's name is Han Junjia. here is an interview with him: https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202012/28/WS5fe93034a31024ad0ba9ed9b.html

there are more photos of him in other trains here: http://en.people.cn/n3/2018/1205/c90000-9525433.html

That sounds like a super fun experience

Ah, is the above picture misinformation?

I was kinda thinking the top photo looks like it's from the 1800s, not 26 years ago. Am I on the right track? (Pun intended)

The last ones withdrawn in 2022

I knew one of the train people would come and enlighten us 😉