On the British Airways flight from London to Shanghai yesterday morning, there were the usual announcements about recommended rental car partners and hotels and the like. With respect to getting into the city of Shanghai, they simply announced that “We recommend that you take a taxi”, as these are apparently cheap and relatively quick. I have a certain aversion to taking taxis in unfamiliar cities, as unscrupulous taxi drivers exploit tourists in many cities of the world, and I can never really tell what will happen if I get in one. (On the other hand, the recommendation from the airline probably suggests that a taxi caught from a rank at the airport in Shanghai would have been fine).
However, there was no chance I would take the advice. Because let’s face it, there are some things that I am not capable of resisting. A sign saying “Magnetic levitation train” is definitely one of them.
As a practical thing to build, the maglev to Shanghai airport qualifies as almost entirely useless. It cost some ridiculous sum of money, the railway station is a little too far from the airport terminal (and is badly signposted), the city destination is an obscure part of Pudong from where one has to get the subway or taxi to anywhere one might actually want to go to, and there is only one train every half hour on the maglev. If one has to wait for 25 minutes, then this rather negates the fact that the 30km journey into Shanghai only takes seven and a half minutes. It would have made far more sense to simply extend the subway line that goes to the city maglev terminal all the way to the airport. A train journey from the airport would have then taken perhaps an hour, but it would have been a sensible way to get to and from the airport. The maglev was built so that they could build a maglev. That was all it was.
However, this is just about the only transport journey I have made in my life that passengers have got excited about just because it was. Riding a Boeing 707 in 1958 was perhaps like this. There was an LED readout on the train giving the speed, and as the train really got going passengers got up and took photographs of the indicator. I was one of them.
Normally, I am nearly as bad as Brian Micklethwait. I take seeing people take photos of something as an invitation to take photos of them. However, in this case I did not do so. It was just the indicator itself I was interested in. For Christ almighty that was fast.
Oh, goody, Michael! More blogs from you from China! I loved the last one!
Wow, that is indeed bloody quick. A bit faster than our progress around Porto a week or so back.
Bung up some more pics when you get a chance. Have a good trip.
That train is bloody phenomenal.
I think I may have been unfair to Shanghai taxi drivers. When I needed to catch one, the driver turned on the meter, took me exactly where I wanted to go to by the fastest route, and gave me correct change and a receipt without asking at the end of the journey. And by London standards, the fare was of course miniscule.
Last month the Chinese greenlit a main line Maglev route from Shanghai to Hangzhou. 170km in 27 minutes!
They are determined to surpass the Japanese Tokaido high speed trains, which have been the prototype for fast surface transport since 1964.
There is now a ‘UK Ultraspeed’ proposal for Britain similarly to somersault Europe by constructing a North-South maglev from London via the Midlands, across the Pennines and up the East Coast to Scotland. It could be ready by 2010. Trains every ten minutes from London to Birmingham, taking half an hour!
431 km/hr, what is that in American? I swear, someone needs to take a firm hand and teach you foreigners about a little something called “miles”.
That readout was for the turistas. Note that it was in Roman letters, not in Hanzi.
267.811 mph, I think
Bleedin’ ‘ell!
Yeah, That’s half as fast as a 707 in 1958.
But, as on a go-kart, it looks much faster when your bum is so much closer to the ground.
268 mph
One bummer for the Maglev in Shanghai is that it ends too early and is across the road from the nearest mass transit line in an anonymous suburb of the Pudong District (across the river from the Pu Xi old city).
If they integrated it as well as the Hong Kongers did their Airport Express, right into Central, complete with check-ins, THEN I would be impressed! HK Airport is still the bees.
I expect T5 LHR to be another pitiful nightmare built for the convenience of the construction contractors (like the 18month shutting of the Piccadilly Line’s T4 station).
TimC – I haven’t been to Hongkers since Kai Tek and the hair raising experience of descending with skyscrapers on either side so close you could see in people’s windows. Is the new airport better than Singapore’s Changi?
I got a nice view of terminal 5 out of the plane window as we were leaving Heathrow. All I can say is that boy, it sure is big. (The existing terminals suck, so it can’t possibly be any worse than what we have already).
And the new airport in Hong Kong is indeed about as nice an airport as you can have. Whereas Shanghai is at the point where it needs to build white elephants to impress people (even if they are indeed impressive), Hong Kong is at the point where they build things to be as efficient as possible.
It cost some ridiculous sum of money, the railway station is a little too far from the airport terminal (and is badly signposted), the city destination is an obscure part of Pudong from where one has to get the subway or taxi to anywhere one might actually want to go to, and there is only one train every half hour on the maglev. If one has to wait for 25 minutes, then this rather negates the fact that the 30km journey into Shanghai only takes seven and a half minutes
I believe they originally intended the route to extend all the way to Beijing, but scrapped the plan when the first section cost $90M/mile instead of the estimated $22M. If they had stuck with the original plan, there wouldn’t be a stop at all after a mere 30Km – after all, the train’s just getting up to speed.
Just a note of pessimism here. Isn’t this the sort of project which most of yo lot would rightly deplore as statist granstanding?
Of course you’re right, Nick. It’s still a technical marvel, though. I’m just glad my taxes aren’t paying for it.
Then again, if I had the choice between my taxes paying for a colossally expensive first world-standard welfare state (which they currently do, more’s the pity) or my taxes paying for a national Mag-lev network – ideally it’ll be privatised later – I’d plump for the train every time.
J.J. Hill rolls in his grave.
The Hong Kong airport has a couple of pretty good bookstores.
Verity – I too remember Kai Tak and was able to see into living rooms and kitchens as we swooped down like one of the eagles that I used to see fly around The Peak from my appartment.
The new airport is a delight. You walk along a pretty much single level right through to the immigration hall. Bright airy and spacious. You can see the baggage claim in front of you, as it is in the same huge vaulted hall. Once through the immigration queue you get your luggage and walk through a wide customs tunnel on the same level and out into arrivals. Apart from the fact that this too is a massive space, in front you see the Airport Express trains. Yes, the platform is 100m away and open for you to see and on the same level. Travelators take you there if you want, but it is hardly a long way.
Friendly people assist you to put luggage onto the train and it takes 23mins to get you from the airport to Central, right in the heart of the business district. At that end you have peolpe there to help you with airport trolleys and taxis are there the other side of the ticket barriers in a covered space with multiple queues and attendants to ensure things flow properly. HK cabbies are very good IMHO.
Note that departures and checkins are above the arrivals customs tunnel area. The Airport Express arrives at this upper level and you cross OVER and above arrivals to get to departures via flying walkways. The architect must have watched Forbidden Planet. The Airport Express trains loop round from departures and decend to the arrivals level directly below. Very neat, so no people getting off when you want to get on.
Compare this to the monumental screw up that is Heathrow and its pathetic, ignorant, lazy, dysfunctional half-arsed attempt to integrate rail and tube.
Instead of T5, London should have two clones of HK airports built out in the Thames, connected to the city by a similar rail link, or maglev if you prefer. It is about time the UK had a maglev, as it was a Brit who invented it!
Actually I found the maglev train both the cheapest and easiest way to get into central Shanghai from the airport. So it can’t be completely useless.
TimC – Changi is also a magnificent airport. It’s constantly voted the world’s best. Huge, convenient, pleasant to be in – it feels more like a luxury hotel than an airport – free movies for those with long layovers, a swimming pool, nice shopping – not the usual airport drek – and a huge supermarket. That is wonderful, because you don’t want to go home, put your things away and then go trekking out to the supermarket. If you’re a Singapore citizen, or on an employment pass, you have a swipecard to go through emigration. It’s spotlessly clean. Lots of pleasant people to help.
Verity – I know Changi very well as I lived in Singapore and it is a great airport, but if you like Changi, you will be bowled over by HK’s new Chek Lap Kok airport.
When I arrive at both, I still feel like I am coming ‘home’, such are the memories of both places. Even though I am a Londoner, LHR T3 is always a depressing embarassment. Never fails to disappoint.
I lived in Singapore as well! But so dear, lah!
LHR T3 is a municipal garbage dump. It is repellent. I honestly cannot think of any circumstance that would ever impel me to willingly choose to land there. I would say the world’s worst signage, but given the existence of CDG … no. The sheer arrogance of LHR and CDG tells us how very backward and way behind the times they are.
Look at Changi with a swimming pool and a free cinemas, very comfortable waiting areas, clear signage and people to help, and CDG, where they think it is so chic NOT TO HAVE SIGNAGE! Are they cute enough to kiss? Are they INSANE? Have you ever seen all those lost souls wandering around CDG, pushing their trollies with empty eyes in a desperate search for their unsigned departure gate? And trying, humbly, to ask CDG staff for directions, who look irritated and say they’re too busy with bomb alerts?
In my limited experience, I would put LHR and CDG at the bottom of the first world’s airports.
Maybe CDG does not have signage because it would then have to be in……….English.