What's some amazing technology they have in Japan that's very normal to them but would blow our minds here in the US and western world?

egitalian@lemm.ee to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 220 points –
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High-speed rail

don't tell America. pretend it's multiple automobiles welded together and they'll like it

I honestly think we should build normal light rail stations with RGB gamer lights and crap and hype it like it's futuristic tech. it works for musk's tesla taxi tunnel so it should work for actually good public transit too. maybe make the bodywork on the trains look like some dumb sci-fi movie

Some LED strips, diffuser channels, and an ESP32 are all you need to RGB anything. It's shockingly simple to do this now.

pretend it’s multiple pickup trucks welded together

Fixed for 'murican tastes

Don't quote me on the exact time but I heard somewhere that they run so close to schedule that a bullet train arrived something like 18 seconds late and the company apologized for the delay. ( might have been a minute or two but I recall it was really, really short. )

Duh, we have high-speed rail in Morocco. It's called Al Boraq and is the best way to blast from Casablanca to Tangier.

And it is not overpriced like in France, where the tgv is more expensive than a taxi to the airport, your plane ticket, and then another taxi.

I thought I was the only Moroccan on Lemmy.

I also live in an area that doesn't get served by the Al Boraq. We don't have trains in general over here and I am jealous.

I also learned about the Al Boraq's existence the hard way, because in the summer of 2022, my family had to drive me from Casablanca to Tangier and back by car, which took us like 3 hours on one trip.

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We're doing fine with that in Switzerland thanks.

Switzerland doesn’t really have a high speed rail network. In fact they design against it. Indeed the country is very small so it’s not a huge deal but then again there are flights between Geneva and Zürich so it’s large enough for that.

Their rail system is by far the best in Europe though and one of the best in the world only surpassed by the likes of Japan. They just aren’t really know for high speed rail.

Switzerland is very mountainous and has pretty fast trains too, although not Shinkansen-fast. Swiss trains are expensive and comfortable and the vista is pretty much always great.

Also, the EU just launched a new plan for railroads all across Europe! Ofc Switzerland won't get any additional upgrades, but they are still somewhat connected because of the proximity.

Link to picture of railroad plan.

We've been waiting for Germany and Italy to upgrade their railways for a decade now, we invested billions in our alp transit system, but it can't get used properly without the connecting infrastructure

In other words, no need, we're already far ahead

I'd kill for a fast track to New Orleans, Atlanta, Little Rock, Tulsa, Nashville, all that. Ply me with cheap beer, let me chill and ride. What a dream.

Kansas city... what I'd kill for a fast track to Chicago, St Louis, Denver and the like...

I mean fuck, at least we have Amtrak to Chicago and one to St Louis... however only runs once a day, takes as long as driving as long as the priority that goes to freight trains doesn't delay too much.

Would love to be able to take a sleeper train to the border with Canada, then have one of my friends from Toronto pick me up so I can visit them.

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