100-410: The Beijing–Shanghai railway or Jinghu railway ( simplified Chinese : 京沪铁路 ; traditional Chinese : 京滬鐵路 ; pinyin : Jīnghù tiělù ) is a railway line between Beijing and Shanghai . The line has a total length of 1,462 km (908 mi) and connects the municipalities of Beijing, Tianjin , and Shanghai, as well as the provinces of Hebei , Shandong , Anhui and Jiangsu . It
200-589: A 1921 crash at Porter, Indiana , in which a derail failed to stop one passenger train that had already passed through two red lights from crashing into another at a level junction , killing 37, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) ordered almost a hundred railroads to install automatic train stops by the end of 1925. The railroads opposed the ICC vigorously, noting that stopping longer freights that way might lead to derailments . As
300-434: A conversion table. While exercising such derivation, the following rules should be observed: Sample Derivations : The Series One List of Variant Characters reduces the number of total standard characters. First, amongst each set of variant characters sharing identical pronunciation and meaning, one character (usually the simplest in form) is elevated to the standard character set, and the rest are made obsolete. Then amongst
400-508: A dedicated high-speed rail line between Washington, D.C., and Boston. He estimated it would cost $ 151 billion and take more than 25 years to design and build the line. The proposed rail line would allow for top speeds of 220 mph (350 km/h). Amtrak officials released a concept report for next-generation high-speed rail within the Northeast Corridor (NEC) on October 1, 2010. Amtrak projected planning and construction of
500-443: A dedicated high-speed rail line which limits its average speed; it reaches a maximum speed of 150 mph (240 km/h) on small sections of its route through Rhode Island and Massachusetts . The travel time between Washington and New York is 2 hours and 53 minutes (compared to 2 hours and 30 minutes for PRR 's nonstop Metroliner in 1969), or an average speed of 79 mph (127 km/h). In September 2019, Amtrak launched
600-702: A federal grant of about $ 3 billion for each. Authorities in the United States maintain various definitions of high-speed rail. The United States Department of Transportation , an entity in the executive branch , defines it as rail service with top speeds ranging from 110 to 150 miles per hour (180 to 240 km/h) or higher, while the United States Code , which is the official codification of Federal statutes, defines it as rail service "reasonably expected to reach sustained speeds of more than 125 miles per hour". A legislative branch agency within
700-542: A high-speed rail line. However, there are plans to upgrade those stretches of track to Class 6 trackage, in which passenger trains can reach speeds up to 110 miles per hour (180 km/h), similar to portions of other passenger rail routes in the United States such as Lincoln Service between Chicago and St. Louis and portions of the Brightline West between West Palm Beach and Cocoa, Florida. As of 2024, funding has yet to be available. The Pacific Northwest Corridor or
800-481: A more attractive option for passengers. A study conducted by the International Union of Railways indicated that high-speed trains produced one fifth as much CO 2 as automobiles and jet aircraft. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 dedicated $ 8 billion to intercity rail, with priority for high-speed projects. In 2012, then- Amtrak president Joseph Boardman proposed a plan to build
900-605: A new field of interest. They were officially added to the definition of "railroad" in 1988, and were studied repeatedly. Five high-speed corridors were officially endorsed in October 1992 following passage of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 . TEA-21 and other legislation continued to be passed with mentions of high-speed rail, but lacking funding or real direction. Nevertheless, no new high-speed service
1000-610: A newly coined phono-semantic compound : Removing radicals Only retaining single radicals Replacing with ancient forms or variants : Adopting ancient vulgar variants : Readopting abandoned phonetic-loan characters : Copying and modifying another traditional character : Based on 132 characters and 14 components listed in Chart 2 of the Complete List , the 1,753 derived characters found in Chart 3 can be created by systematically simplifying components using Chart 2 as
1100-462: A nonstop New York to Washington which completes the trip in 2 hours and 35 minutes for an average speed of 87 mph (140 km/h). Schedule between New York and Boston is 3 hours 34 minutes, an average speed of only 63 mph (101 km/h). With a 15-minute layover in New York, the entire end-to-end trip averages 68 mph (109 km/h). The largest project for American high-speed rail
SECTION 10
#17327801118211200-469: A practice which has always been present as a part of the Chinese writing system. The official name tends to refer to the specific, systematic set published by the Chinese government, which includes not only simplifications of individual characters, but also a substantial reduction in the total number of characters through the merger of formerly distinct forms. According to Chinese palaeographer Qiu Xigui ,
1300-449: A range of speeds over 110 mph (180 km/h) and dedicated rail lines. Inter-city rail with top speeds between 90 and 125 mph (140 and 200 km/h) is sometimes referred to in the United States as higher-speed rail . Under the most common international definition of high-speed rail (speeds above 155 mph (250 km/h) on newly built lines and speeds above 124 mph (200 km/h) on upgraded lines), Amtrak 's Acela
1400-478: A red, he still had space to stop the train had he applied his full brakes at the red. As a result, the ICC decided the time had come to force the issue of train control. For the first time it set national rail speed limits . In 1947 it ordered that automatic block signaling be used where freight traveled at more than 49 mph (79 km/h) and on passenger lines where trains went faster than 59 mph (95 km/h). This rule remains in force today. While
1500-421: A result, the requirement was revised to allow waivers for certain lines, and rarely enforced as the debate continued without any real resolution over the next two decades; in the meantime passenger fatalities began declining as the automobile emerged as a transportation option. During the 1930s railroads began to develop lightweight, diesel-powered streamlined trains which provided even faster running times than
1600-404: A single standardized character, usually the simplest among all variants in form. Finally, many characters were left untouched by simplification and are thus identical between the traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies. The Chinese government has never officially announced the completion of the simplification process after the bulk of characters were introduced by the 1960s. In the wake of
1700-433: Is 250 km/h (155 mph); for upgraded high-speed railways it is 200 km/h (124 mph). In places where high-speed rail programs are in earlier developmental stages or where substantial speed increases are achieved by upgrading current infrastructure and/or introducing more advanced trains, lower minimum speed definitions of high-speed rail are used. Directive 2008/57/EC defines high-speed rail in terms of speeds of
1800-728: Is a 349 mi (562 km) rail corridor between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh , composed of two different rail lines, the Amtrak Philadelphia to Harrisburg Main Line and the Norfolk Southern Pittsburgh Line . Between Philadelphia and Harrisburg the Amtrak line is electrified and grade separation was completed in 2014. Between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh the Norfolk Southern owned line
1900-590: Is a proposed high-speed railway to connect New York City to Boston in one hour, 40 minutes. The proposed railway would run across Long Island and tunnel under the Long Island Sound . The project, consisting of two phases, is estimated to cost a total of $ 105 billion as of 2023, which would be among the most expensive public works projects in United States history, and take 20 years to complete. The first phase, costing $ 23.5 billion, would: New York has been actively discussing high-speed rail service since
2000-440: Is actually more complex than eliminated ones. An example is the character 搾 which is eliminated in favor of the variant form 榨 . The 扌 'HAND' with three strokes on the left of the eliminated 搾 is now seen as more complex, appearing as the ⽊ 'TREE' radical 木 , with four strokes, in the chosen variant 榨 . Not all characters standardised in the simplified set consist of fewer strokes. For instance,
2100-561: Is commonly referred to as the Jinghu railway, taking on the abbreviated names of the two terminal cities. In Chinese, Jing means "capital" and refers to Beijing , and Hu is the abbreviated name for Shanghai . The Beijing–Shanghai railway is composed of three sections. These three sections are some of the earliest railways in China, built before 1910 during the Qing dynasty . The first section
SECTION 20
#17327801118212200-454: Is derived. Merging homophonous characters: Adapting cursive shapes ( 草書楷化 ): Replacing a component with a simple arbitrary symbol (such as 又 and 乂 ): Omitting entire components : Omitting components, then applying further alterations : Structural changes that preserve the basic shape Replacing the phonetic component of phono-semantic compounds : Replacing an uncommon phonetic component : Replacing entirely with
2300-763: Is expected to open in 2028 in time for the 2028 Summer Olympics . Following the awarding of a $ 3 billion federal grant in December 2023, construction is currently underway. Although the Surf Line between Los Angeles to San Diego, which hosts the Pacific Surfliner and commuter rail routes such as Metrolink and Coaster, has portions in Orange County and San Diego County that contains Class 5 trackage, which passenger trains can reach speeds up to 90 miles per hour (140 km/h), it would not be considered
2400-579: Is from Beijing to Tianjin , constructed as part of the Imperial Railways of Northern China between 1897 and 1900. The second section is from Tianjin to Pukou – a suburb of Nanjing – and used to be called the Tianjin–Pukou railway . The third section is from Nanjing to Shanghai , built between 1905 and 1908. This section is called Shanghai–Nanjing railway . During 1927–1949, however, when China's capital
2500-813: Is now discouraged. A State Language Commission official cited "oversimplification" as the reason for restoring some characters. The language authority declared an open comment period until 31 August 2009, for feedback from the public. In 2013, the List of Commonly Used Standard Chinese Characters was published as a revision of the 1988 lists; it included a total of 8105 characters. It included 45 newly recognized standard characters that were previously considered variant forms, as well as official approval of 226 characters that had been simplified by analogy and had seen wide use but were not explicitly given in previous lists or documents. Singapore underwent three successive rounds of character simplification , eventually arriving at
2600-430: Is officially defined as "newly-built passenger-dedicated rail lines designed for electrical multiple unit (EMU) train sets traveling at not less than 250 km/h (155 mph) (including lines with reserved capacity for upgrade to the 250 km/h standard), on which initial service operate at not less than 200 km/h (124 mph)." In Europe the definition of a minimum speed for newly built high-speed railways
2700-772: Is the California High-Speed Rail network, which was authorized by voters with Proposition 1A in 2008. In August 2013, the Tutor Perini Corporation signed a $ 1-billion contract to begin construction of the first phase in 2014. Construction began in early 2015. High-speed rail development was a goal of the Obama administration which came into office in January 2009. Higher jet fuel prices, congested airports and highways, and increasing airport security rules have combined to make high-speed rail
2800-519: Is the United States' only true high-speed rail service, reaching 150 mph (240 km/h) over 49.9 miles (80.3 km) of track along the Northeast Corridor . Acela trains will reach top speeds of 160 mph (255 km/h) when new trainsets enter service in 2024. Other services, like Amtrak's Northeast Regional and Brightline , have a top speed of 125 mph (200 km/h) and are usually not considered high-speed rail. Brightline, while marketing itself as high-speed rail, more closely meets
2900-492: Is the lead agency charged with planning and implementing the system. The state was awarded $ 2.55 billion in funding from the federal government in 2010. Since the passage of Proposition 1A, cost estimates for the project have risen due to increased planning and disputes over routes. Ridership projections have faced scrutiny by a number of groups including the Reason Foundation. In May 2013, with cost estimates double
3000-788: Is used for freight transportation. In 1999, the Keystone Corridor was formally recognized as a "designated high-speed corridor" by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) . The line, over which Amtrak's Pennsylvanian and Keystone Service routes operate, was upgraded in 2006 with two segments of 110 mph (180 km/h) track. These trains are higher-speed rail services between Philadelphia and Harrisburg, with express service taking 95–100 minutes over 103.6 mi (166.7 km). California Proposition 1A, passed in November 2008, authorized
3100-547: Is used instead of 叠 in regions using traditional characters. The Chinese government stated that it wished to keep Chinese orthography stable. The Chart of Generally Utilized Characters of Modern Chinese was published in 1988 and included 7000 simplified and unsimplified characters. Of these, half were also included in the revised List of Commonly Used Characters in Modern Chinese , which specified 2500 common characters and 1000 less common characters. In 2009,
Beijing–Shanghai railway - Misplaced Pages Continue
3200-468: The Acela , a new tilting train manufactured by Alstom and Bombardier , was ordered. The new service ran on the Northeast Corridor , linking Boston , New York City , Philadelphia , Baltimore , and Washington, D.C. The service was inaugurated in December 2000, and was an immediate success, operated at a profit and as of 2012 , it produced about 25% of Amtrak's total service revenue. The Acela lacks
3300-473: The ⼓ ' WRAP ' radical used in the traditional character 沒 is simplified to ⼏ ' TABLE ' to form the simplified character 没 . By systematically simplifying radicals, large swaths of the character set are altered. Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms that embody graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms. In addition, variant characters with identical pronunciation and meaning were reduced to
3400-628: The Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway opened and runs roughly parallel to the Beijing–Shanghai railway. The opening of the high-speed railway relieved the Beijing–Shanghai railway from overcrowding, and it's increasingly shifted to freight traffic. As of 2017, two regular trains per day (not including aforementioned overnight sleepers) go the full way from Beijing to Shanghai on the old line, although hundreds of trains still use selected sections of it. For 150 mph (241 km/h) or more in
3500-870: The Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway , it serves as one of the busiest rail corridors in China. It has dual tracks between Beijing and Shanghai, and the full length of the railway has been electrified. The entire line is dual tracked. Passenger rail service now offers overnight service on CRH Sleepers (D-series trains). D type express overnight sleeper bullet trains have now commenced operation between Beijing and Nanjing/Shanghai/Hangzhou.. There are currently 6 overnight D bullet trains. Overnight Bullet trains take between 9 hours and 23 minutes to 9 hours, 36 minutes between Beijing and Nanjing and were Soft sleeper only but now changed to sleeper first-class and sleeper second-class, which provide better facilities than Soft and Hard sleepers on conventional trains respectively. Some trains also have second-class seat cars. On June 30, 2011,
3600-600: The Central Valley . The Central Valley section, between Merced and Bakersfield , is planned to begin passenger service by 2030. Brightline West is a privately operated route that is currently under construction between the Las Vegas Valley and Rancho Cucamonga in the Greater Los Angeles area, with service set to begin by 2028. Both projects received funding following the awarding of
3700-499: The Cultural Revolution , a second round of simplified characters was promulgated in 1977—largely composed of entirely new variants intended to artificially lower the stroke count, in contrast to the first round—but was massively unpopular and never saw consistent use. The second round of simplifications was ultimately retracted officially in 1986, well after they had largely ceased to be used due to their unpopularity and
3800-531: The Federal Railroad Administration awarded $ 16.4 billion for 25 projects of significance along the Northeast Corridor , rebuilding tunnels and bridges, upgrading tracks, power systems, signals, stations, and other infrastructure. In 2024, following continuous efforts by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law , the Federal Railroad Administration made $ 2 billion available for projects along the Northeast Corridor . The North Atlantic Rail
3900-749: The Library of Congress , the Congressional Research Service , used different terms to clarify the confusion by defining rail services with top speeds less than 150 mph (240 km/h) to be higher-speed rail . There is no current rail service in the United States which meets all of the domestic criteria for high-speed rail. Amtrak 's Acela is classified as "higher-speed rail" in the Congressional Research Service report by virtue of being on shared tracks, whereas page 5 of that report also requires dedicated tracks to be classified as "very high-speed rail". In China, high-speed rail
4000-655: The New York Central 's " Super Hudsons " as used on the 20th Century Limited ; the Milwaukee Road 's purpose-built Atlantics and Hudsons used in Hiawatha service; the Pennsylvania Railroad 's duplex-drive 4-4-4-4 type T1 locomotives , and two Union Pacific engines, a 4-6-2 and a 4-8-2, used on the "Forty Niner" and other trains. The debate over signaling and train control between
4100-593: The North Central Texas Council of Governments uses the definition of speeds over 150 mph (240 km/h), and the Texas Department of Transportation and Oklahoma Department of Transportation use speeds of 165 mph (266 km/h) or more. These agencies have a separate category for higher-speed rail which can be a wide range of speeds between 80 mph (130 km/h) and 150 mph (240 km/h). The development of
Beijing–Shanghai railway - Misplaced Pages Continue
4200-554: The Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) the character meaning 'bright' was written as either 明 or 朙 —with either 日 'Sun' or 囧 'window' on the left, with the 月 'Moon' component on the right. Li Si ( d. 208 BC ), the Chancellor of Qin, attempted to universalize the Qin small seal script across China following the wars that had politically unified the country for
4300-531: The states of ancient China , with his chief chronicler having "[written] fifteen chapters describing" what is referred to as the " big seal script ". The traditional narrative, as also attested in the Shuowen Jiezi dictionary ( c. 100 AD ), is that the Qin small seal script that would later be imposed across China was originally derived from the Zhou big seal script with few modifications. However,
4400-759: The "Dot" stroke : The traditional components ⺥ and 爫 become ⺈ : The traditional component 奐 becomes 奂 : High-speed rail in the United States Plans for high-speed rail in the United States date back to the High-Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965 . Various state and federal proposals have followed. Despite being one of the world's first countries to get high-speed trains (the Metroliner service in 1969), it failed to spread. Definitions of what constitutes high-speed rail vary, including
4500-469: The 1919 May Fourth Movement —many anti-imperialist intellectuals throughout China began to see the country's writing system as a serious impediment to its modernization. In 1916, a multi-part English-language article entitled "The Problem of the Chinese Language" co-authored by the Chinese linguist Yuen Ren Chao (1892–1982) and poet Hu Shih (1891–1962) has been identified as a turning point in
4600-482: The 1986 General List of Simplified Chinese Characters , hereafter the General List . All characters simplified this way are enumerated in Chart 1 and Chart 2 in the 1986 Complete List . Characters in both charts are structurally simplified based on similar set of principles. They are separated into two charts to clearly mark those in Chart 2 as 'usable as simplified character components', based on which Chart 3
4700-520: The 1986 mainland China revisions. Unlike in mainland China, Singapore parents have the option of registering their children's names in traditional characters. Malaysia also promulgated a set of simplified characters in 1981, though completely identical to the mainland Chinese set. They are used in Chinese-language schools. All characters simplified this way are enumerated in Charts 1 and 2 of
4800-558: The 1990s, but thus far little progress has been made. Amtrak Acela service between Washington, D.C. , and Boston is available to New York City , but other cities remain isolated from high-speed rail service. Further, destinations outside the New York metropolitan area have been plagued by delayed service for decades. Nonetheless, New York has been quietly endorsing and even implementing rail improvements for years. Closer and faster railroad transportation links between New York City and
4900-483: The 450,000 lb f (2,000 kN) European regulations mandate. This results in American passenger cars being heavier. In the 19th century, most long-distance travel in the United States was by horse-drawn wagon, or water vessels. At the end of the century, rail started to supplant these modes of travel, and during the pre-WWII period rail had become the preeminent mode of long-distance travel. Rail transportation
5000-792: The American rail network during the 19th century created structural impediments to the adoption of high-speed rail in the latter half of the 20th that were not present in Europe and Asia. Freight on American railroads had to travel vastly longer distances, so railroads developed longer cars that could be joined into longer trains. In contrast to Europe, these freights traveled past very few older buildings that were at risk of structural damage from vibrations created by heavy passing trains. Even today, American freight cars and their contents may be as heavy as 286,000 lb (130,000 kg), while their European counterparts are limited to 190,000 lb (86,000 kg). With such long and heavy freights often sharing
5100-555: The California High-Speed Rail Authority had only about $ 12.7 billion - approximately one-eighth of the funding required. Governor Gavin Newsom has still expressed support for the project despite the funding shortfall, reduced scope, and swelling costs, which by 2023 were estimated in $ 128 billion. XpressWest, a private undertaking begun in 2005 to build a high-speed service to Las Vegas , Nevada ,
SECTION 50
#17327801118215200-470: The Chinese government published a major revision to the list which included a total of 8300 characters. No new simplifications were introduced. In addition, slight modifications to the orthography of 44 characters to fit traditional calligraphic rules were initially proposed, but were not implemented due to negative public response. Also, the practice of unrestricted simplification of rare and archaic characters by analogy using simplified radicals or components
5300-652: The Pacific Northwest Rail Corridor is one of eleven federally designated high-speed rail corridors in the United States . It was designated a high-speed rail by the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA). Improvements proposed in Washington State's long range plan would have had passenger trains operating at a maximum speed of 110 miles per hour (180 km/h) on line. The Cascadia high-speed rail
5400-496: The People's Republic, the idea of a mass simplification of character forms first gained traction in China during the early 20th century. In 1909, the educator and linguist Lufei Kui formally proposed the use of simplified characters in education for the first time. Over the following years—marked by the 1911 Xinhai Revolution that toppled the Qing dynasty , followed by growing social and political discontent that further erupted into
5500-589: The U.S. had not suffered the infrastructure damage it had inflicted on Europe and Japan, it had also developed its road network, leading to the creation of the Interstate Highway System after the war, giving prosperous citizens an efficient way to use the cars they were buying. Europe and Japan, by contrast, had largely not begun to build highway networks and had seen heavy damage to their rail systems. With their citizens impoverished as they rebuilt their economies, and unable to afford automobiles to
5600-690: The US, see High-speed rail in the United States Simplified Chinese characters Simplified Chinese characters are one of two standardized character sets widely used to write the Chinese language , with the other being traditional characters . Their mass standardization during the 20th century was part of an initiative by the People's Republic of China (PRC) to promote literacy, and their use in ordinary circumstances on
5700-444: The body of epigraphic evidence comparing the character forms used by scribes gives no indication of any real consolidation in character forms prior to the founding of the Qin. The Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) that inherited the Qin administration coincided with the perfection of clerical script through the process of libian . Eastward spread of Western learning Though most closely associated with
5800-447: The broadest trend in the evolution of Chinese characters over their history has been simplification, both in graphical shape ( 字形 ; zìxíng ), the "external appearances of individual graphs", and in graphical form ( 字体 ; 字體 ; zìtǐ ), "overall changes in the distinguishing features of graphic[al] shape and calligraphic style, [...] in most cases refer[ring] to rather obvious and rather substantial changes". The initiatives following
5900-407: The chosen variants, those that appear in the "Complete List of Simplified Characters" are also simplified in character structure accordingly. Some examples follow: Sample reduction of equivalent variants : Ancient variants with simple structure are preferred : Simpler vulgar forms are also chosen : The chosen variant was already simplified in Chart 1 : In some instances, the chosen variant
6000-553: The common engines and passenger cars of the day, as the "Zephyr" was constructed using stainless steel and the M-10000 chiefly of the aircraft alloy Duralumin . On May 26, 1934, the Zephyr made a record-breaking "Dawn to Dusk" run from Denver to Chicago. The train covered the distance in 13 hours, reaching a top speed of 112.5 mph (181.1 km/h) and running at an average speed of 77.6 mph (124.9 km/h). The railroad
6100-595: The confusion they caused. In August 2009, China began collecting public comments for a revised list of simplified characters; the resulting List of Commonly Used Standard Chinese Characters lists 8,105 characters, including a few revised forms, and was implemented for official use by China's State Council on 5 June 2013. In Chinese, simplified characters are referred to by their official name 简化字 ; jiǎnhuàzì , or colloquially as 简体字 ; jiǎntǐzì . The latter term refers broadly to all character variants featuring simplifications of character form or structure,
SECTION 60
#17327801118216200-656: The country. In 1935, the first official list of simplified forms was published, consisting of 324 characters collated by Peking University professor Qian Xuantong . However, fierce opposition within the KMT resulted in the list being rescinded in 1936. Work throughout the 1950s resulted in the 1956 promulgation of the Chinese Character Simplification Scheme , a draft of 515 simplified characters and 54 simplified components, whose simplifications would be present in most compound characters. Over
6300-520: The definition of higher-speed rail. Despite having a top speed of 125 mph (201 km/h) along 20 miles (32 km) of newly built track, most of the route is limited to a top speed of 110 mph (180 km/h) due to the presence of grade crossings. As of 2024 , the California High-Speed Rail Authority is working on the California High-Speed Rail project and construction is under way on sections traversing
6400-447: The economic problems in China during that time. Lu Xun , one of the most prominent Chinese authors of the 20th century, stated that "if Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die" ( 漢字不滅，中國必亡 ). During the 1930s and 1940s, discussions regarding simplification took place within the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party. Many members of the Chinese intelligentsia maintained that simplification would increase literacy rates throughout
6500-510: The existing shoreline route, a route through Hartford, Connecticut , and a route out along Long Island which would traverse a new bridge or tunnel across Long Island Sound to Connecticut. On July 12, 2017, the Federal Railroad Administration revealed the record of decision for the project. The proposed upgrades have not been funded. In 2013, Japanese officials pitched the country's maglev train technology,
6600-623: The extent Americans could, those countries invested in rail as the primary means of intercity travel. Following the creation of Japan's first high-speed Shinkansen , U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson asked the U.S. Congress to devise a way to increase speeds on American railroads. The request was part of his Great Society infrastructure building initiatives. Congress delivered the High-Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965 which passed with overwhelming bi-partisan support. It helped to create regular Metroliner service between New York City and Washington, D.C. , inaugurated in 1969. Trains on
6700-512: The first time. Li prescribed the 朙 form of the word for 'bright', but some scribes ignored this and continued to write the character as 明 . However, the increased usage of 朙 was followed by proliferation of a third variant: 眀 , with 目 'eye' on the left—likely derived as a contraction of 朙 . Ultimately, 明 became the character's standard form. The Book of Han (111 AD) describes an earlier attempt made by King Xuan of Zhou ( d. 782 BC ) to unify character forms across
6800-456: The first train had had it stopped in the town outside Chicago because he thought something was dragging; within two minutes it was struck from behind by another traveling at 86 mph (138 km/h), killing 45. The engineer of the second train survived the crash, and claimed he had not seen the signal in time to stop his train. Investigation showed that even if he had missed the yellow light going on, warning him to slow down in anticipation of
6900-475: The following decade, the Script Reform Committee deliberated on characters in the 1956 scheme, collecting public input regarding the recognizability of variants, and often approving forms in small batches. Parallel to simplification, there were also initiatives aimed at eliminating the use of characters entirely and replacing them with pinyin as an official Chinese alphabet, but this possibility
7000-430: The founding of the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) to universalize the use of their small seal script across the recently conquered parts of the empire is generally seen as being the first real attempt at script reform in Chinese history. Before the 20th century, variation in character shape on the part of scribes, which would continue with the later invention of woodblock printing , was ubiquitous. For example, prior to
7100-556: The history of the Chinese script—as it was one of the first clear calls for China to move away from the use of characters entirely. Instead, Chao proposed that the language be written with an alphabet, which he saw as more logical and efficient. The alphabetization and simplification campaigns would exist alongside one another among the Republican intelligentsia for the next several decades. Recent commentators have echoed some contemporary claims that Chinese characters were blamed for
7200-724: The line reached speeds of 125 mph (201 km/h) and averaged 90 mph (140 km/h) along the route, faster than even Acela trains operated between the cities of New York and Washington in 2012. The Metroliner was able to travel from New York to Washington in just 2.5 hours because it did not make any intermediate stops. U.S. federal and state governments continued to revisit the idea of fast trains. The Passenger Railroad Rebuilding Act of 1980 led to funding of high-speed corridor studies in 1984. Private-sector consortia intending to build high-speed lines were created in Florida, Ohio, Texas, California, and Nevada. Maglev trains became
7300-533: The mainland has been encouraged by the Chinese government since the 1950s. They are the official forms used in mainland China and Singapore , while traditional characters are officially used in Hong Kong , Macau , and Taiwan . Simplification of a component—either a character or a sub-component called a radical —usually involves either a reduction in its total number of strokes , or an apparent streamlining of which strokes are chosen in what places—for example,
7400-548: The maximum speed supported by the NEC. In 2012, the Federal Railroad Administration began developing a master plan for bringing high-speed rail to the Northeast Corridor titled NEC FUTURE, and released the final environmental impact statement in December 2016. The proposed alignment would closely follow the existing NEC south of New York City; multiple potential alignments north of New York City were studied, including
7500-484: The nationwide effort to build a high-speed rail network. Florida legislature approved SunRail in a special session in late 2009, which along with work already completed on the originally proposed line between Tampa and Orlando , was instrumental in the state winning a significant amount of the total amount allotted to high-speed rail. Only California received more high-speed rail funding than Florida. In February 2011, Florida's newly elected governor Rick Scott cancelled
7600-709: The next-generation high-speed Northeast Corridor line to cost approximately $ 117 billion (2010 dollars) and reduce the travel time from New York to Washington, including a stop in Philadelphia, to 96 minutes, and the travel time from Boston to New York to 84 minutes by 2040. In 2012, Amtrak released the details of the proposal. The first of two phases envisions the NEC to be upgraded allowing Acela speed improvements. By 2022, Acela trainsets were to be replaced with new trainsets, named Avelia Liberty , but this has since been pushed out to 2024. The new trainsets will be limited to
7700-626: The order of 200 km/h (124 mph) for existing, upgraded lines, and 250 km/h (155 mph) for lines specially built for high-speed travel. This is the case in the United States. For transportation planning purposes focussing on the development of high-speed rail, the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) distinguishes four types of intercity passenger rail corridors: State-level departments of transportation and council of governments may also use different definitions for high-speed rail. For examples,
7800-527: The original figures approved by the voters in 2008, opponents filed lawsuits intended to invalidate the $ 10 billion bond measures which were part of the financing of the rail line. By December 2018, the Authority had 119 miles (192 km) of right-of-way from Madera to near Bakersfield under contract and in construction. However, the estimated cost of a now scaled-down system had increased from $ 33.6 billion to $ 77.3 billion and, including federal funding,
7900-580: The other 22,000 miles (35,000 km) where the rule applied, railroads instead ran their trains under the limit. This made intercity passenger rail an even less competitive option, accelerating its decline as automobile use was increasing and airlines were beginning to compete on longer routes. By the late 1950s many passenger routes that had existed at the time of the Naperville crash had been discontinued. The results of World War II shifted further high-speed rail technological development overseas. While
8000-636: The previous express trains. Two early streamliners were the Union Pacific M-10000 (nicknamed Little Zip and The City of Salina ) in revenue service between 1934 and 1942 and the Burlington Railroad's Zephyr . The design of the Zephyr incorporated a diesel-electric power system; the M-10000 used a spark-ignition engine running on "petroleum distillate", a fuel similar to kerosene. These trains were much lighter than
8100-430: The public and quickly fell out of official use. It was ultimately formally rescinded in 1986. The second-round simplifications were unpopular in large part because most of the forms were completely new, in contrast to the familiar variants comprising the majority of the first round. With the rescission of the second round, work toward further character simplification largely came to an end. In 1986, authorities retracted
8200-534: The railroads and the ICC had never really been settled, just deferred as passenger deaths declined, in part due to more travelers using their automobiles for shorter commutes and an expanding and improving highway network. It ended in 1946, when one express passenger train crashed into another one that had stopped , both operated by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy , in Naperville, Illinois . The conductor of
8300-423: The railroads generally complied with this rule, affecting 18,000 miles (29,000 km) of track, they were not as tolerant of the ICC's additional requirement for ATS or cab signalling on passenger trains that exceeded 79 mph (127 km/h). Some railroads complied with the equipment requirement in part, and installed it on about 5,000 miles (8,000 km) of track. This was what the ICC had hoped for. But on
8400-897: The rest of the state are frequently cited as a partial solution to Upstate's stagnant economic growth. Beginning in 2010, a study conducted by the New York State Department of Transportation identified 10 alternatives for improving the Empire Corridor . In early 2014, a Tier 1 Draft Environmental Impact Statement was released for public review and comments. The draft eliminated 5 of the alternatives, including those with top speeds of 160 and 220 mph (260 and 350 km/h). The remaining 5 build alternatives under consideration have top speeds of 79 mph (127 km/h) (the base alternative), 90 mph (140 km/h) (options A and B), 110 mph (180 km/h), and 125 mph (201 km/h). The Keystone Corridor
8500-500: The river (now known as Nanjing West ). After the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge was completed in 1968, these three sections were linked together and renamed as a single Beijing–Shanghai or Jinghu railway. In May 2007, electrification of the section between Fuliji railway station and Linchang railway station was completed. The railway line is the principal line between Beijing and Shanghai and along with
8600-481: The same set of simplified characters as mainland China. The first round was promulgated by the Ministry of Education in 1969, consisting of 498 simplified characters derived from 502 traditional characters. A second round of 2287 simplified characters was promulgated in 1974. The second set contained 49 differences from the mainland China system; these were removed in the final round in 1976. In 1993, Singapore adopted
8700-422: The same tracks as passenger trains, it was necessary to require that passenger cars be able to withstand the higher impact forces of a collision. Axial strength standards, first required for the mail cars where clerks worked sorting mail en route and later applied to passenger cars, require that an American passenger car be able to withstand 800,000 pounds-force (3,600 kN) applied to either end, as opposed to
8800-467: The second round completely, though they had been largely fallen out of use within a year of their initial introduction. That year, the authorities also promulgated a final version of the General List of Simplified Chinese Characters . It was identical to the 1964 list save for 6 changes—including the restoration of 3 characters that had been simplified in the first round: 叠 , 覆 , 像 ; the form 疊
8900-477: The state to issue $ 9.95 billion in bonds to fund the first phase of a planned multi-phase high-speed rail network. Conventional steel-wheel on rail technology is the adopted mode with trains traveling at speeds of up to 220 miles per hour (350 km/h). Los Angeles to San Francisco via the Central Valley was expected to be the first phase of the network, though the initial operating segments have since become unclear. The California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA)
9000-833: The traditional character 強 , with 11 strokes is standardised as 强 , with 12 strokes, which is a variant character. Such characters do not constitute simplified characters. The new standardized character forms shown in the Characters for Publishing and revised through the Common Modern Characters list tend to adopt vulgar variant character forms. Since the new forms take vulgar variants, many characters now appear slightly simpler compared to old forms, and as such are often mistaken as structurally simplified characters. Some examples follow: The traditional component 釆 becomes 米 : The traditional component 囚 becomes 日 : The traditional "Break" stroke becomes
9100-451: The world's fastest, for the Northeast Corridor to regional U.S. politicians. The trains could travel from New York to Washington in an hour. Northeast Maglev , using SCMaglev technology developed by Central Japan Railway Company , is currently working with the FRA and MDOT to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement. The project has received a $ 27.8 million grant from the FRA. In 2023,
9200-464: Was Nanjing , this section alone was called the "Jinghu" railway. Between Pukou and Xiaguan , the railway crosses the Yangtze River . Before the completion of the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge in 1968, the trains were ferried across car-by-car. Passengers could also disembark at Nanjing North (Pukou), take a passenger ferry, and take a train again at the then Nanjing main station south of
9300-593: Was a proposed dedicated high-speed rail line that would have connected Salem / Portland , Vancouver WA / Olympia / Tacoma / Seattle / Everett , and Bellingham, Washington . As of 2012, neither the Washington State Department of Transportation nor Oregon plan to implement speeds higher than 79 mph (127 km/h) due to safety and other freight service concerns voiced by the track owner, Union Pacific Railroad . The plan to provide high-speed and higher-speed rail services on this corridor
9400-464: Was abandoned, confirmed by a speech given by Zhou Enlai in 1958. In 1965, the PRC published the List of Commonly Used Characters for Printing [ zh ] (hereafter Characters for Printing ), which included standard printed forms for 6196 characters, including all of the forms from the 1956 scheme. A second round of simplified characters was promulgated in 1977, but was poorly received by
9500-532: Was acquired by Brightline in 2018 and its name changed to Brightline West . In April 2020, The California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank approved $ 3.25 billion in tax-exempt private activity bonds for the project and acquired a 50-year lease from Caltrans for use of the Interstate 15 corridor . The line, from Rancho Cucamonga station to a station near the Las Vegas Strip ,
9600-476: Was added to the U.S. passenger rail system following the Metroliners. In 1993, the U.S. attempted to improve service between Boston and New York by electrifying the Northeast Corridor north of New Haven, Connecticut and buying new train sets to replace the 30-year-old Metroliners and run on the newly electrified route. Some existing trains (Swedish X 2000 and German ICE 1 ) were tested, but finally,
9700-514: Was estimated to be completed by early 2019. Washington State Governor Jay Inslee has expressed his desire to see a Cascadia innovation corridor, linking together the main economic centers of the Pacific Northwest. Development of a high-speed rail system in Florida was mandated by a constitutional referendum in 2000 but taken off the books by another referendum in 2004. Florida resurrected its high-speed rail authority to capitalize on
9800-504: Was not high-speed by modern standards but inter-city travel often averaged speeds between 40 and 65 miles per hour (64 and 105 km/h). Most of the major railroads had faster than normal trains called "express" or "limited" on their mainline routes (e.g. the Empire State Express and the 20th Century Limited ) between major towns and cities. The development of faster trains faced indirect regulatory hurdles. After
9900-468: Was thus halted. Upgraded services would include the Amtrak Cascades , which operates along the corridor. In early 2018, Washington State pledged money to studying ultra-high-speed rail between Vancouver BC, Seattle, and Portland with 250 mph (400 km/h) speed operation. After a preliminary study, the state pledged $ 300,000 in funding and was shortly backed by British Columbia. The study
10000-549: Was unable to capitalize on this since the Depression had cut into the demand for intercity rail travel. Many steam locomotives were streamlined during this time to attract passengers, and the first steam streamlined locomotive was the New York Central's Commodore Vanderbilt . Some of these steam locomotives became very fast: some were said to exceed 120 mph (190 km/h) on a regular basis. Examples include
#820179