Which country will give California the best deal? Will it be Japan? Could it be China? Will Europe be a late entry? One thing almost for sure... it won't be the US. Only great nation-states can do thing like this.
Japan’s Prime Minister Touts HSR In California
May 4th, 2015 | Posted by Robert Cruickshank
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is visiting the United States this week, and his trip began in California. According to the Wall Street Journal, a big part of his California stop is to act as the “salesman-in-chief” for Japan’s high speed rail in the hopes that California will choose it for its own HSR project. Abe met with Governor Jerry Brown and other state leaders to tout Japanese technology:
. @AbeShinzo shows @JerryBrownGov high-tech Japanese Shinkansen #HighSpeedRail simulator #hsr #cahsr #AbeInTheUSA pic.twitter.com/zFzNs2PgVl
— Kenko SONE (@KenkoSone) May 1, 2015
More background from the WSJ article:
Exporting Japan’s bullet-train system, known as the Shinkansen, is an important element of Mr. Abe’s strategy to revive his nation’s economy. Winning contracts in the U.S. would help bolster Japan’s bid to expand business in other markets, particularly in Asia’s developing nations, and compete with rivals from China and Europe….
The Japanese consortium bidding for the California project hopes that Tokyo will help finance the new project with a cheap loan from the government-backed Japan Bank for International Cooperation.
Supporting Kawasaki’s bid in California is East Japan Railway Co., Japan’s largest operator that runs a massive railway system crisscrossing the Tokyo metropolitan area, as well as long-distance bullet trains.
Japan Times has more detail on the Kawasaki bid:
The technology is based on Kawasaki’s efSET, short for environmentally-friendly super express train, and is designed to achieve an operational speed of 350 kph.
Eyeing competition from Germany’s Siemens AG and others, Kawasaki says efSET is adapted to stress energy conservation, ride comfort and safety, including fire resistance — qualities often demanded in bids for overseas rail projects….
Employing its expertise in shinkansen, Kawasaki started developing the concept design of the efSET in 2008, sporting a sleek aerodynamic head to cut air resistance.
The manufacturer says it incorporates key devices and tools employed by the shinkansen, which has built a reputation for reliability.
Made of aluminum alloy, its lightweight body helps to reduce energy consumption, an environmentally friendly feature that would appeal to eco-conscious California citizens, the sources said.
For those who really want to geek out on the trainsets, you can read more about the Kawasaki efSET here.
The article also points out that Japan is touting safety as a key feature of its technology and its experience – particularly because they may not be able to compete with China on price:
Under Beijing’s “railway diplomacy” strategy, Chinese train builders have been increasing their presence in the United States. In October last year, China CNR Corp. won an order for subway vehicles in Boston, outdoing Japanese competitors.
But the record for China’s high-speed rail service was marred by a fatal accident — a 2011 collision in Zhejiang Province that the Chinese government said killed 40 people.
“No one was injured on shinkansen trains when the Great East Japan Earthquake struck in 2011,” an official from a company in the Japanese consortium said.
The Wenzhou crash was a major tragedy. But it did not get much attention among Californians. I doubt that a single crash will undermine China’s chances at winning a contract involving California HSR – especially if China can throw more money at their bid and thus reduce the cost to the state. Japan’s safety record in a seismically active area will be quite compelling to earthquake-conscious Californians, but will that experience trump a more lucrative (to the state) bid from China? We shall see.
Abe’s visit to California and his emphasis on high speed rail shows just how seriously Japan is taking this project and this opportunity. It is also a reminder that even as the right-wing Congress dithers, California HSR still has powerful friends around the globe.
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