[This message has been edited by Lee, Wonyoung (edited 12-01-2004).]
 

All structures are complete and station construction is well along. At this point the track and overhead line are in place on the portion that will be used as the test track (southernmost 60 km) and well under way throughout the rest of the line. Some train sets have been delivered. I do not know how many.

Since a lot of us know that we will be looking for another place to work sometime soon, we are very interested in the status of Beijing to Shanghai, but I have no idea what their plan is at this time. My own opinion is that the Chinese will do it with minimal foreign involvment. We do know that they seem to be very aware of everything that is going on in the Tauiwan HSR project.

Incidentially, if and when we ever do a high speed project in the US, that is my opinion of what we should do. Get some advice from the Germans, French, Japanese, and also learn from the experiences in South Korea with what happens when you import technology, and then do it ourselves based on the best of American technology, borrowing only the things that are appropriate and are either truly better than the home grow version or have no available equivalent. Our basic railroad technology is a lot better than the rest of the world thinks it is, and in many ways a lot better than that which exists in many parts of the world.

Mr Lee could tell us a lot, if his situation permits, about the "square peg in a round hole" things that happen when a foreign system is brought in from people that do not understand the conditions in the place where it will be used nearly as well as they think they do.

[This message has been edited by George Harris (edited 12-01-2004).]