Guangzhou Plans Multicity Subway

iFeng: 花1200亿修一条“地铁”，连接4个万亿城市，广东在想啥？

Is the "subway" connecting the four trillion-dollar cities in the Greater Bay Area really coming?

On July 22, Guangzhou and Zhuhai, Foshan, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen, and Zhaoqing held a meeting on cross-city key issues. Research plans, and strive to have the conditions for starting construction within this year.

According to Guangzhou Daily, the Fosui-Dongguan Intercity will connect the three central urban areas of Foshan, Guangzhou and Dongguan, and connect with the Shenzhen metropolitan area intercity related lines.

The predecessor of Fosui-Dongguan Intercity is Guangzhou Metro Line 28, which will be upgraded to an intercity railway in 2020 with a design speed of 160 kilometers per hour.

...The average cost per kilometer exceeds 900 million yuan

Dividing the price by the costs give around 130 km of rail.

Here Comes the Boom

CNBC: Target expects squeezed profits from aggressive plan to get rid of unwanted inventory

Target said it will take a short-term hit to profits as it cancels orders and marks down unwanted merchandise.

Target anticipates its operating margin rate for the second quarter will be around 2%. That’s lower than the outlook it gave less than three weeks ago.

Target anticipates its operating margin rate for the second quarter will be around 2%. That’s lower than the outlook it gave less than three weeks ago.

Target said it had nearly $15.1 billion of inventory as of April 30, the end of the fiscal first quarter. That’s about 43% higher than in the year-ago period.

Everyone rushed to buy goods for an economy that was long gone by the time the goods arrived. Now they think they are ordering the right goods for the economy now, but their supply chains are still snarled. What's to say the economy won't change yet again by the time the new inventory shows up?

Back in early April, I posted Wall Street Ignores Margin Collapse Warning. The Restoration Hardware CEO warned everyone what was coming. The market still doesn't understand the level of destruction underway though, because they think there's some magic "print money" button that can be pressed. All around us is evidence of what happens when that button is pushed. Remember too all the talk about the great economy, reopening, consumer spending. The booming 2020s. It was mostly inflation.

Rumor: "Vaxx" Mandate Protest Shuts Down Jacksonville ATC Tower

ZH: Sickout? Southwest Airlines Cancels 1,000 More Flights As Disruptions Increase

Southwest airlines canceled nearly 2,000 flights between Saturday and Sunday - blaming the FAA and the weather for problems that didn't seem to affect other airlines. According to FlightAware, Southwest canceled over 1,000 of the flights on Sunday.

“We experienced significant impact in the Florida airports [Friday] evening after an FAA-imposed air traffic management program was implemented due to weather and resulted in a large number of cancellations,” Alan Kasher, who oversees Southwest’s flight operations, in a statement obtained by several news outlets on Saturday.

Does this confirm or deny the walkout rumor:

CNBC: Southwest Airlines cancels 1,800 flights, blaming weather and staffing

“No FAA air traffic staffing shortages have been reported since Friday,” the FAA said. “Some airlines continue to experience scheduling challenges due to aircraft and crews being out of place. Please contact the airlines for details about current flight schedules.”

From social media:

There was 2 inches of rain over the course of an hour on Friday, but no high winds. Nothing that suggests delayed flights. A computer screwup is possible, and would be consistent with negative and falling social mood, as well as experienced workers not showing up because of the vaccine mandate.

I'm skeptical of unconfirmed rumors, but verification is difficult because the government and media have proven they will lie about anything and everything. In this case, media probably isn't lying, I suspect they're merely repeating what they were told by Southwest and the FAA. Since airlines are heavily regulated by the government and the FAA is the government, there is increased risk of punishment for speaking the truth. I don't know if the ATCer's themselves would even be willing to talk because I assume that would be their job. In this case, the social media account seems plausible. People close to the situation have heared rumors that its related to the vaxx mandate. What has been stated by officials thus far doesn't refute this. An hour of rain doesn't delay flights (click to see the weather report) and the FAA admitting to a staffing problem on Friday. I'm not an expert on airline logistics, but if the walkout shut down air traffic control for a good part of the day, I can imagine delays would stretch through the weekend.

Takeaway: if airline industry workers are saying no vaxx and Mom is right, Americans might want to think about staying local or driving for Thanksgiving.

Update: Anecdote, but someone claiming to be an ATCer online says 40 percent of them have still not receieved the mRNA therapy.

Boeing-Airbus Killer Takes Flight

Brilliant work by the financiers and bureacrats who have finished teh destruction of Boeing and Airbus' competitive advantage.

China Daily: C919 gets first global contract

Guangdong Preparing for Maglev Links to Major Cities

ECNS: Guangdong plans ultra-high-speed maglev lines linking its mega cities with Shanghai, Beijing

South China’s Guangdong Province plans to construct two ultra-high-speed maglev lines linking provincial capital city of Guangzhou and another booming city Shenzhen with Shanghai and Beijing, cutting current travel time via high-speed railway by half.

According to the Territorial Special Planning of Guangdong Province (2020-35) released on February 9, Guangdong has formally stated the intention to set aside space in the province for the construction of a high-speed maglev line linking Beijing, Hong Kong and Macao, and another one line linking East China’s Shanghai.

If the plan is realized, it’s estimated that the travel time between Shenzhen, Guangdong and Shanghai will be shortened by half to merely 2.5 hours, while that between Shenzhen and Beijing will be 3.6 hours.

Maglev.net: THE GUANGZHOU – SHENZHEN MAGLEV

It will be part of the new Chinese high-speed maglev network running from Wuhan to Guangzhou and onwards to Hong Kong.

Operational railways connecting Guangzhou with Shenzhen

Guangzhou – Shenzhen - Hong Kong High-Speed Railway Guangzhou South Station to Shenzhen North Station: 29 mins 350 km/h (217 mph)

Guangzhou – Dongguan - Shenzhen Intercity Railway Xintang Station (Guangzhou) - Shenzhen Airport: 60 mins 200 km/h (124 mph)

Guangzhou - Shenzhen Railway Guangzhou East Station - Shenzhen Station: 74 mins 200 km/h (124 mph)

iFeng: 多地规划预留高速磁悬浮通道，“超级高铁”要来了?

Recently, the Department of Natural Resources of Guangdong Province announced the public consultation version of "Guangdong Province Land and Space Planning (2020-2035)". The plan proposes to reserve six important traffic corridors, including the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao high-speed magnetic levitation and Shanghai (Shenzhen)-Guangzhou high-speed magnetic levitation. It is also the first time that the high-speed maglev line has been clearly planned.

Prior to this, the world's first high-temperature superconducting high-speed maglev engineering prototype and test line using the original technology of Southwest Jiaotong University was officially opened in Chengdu, Sichuan, which marked a breakthrough in the engineering research of high-temperature superconducting high-speed maglev. Possesses the conditions for engineering test demonstration.

A reporter from China Business News found that some major city clusters have been planning high-speed magnetic levitation in recent years. "Super high-speed rail" is really coming?

China Escalates Beyond SARS Response: Shuts Down All Transportation

China has quarantined the entire city of Wuhan to try to contain the outbreak.

Caixin: Wuhan Virus Latest: Wuhan Imposes Massive Quarantine, Shutting Down Public Transit

Wuhan imposed a massive quarantine in a step to halt the spread of the viral coronavirus that first appeared there. Starting at 10 a.m. Jan. 23, all bus, subway, ferry and long-distance bus systems in the city of 11 million people will be suspended, and authorities asked residents to remain in the city.

“Residents should not leave Wuhan except for special reasons,” a government statement said. “Departures from Wuhan at airports and railway stations will also be temporarily closed.” No timetable for resumption was given.

• To contain the spreading virus, Wuhan has started screening vehicles and travelers going in and out of the city by road. Temperature checkpoints will be installed along major routes to the city, a central China transportation hub.

The Wuhan city government also required residents to wear masks in public areas including parks, cinemas, museums, shopping malls and restaurants.

If nothing else, China will offer the world lessons in extreme disease containment measures.

As with any government in a similar situation, faces the catch-22 of success. If they quarantine soon enough, the disease is contained. They are criticized for overreacting. If they wait too long, the disease spreads and they are blamed for doing too little. With SARS, it took a couple of months for a similar response, but this time it is more extreme. Travel to and from, and within Wuhan has ground to a halt. Hopefully they've caught it, but disease experts think it is already in several other cities. Which likely means several more cities will go into a similar quarantine. Hopefully it ends there.

Update: Huanggang and Chibi in Hubei province are now under the same quarantine.

Central Planning is Hard: Restricting Car Ownership Edition

2013, BBC: Beijing to restrict private car use to tackle pollution

2016, NYTimes: Want to Drive in Beijing? Good Luck in the License Plate Lottery

2018, China Daily: Beijing takes aim at congestion, pollution with new car limits

April 2019, SCMP: China ponders trade-off with congestion and pollution on car purchase incentives to boost economy

Now, Caixin: China Boosts Pressure on Cities to Ease Car Ownership Restrictions

Two cities already eased this year: China Prioritizes Auto Sales Over Pollution and Congestion

Central planning: every success is a failure.

China Removes Airline Ticket Price Controls, Prices Jump

21st Century: 民航票价市场化改革落地，北上广深互飞全线涨价

The new round of commercialization of civil aviation fare market reforms entered the stage of landing.

Recently, the 21st Century Business Herald reported the price of the domestic "four major aviation routes" (including shared flights) in July. The data shows that in the 306 marketized routes opened earlier this year, there are already more than 60 route prices. It has been raised, and the rate of increase has been more than 9.5%.

On January 5 this year, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Civil Aviation Administration jointly issued a notice and decided to expand the scope of the market-adjusted price route, adding 306 new routes to the original. Exceeding expectations, the route opened up this time was not only numerous but also of high quality. It covered major routes including the first-tier cities.

From June 25th to June 26th, China Southern Airlines (600029.SH), China Eastern Airlines (600115.SH) and Air China and other airlines have successively raised the price of full-price tickets for the economy class on the Beijing-Shanghai route from The original 1,240 yuan was raised to 1,360 yuan.

The Beijing-Shanghai route is hailed as the most profitable "golden route", with the number of flying flights and passenger traffic ranking first. According to CADAS, a civil aviation data analysis agency, between January and April 2018, there were nearly 10,000 flights on the Beijing-Shanghai route, with 2,322,200 passengers and an average passenger load factor of 89.95%.

Due to the majority of public business travelers on the route, the price sensitivity is relatively low, so the route is considered to be one of the routes with the most price increase space. In contrast, the Beijing-Hangzhou route began to implement market-based pricing in 2013. At present, full-price ticket for economy class has reached 2,200 yuan.