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Q: Why we drive Car on Right Side and High Speed train runs on Left side in China?
I Just Noticed one thing is that In China We drive cars on right side but High speed train runs on Left Side..any specific reason behind it?
To make it more clear..If there are two lanes on the road..we drive on right lane but if there are two railway tracks..High Speed Train runs on left side track..
11 years 40 weeks ago in Transport & Travel - China
Actually, most of the high speed trains I have seen have drivers compartments at both ends of the train. So depending on which way you are traveling, you could be either on the left side/right side so to speak.
Another reason for this is because the rail that high speed trains run on is different from the rail that normal trains use. (One of the biggest differences is that the high speed rail has all of the seems between rail sections welded together to give a smother ride and it dissipates heat over a wider area.)
woody:
It is not so much to do with where the driver sits now. My guess is that it is a relic that is a result of the earliest steam trains which were probably imported from Britain and they have left hand working. The controls would have been on this side and because the driver must sit on the outside side of trains so that they can observe the control signals which are placed outside (left hand in direction of travel) side of the track. Once the first lines were constructed in this manner it became the standard. As far as the rails being welded together almost all tracks have this now. It does not dissipate the heat, joints actually allow for expansion in the heat. To counteract this lack of room to expand when they weld rail together they use large rams to pre tension the rail so that the rail is in a state as if it was laid at a fairly hot temperature (in Australiaia 35 deg C) and as a result the ballast can support the track and supplies enough resistance to stop it buckling when it goes into compression above this temp on a hot day. Of course the very high speed lines are fixed into a cast slab and there is no risk of the track misaligning.
I have never ridden a bullet train, but I have seen a few at train stations. And I might be wrong, but I recall that the windshield where I do guess the driver will seat was sort of center located on "locomotive".
