>>1946197Well thing thing is ideally you want both. You want the HSR so people get between major population centres fast without needing to drive or fly. And yes, people do that a lot...it's not about "the average person"...it's about compounding millions of average people together and their journeys each day. You only build HSR when you have a sufficient number of people who would use it that justifies the investment in building and operating them. Any country that actually has HSR has done a shit fucking ton of due diligence and research into it due to its expense. If HSR is built it is because it makes sense (hopefully).
But you also want the local and regional railways to in order to provide the last mile service for citizens who live in the area of where they operate - but also for commuters who arrive via HSR or planes. There's no point in HSR if where those trains stop at lack the population and additional infrastructure for those HSR passengers to continue their journey. That's where the more local commuter rail (or S-Bahn), light rail, subways and buses come in.
In this respect, Chūō Shinkansen does make a lot of sense. It's an expensive undertaking but it's also a really new technology that has seemingly proven itself viable at last. Tokyo to Nagoya in 40 minutes is really efficient compared to the current 1.5ish to 2.5ish hour journey by rail. If they expand it to Osaka as planned then that will turn what is now a 2.5 to 3.5 hour journey into a 70 minute journey. Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and the other places in between already have great regional and local transportation options so overall this project should be really good.
