The richest man starts with a blind box

Chapter 1197 Two Reports
"It's about the same as I expected!" Professor Parkinson nodded and said, "This project is really difficult to make money."

"Since you know, why are you still asking me?" Dr. Cooper rolled his eyes.

"I just want to see if you, as the initiator of this project, can find a way to make this project profitable." Professor Parkinson said.

"Then tell you the truth, it's impossible for this thing to be profitable through operation, and it's impossible for us to really make money from this project itself!" Dr. Cooper said blankly.

At the same time, Dr. Cooper lost a report to Professor Parkinson. The professor looked down and found that it was actually a feasibility study report for a vacuum high-speed tube train.

This report was completed about a year ago, and it conducted a thorough investigation of the feasibility of the entire vacuum high-speed tube train.

According to the investigation of this report, the most profitable vacuum high-speed pipeline train line has been newly built in the United States, that is, the California-New York line for simulation investigation.

First of all, this report first planned a tentative route. The limit distance between the two states is 2900 kilometers, but the total length of this route is 4680 kilometers, which is 1780 kilometers more than the distance. This route seems to be It's not great, but it's a waste.

But in fact, this is a route formulated with full consideration of the economic situation.

First of all, this route bypasses more than 30 very rugged mountains. Because of the characteristics of the vacuum high-speed pipeline, the vacuum high-speed pipeline can only be bent at a very low angle, which means that facing the mountain, it is basically impossible to rely on it. Panshan, or the way of going around the mountain, can only drill directly into the mountain, and drill straight tunnels out of the mountain to let the vacuum high-speed pipeline pass.

In this way, it will face huge construction costs. It is better to go around far away and build on the plains to save costs.

And it's not just the mountains that need to be bypassed, they also need to bypass the city. After all, if this kind of pipeline passes through the city, it will inevitably be demolished, and the cost will be too high, so they can only go around the city's periphery In the past, it was absolutely impossible to pass through the city.

So in general, the length of the detour route alone is as high as thousands of kilometers.

Although the laying of pipelines has to bypass the city, the overall plan must be as close to the city as possible. After all, only when it is close to the city can guests be sent to the city, and then a platform for passengers to get on and off can be built.

Every time there is an additional station, train tickets for one more route can be sold, so that profits can be increased.So sometimes the line has to turn a corner and take the initiative to get close to some surrounding cities, which requires additional distance.

Therefore, the distance of 4600 kilometers is not only not exaggerated, but on the contrary, it is very reliable and considers the actual value.

But the distance of 4600 kilometers also means extremely high construction costs.

This report also made a more detailed estimate of the construction cost, because it is necessary to build a pipeline that can accommodate a normal train, and the current width of a high-speed train is 3.1 meters, so the diameter of a vacuum high-speed pipeline must be More than 5.4 meters, considering the safety of passing, the actual diameter should be more than 5.7 meters.

And this is the inner diameter. Considering that the vacuum pipe needs to withstand various geological and climatic tests outside, and at the same time ensure that there is no air leakage, the overall diameter of the pipe may reach 7 meters.

This is a very large and terrifying number.

For example, the most common airliner in the world is the Boeing 737, and the maximum diameter of the cabin of the 737 is 3.76 meters.In other words, the diameter of the vacuum high-speed pipeline will reach the level of two Boeing 737 airliners, which is outrageous.

In the end, according to estimates, the cost per kilometer of such a pipeline has reached a cost of 1.3 million U.S. dollars, and after 4600 kilometers, the material cost is 6000 billion U.S. dollars.

But this is only the manufacturing cost of the pipeline. If the pipeline needs to be laid, the cost is simply inestimable. At the same time, because there is no precedent for the entire laying process, the author of this report can only roughly estimate the laying cost per kilometer A price of around $2 million is required, and the final laying costs are another $000 billion in cost.

It is worth mentioning that the construction team actually gave two different versions of estimates. One version is the open-air grounding load-bearing plan. The side is fixed and limited by iron frames, so the construction cost is relatively low, and it also needs 2 million US dollars per kilometer.

The other is the elevated scheme, which is relatively easy to understand, which is to use the viaduct to pass the pipeline in the air.Compared with the first option, the main advantage of the second option is that this option can reduce the cost of demolition.

Because if the pipeline lands directly, not only the pipeline itself will occupy an area, but also a certain distance around the pipeline must be set up as an isolation protection zone, and some people are prohibited from approaching. A preliminary estimate is that the distance between the pipeline and the center is 50 meters. They all need to be demolished, so the cost of demolition becomes extremely expensive.

At the same time, this investigation report also stated very simply that unless a large number of inspectors are arranged, otherwise, according to the urine of some low-class people in the United States, they will definitely try to steal some auxiliary equipment on the pipeline in exchange for money.

What's more, people may not want money at all, they just want to finish the pipeline, disgusting you capitalists, etc., it is very dangerous anyway.

The high-priced solution can avoid these problems relatively easily. The pipeline is erected in the air, and ordinary people cannot approach it at all. At the same time, only the area of ​​the viaduct needs to be demolished, and the demolition price can be saved a lot.

The disadvantage is that the high price itself is a huge cost, and the actual cost per kilometer will soar to 5 million US dollars.

On the whole, the cost of grounding is still cheaper.

The report also lists many other costs, so I won’t go into too much detail here. Anyway, the final report gave a forecast of US$1.8 trillion, and also carefully marked that this figure is based on various data. The forecast data does not represent the dollar figure that will be required in the actual construction process.

After estimating the cost of the railway, the plan began to estimate the profit of the railway.

Without considering the operating costs after the railway is completed, if the 30-year revenue is used to earn back the investment of 1.8 trillion U.S. dollars, then on average, a net profit of 600 billion U.S. dollars per year is required.

According to the current data, the total number of passengers traveling between the two places by train, plane, car and other means of transportation within a year is about 720 million.

These 720 million people need to provide an annual profit of 600 billion U.S. dollars, and the profit of each ticket must be more than 800 U.S. dollars. If operating costs are also considered, the actual ticket price may exceed the price of 1400 U.S. dollars.

The survey report itself does not say how outrageous the price is, but only lists the price of flying between New York and California.

For ordinary airlines, the price of each ordinary passenger ticket is 600 US dollars, the first class is 2000 US dollars, and the business class is about 4000 US dollars.

And if you encounter low-cost airlines offering discounts and promotions, the price of each ticket may drop below $300.

Comparing these two prices, it is clear that if the fare of the vacuum high-speed train is really priced at 1400 US dollars, then only passengers who can afford the first-class and business class will have the money to take the vacuum high-speed train.

But the total number of passengers who can travel between the two places in business class in a year will never exceed 30 yuan. If the vacuum high-speed railway train only has 30 passengers a year, then the annual consideration is not the profit, but the profit. How much loss is there.

In the end, the report also gave a very considerate solution, that is, it is recommended to set the ticket price at $600, which is basically the same as the price of an airline ticket.

In this way, it is basically impossible to recover the capital within 30 years, but it is still very possible to be profitable after 60 years.As for whether the pipelines will be damaged in batches and need to be replaced after 60 years, this report does not mention it at all.

After reading the report, Professor Parkinson sighed, and then said, "Brother Cooper, your work ability is still very good. This report is much more accurate than the report I sent someone to investigate hastily. How do you Give it to me sooner!"

"I gave it to you, and I just left it in my personal desk. You wouldn't send someone to throw my desk out the first thing after you moved into the office, without even looking at it?" Ku Dr. Bo asked indifferently, and Professor Parkinson's expression suddenly became strange.

"Do you think that if you deliberately leave this project to me, I will definitely be fooled, and I can't wait to promote this project to make money, but it turns out that I have lost everything, so that I can get me down again?" Ba Jin Professor Sen suddenly asked with a slightly ferocious expression.

"Isn't it? Aren't you already promoting this plan?" Dr. Cooper said lightly.

"Yes, yes, I am indeed promoting this plan, but what I want to tell you is that I have not been fooled by you from the beginning to the end. On the contrary, I actually want to thank you and leave this project to me, otherwise How could I have such a good opportunity!" Professor Parkinson suddenly started laughing again, and then threw out a report to Dr. Cooper, "Didn't I just say that? I also asked someone to investigate, it's just time A little hasty, not as detailed, accurate, and stingy as yours!"

Dr. Cooper frowned, and then picked up the report that Professor Parkinson gave him. He didn't read anything else, and went directly to the last page of the report, which contained the final survey results.

It is impressively written on it that the estimated construction cost is 3.9 trillion U.S. dollars, which is twice as much as Dr. Cooper's survey results.

(End of this chapter)