Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

France’s new high-speed trains

citylab.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 239 posts

Re: France’s new high-speed trains

#171

Post by isostatic »

pmontra wrote: post #81
lultimouomo wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, a 4 hour travel door-to-door on a plane means: * Half an hour to go to the airport * Half an hour passing security and waiting for boarding * 20 minutes between boarding and stable flight when you can start working on your laptop * One hour and 40 minutes when you can work cramped in a noisy environment with terrible air quality * 15 minutes descent and landing * 15 minutes deboarding and getting out of the air…

> Half an hour passing security and waiting for boarding Only 30 minutes sounds optimistic. You also didn't count the time to recover luggage. I've seen people bringing huge suitcases on high speed trains. They couldn't take them in cabin on a flight. Planes are good past the 2 hours flight time IMHO, or across countries where there are no interconnected high speed networks (I'm writing this with Europe in mind.)

I used to live a 7 minute taxi from Manchester airport. I would usually aim to arrive 30 minutes before wheelsup. It it took longer than 5 minutes from taxi to boarding it was unusual.

In the rare occasions I checked luggage I'd arrive about t-45 and have a beer in the lounge.

Never missed a flight. To get to west london it was far faster than the train and tube, although most of the time I was changing at Heathrow onto a longer distance flight.

Re: France’s new high-speed trains

#172

Post by peterbraden »

supernova87a wrote: post #31

SNCF is fiddling with the wrong things. It doesn't need to separate train operations from rail track network maintenance. It doesn't need to open up the network to competition. What it needs to do is cut the number of excessive public sector workers, reduce costs, and stop running the business like a political arm of the government. I can bet that the reason they think they need to do all these things is that cost pr…

SBB in Switzerland is also profitable

Re: France’s new high-speed trains

#173

Post by mcny »

kmlx wrote: post #149
supernova87a wrote: post #31

SNCF is fiddling with the wrong things. It doesn't need to separate train operations from rail track network maintenance. It doesn't need to open up the network to competition. What it needs to do is cut the number of excessive public sector workers, reduce costs, and stop running the business like a political arm of the government. I can bet that the reason they think they need to do all these things is that cost pr…

> It doesn't need to open up the network to competition. What about Japan? Aren't they running the best rail network in the world with 0 subsidies?

I think New York needs to:

1. Cut costs. Lay off workers where possible. Cut wages and salaries across the board.

2. Increase taxes. There just isn't enough money. I've seen a lot of people jump the turnstile.

I think we can't emulate Japan's model in the US. Japan is very homogeneous from what I can tell. We are decidedly not. Any attempt to strict enforcement will lead to hiring people who are attracted to such jobs and think it is their duty to rid society of "scum".

Re: France’s new high-speed trains

#175

Post by icebraining »

adrianN wrote: post #158
titanix2 wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's not East-Asia. It works in HK, Japan, Taiwan or others countries because a train station increase value of the surroundings but in France a train station is a place you want to avoid , especially at night. In any city of a respectable size this is where you have you have a lot of beggars, thieves etc. trying to extorts you cigarettes and money. It is even worse for women that get everything of that plus…

That seems to be a problem that can be fixed with some security guards.

Not really. This kind of low-key theft and coercion are hard to catch in the act. You can criminalize loitering and begging itself, but that's problematic, plus rife for discriminatory abuse. Finally, even if you do catch them, the low amounts in question usually mean they'll spend a few hours at a police station, and then they'll go back.

Re: France’s new high-speed trains

#176

Post by cowl »

isostatic wrote: post #166
titanix2 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It doesn't need to open up the network to competition. I think this is mandated by the EU. And it could be a good thing. I'm personally fed up to be treated like a thief when I forgot composting my ticket (which happen because there is not gate to access the rails) or when I could not buy it in the first place (some station doesn't have have vending machines). Also the price lottery for TGV tickets is infuriating (…

> I think this is mandated by the EU. Not really, the EU is democratic, and generally there's skeptisism in the EU about a liberal rail market. The Fourth Railway Package explicity allows tracks and trains to be owned by a single holding company. The main point of the package was things like harmonising safety standards across europe (so if you wanted to run a train from london to warsaw you wouldn't need to get safe…

>That's because you're not travelling with a valid ticket. Try driving off from the petrol station without paying, or boarding a plane without showing a boarding pass.

that's not even remotely close. I don't know exactly how it is in France but in Italy (and I suspect it's similar) I may have a monthly ticket clearly stating the validity FROM-TO, having my name on it and yet still if i don't time stamp it at the start of month i'm treated like a thief because bureaucracy says ALL tickets must be timestamped. WHY? how could i cheat with a named monthly subscription ticked? Ticket controllers not having to fear for their job don't even try to think and treat passengers with respect.

Now that we have a private Operator the situation is a little bit better but still until we have laws that dictate nobody must do any effort to maintain the job it's not gonna be pretty.

Now You may ask Why I don't simply time stamp it at the start of the month. Maybe i'm late and I miss my train But most of the time and in many stations the stamping machines do not work. courtesy of the same guaranteed monopoly Company.

Re: France’s new high-speed trains

#177

Post by skriticos2 »

kmlx wrote: post #157
speedplane wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Public rail is a money-losing venture, ... But it's important to have. Just how much money-losing depends on the political environment and skill of the management. Arguably, all public rail should lose money. Quality transportation is a huge economic driver of regional economies. If a rail service is making money, it likely means governments are underinvesting in their own economies.

> TOKYO -- East and West Japan Railway have both forecast record profits for the fiscal year ending March 2018, anticipating more bullet train passengers and higher income from real estate and other noncore operations. > West Japan Railway said Friday it expects a group net profit of 109 billion yen ($978 million) for the fiscal year through March 2018, up 19% on the year. Full article: https://asia.nikkei.com/Editor…

Yes, but Japan also has trice the population density of France and most of the people are focused in the gargantuan city landscapes like the greater Tokyo bay area. Makes it a lot easier to saturate the trains while maintaining a reasonable timetable.

Re: France’s new high-speed trains

#178

Post by falsedan »

icebraining wrote: post #154
mcv wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the lease is about to run out, it means you need to reserve money for that, meaning the price of the house will be lower. I think you can still use the mortgage to pay for that lease. So overall it doesn't make much difference, it's just an extra thing to pay attention to, or you'll end up with unexpected costs.

If the lease is set to expire in twenty years, can you know in advance how much it will cost to renew, so that you can include it in the mortgage? If so, then it doesn't really seem to help the city to capture the gains that may have accrued over those years. If not, what happens if the lease now costs much more and you can't afford it? Do you get kicked out of the house?

In the UK, usually you negotiate for the occupier to refresh the lease before concluding the sale. After 50 years, you'll probably be dead so you don't have to worry about lease renewal (in the UK the standard leasehold is 99 years, so you'll definitely be dead by then).

If you were due for a renewal, and you didn't have the funds to pay the fee, you'd remortgage. If you were very wise, you'd take out an insurance policy when you moved in to pay for it.

Re: France’s new high-speed trains

#179

Post by isostatic »

cowl wrote: post #176
isostatic wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think this is mandated by the EU. Not really, the EU is democratic, and generally there's skeptisism in the EU about a liberal rail market. The Fourth Railway Package explicity allows tracks and trains to be owned by a single holding company. The main point of the package was things like harmonising safety standards across europe (so if you wanted to run a train from london to warsaw you wouldn't need to get safe…

>That's because you're not travelling with a valid ticket. Try driving off from the petrol station without paying, or boarding a plane without showing a boarding pass. that's not even remotely close. I don't know exactly how it is in France but in Italy (and I suspect it's similar) I may have a monthly ticket clearly stating the validity FROM-TO, having my name on it and yet still if i don't time stamp it at the star…

Does that monthly ticket has a start date printed on it before you compost it?

Re: France’s new high-speed trains

#180

Post by hestefisk »

peterbraden wrote: post #172
supernova87a wrote: post #31

SNCF is fiddling with the wrong things. It doesn't need to separate train operations from rail track network maintenance. It doesn't need to open up the network to competition. What it needs to do is cut the number of excessive public sector workers, reduce costs, and stop running the business like a political arm of the government. I can bet that the reason they think they need to do all these things is that cost pr…

SBB in Switzerland is also profitable

And they have nice high speed trains too. And reasonable prices for residents. It runs like a (Swiss) clockwork.
Post reply on HN