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How far can you go by train in 5h?

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Re: How far can you go by train in 5h?

#281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No thank you. I live near enough howling dogs. I will never forget the peace and quiet when I stepped into my first house. Why anyone lives in apartments by choice is beyond me. The noise is absurd.

You are assuming you only have 2 choices, single-family home or apartment. That's a very American perspective because most of America only allows those two but in a proper city you have townhomes, duplexes, casitas, bungalows and many more options that aren't just apartments. However, most of American is zoned exclusively for single-family homes and not mixed-use so like the parent comment said, you don't get benefit…

I was going to say you're wrong because here in the NE there are loads of townhouses, duplexes and bungalows, but you're right - in the US single family homes and apartments dominate. https://www.census.gov/construction/chars/highlights.html

Re: How far can you go by train in 5h?

#282
post #134

I made an interactive art installation on this question once: A black box with a knob where you could adjust how much time you have, then it would offer you (Google streetview) panoramas of the locations it found within your distance, and in the end even print a paper slip with your travel itinerary to take with you. The installation used realtime data (Google directions API): I somehow figured out, that if I would r…

I have been wishing Apple or Google maps would add this as a feature for at least five years now. When I’m in a new city for work, and I know I have 90 minutes til my next meeting, it would be massively helpful to see every lunch place in a 15-25 minute walking radius. The fact that there’s still not a “search/filter by transit time” feature in any Maps app seems like proof there’s not enough competition in that spac…

I think what Maps really needs is more widgets that reduce the screen real estate of the map until we can finally drop that feature entirely.

Re: How far can you go by train in 5h?

#283

This is very timely. In September I will have four days of down time with my wife in Paris. We want to get out of town but don't know where. This gives us some options. If anybody here has suggestions where we can spend a few days taking in non-Parisian France, let me know.

I really liked Strasbourg. France meets Germany in a compact historical center, 2hrs each way from Paris on the TGV. Just go when the EU government is not meeting there, because for 4 days a month, they all have to pack up from Brussels and move to Strasbourg. Reims and the Champagne region are on the TGV to Strasbourg as well, making that an easy day trip from Paris. There are also the night trains (Intercities de N…

Thanks for the Strasbourg tip. That's one of the places I was looking at based on the map. The German cultural influence drew me in. Thanks to your comment I checked the EU schedule and found they will be in Strasbourg at the same time.

I like the idea of a night train, but there is a significant chance either my wife or I won't be able to sleep. That would make the next day unpleasant, so we'll save the night train for some time when we have a few more days to spare.

Now we are thinking Dijon.

Re: How far can you go by train in 5h?

#284
post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been wishing Apple or Google maps would add this as a feature for at least five years now. When I’m in a new city for work, and I know I have 90 minutes til my next meeting, it would be massively helpful to see every lunch place in a 15-25 minute walking radius. The fact that there’s still not a “search/filter by transit time” feature in any Maps app seems like proof there’s not enough competition in that spac…

I think what Maps really needs is more widgets that reduce the screen real estate of the map until we can finally drop that feature entirely.

On iphone 4 there is no map left now

Re: How far can you go by train in 5h?

#285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a good point. On the other hand, the future of the world probably includes sea level rise so New Orleans may not have much of a future.

And I fully accept that point :) But as long as it exists, New Orleans means something to America.

But why does "mean something" translate to "build non-ecomically viable HSR"?

Re: How far can you go by train in 5h?

#286
post #18

You can really see the Paris-centric approach in France: From Paris you can reach almost any other major city in 4h, but on the other hand, all the other metropolis can barely reach 1/4th of the other major population center in 4h. Compare this to Germany where almost any major metropolis can reach 80% of the country in 4h ...

Metropolitan france is 54% larger than Germany so its not a fair comparison

Huh?

How can metropolitan France be larger than the entirety of Germany?

Re: How far can you go by train in 5h?

#287
post #8

It also shows how much the train networks focus on domestic travel. In nearly all bigger countries it is possible to reach most bigger cities within the 5h. But journeys in this time-frame seldomly go much beyond the border. There is still much optimization potential for transnational travel in Europe's train network.

Nice observation. It is interesting that Bruxelles and Strasbourg are an exception.

Re: How far can you go by train in 5h?

#288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Metropolitan france is 54% larger than Germany so its not a fair comparison

Huh? How can metropolitan France be larger than the entirety of Germany?

"Metropolitan France" is the area of France that's in Europe, and that's 543,940 km².

Re: How far can you go by train in 5h?

#289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Metropolitan france is 54% larger than Germany so its not a fair comparison

Huh? How can metropolitan France be larger than the entirety of Germany?

Because Metropolitan France (note the capitalization) is how the European portion of France is referred to: compare with Overseas France, which includes territories in South America and Oceania, to be non-exhaustive.

Re: How far can you go by train in 5h?

#290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? The great advantage of high speed rail is that with intermediate stops along the route you can service smaller cities which previously, or as you just did, would be considered flyover country. Thus making the value of the system greater than just the end terminuses. Just looking at the towns between Portland and Sacramento Salem, Eugene and Medford exist. Neither would themselves ever be valuable enough for…

South of Eugene and north of Redding, the land is mountainous and would be extremely difficult to build a straight enough line to serve as HSR. The existing Amtrak Cascades service goes between Eugene and Vancouver BC.

I agree, a high speed line between Eugene and Redding seems like an overkill. However a traditional electrified railway with a stop in Medford would be pretty sweat.

With the planned California High Speed rail going between Sacramento and Los Angeles, and the proposed Cascadia high speed rail going all the way to Eugene, this traditional link would enable a sleeper train between Seattle and Los Angeles in something like 10-13 hours. That is way better then today’s Coastal Starlight which makes the trip in 36 hours.

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