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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?

#311

Post by corrral »

samatman wrote: post #289
quelltext wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is a difference in attitude between Americans and French when describing their countries: the French tend to regard overseas territories as more vitally part of their country than Americans do. Not sure why, possibly it was a deliberately-cultivated attitude by the government at some point, or maybe the difference arose organically. Meanwhile I think a lot of Americans kinda-unconsiously barely even consider Hawaii and Alaska really parts of America, let alone the numerous non-state territories.

Actually, now that I think about it, the sense of "Metropolitan France" is very similar to the term "the continental United States"

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

#312

Post by ghaff »

labcomputer wrote: post #237
Gwypaas wrote: post #189

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…

The problem is that TSA isn't as bad as it was right after 9/11, and baggage tracking is much better on all airlines. You no longer need to arrive 2 hours before the scheduled departure and spend an hour collecting your bags. With TSA PreCheck, I can reliably go from curb to gate in less than 15 minutes. If you're not someone who feels the need to be the first one on the plane, that means you can arrive at the airpor…

Yeah, I haven't flown for a while and I gather there's still a certain level of travel chaos. But pre-pandemic, I'd get to the airport early because it's more relaxing for me and my limo company doesn't like to cut things close. But with TSA Pre, I was rarely more than 15 minutes through security and often much faster. Backups happen and I'd rather build in slack for them. But in my experience, at the US airports I fly through, the "security theater" is rarely onerous.

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

#313

Post by alexott »

I can’t say that’s accurate. For my area it shows that Kassel is 3 hours away, although direct train goes in less than an hour, and even with intermediate stop, it’s slightly more than an hour. South of Germany isn’t connected at all, although I can get to Ingolstadt in less that 5 hours…

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

#314

Post by dragonwriter »

jeffbee wrote: post #307
humanistbot wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're of completely opposite minds on this. A stop in Fresno should have been sacrificed so that California High Speed Rail could still happen for the majority of the state. Routing through the Central Valley was practically required for political reasons, and now the entire project has collapsed into a parody of itself. California's cities are not all arranged in a single line. They are in two roughly parallel lines…

The problem with this logic is that an SF-LA line that serves nothing else actually fails to serve most of the state. The median Californian lives in Ventura, so if you just want to serve a majority you can do LA-SD and call it done. Or, you can do Bakersfield-Chico with a spur to SJ and Oakland, you’re also serving the majority of the state that way. The latter is way easier to build in particular the spine through…

> The problem with this logic is that an SF-LA line that serves nothing else actually fails to serve most of the state.

LA plus the Bay Area is most of the State, but travel between those two endpoints is a lot less than that plus travel between each of them and the Central Valley, and along the Central Valley’s North-South axis.

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

#315

Post by ajmurmann »

mustacheemperor wrote: post #250
pahn wrote: 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 started a similar project a few years ago and the real problem for any new player is just data availability. I was able to get Open Street Map data, but I also needed data on businesses with ratings and photos. IMO this creates a huge moat against anyone entering the market.

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

#316

Post by awiesenhofer »

redtexture wrote: post #83
black_puppydog wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also shows an effect that the focus on high speed rail brings: rural areas are often very badly connected. Here in France they've even kept shutting down regional lines. That creates the train equivalent of "fly-over states": areas that you see from the train while going through, but that it would be impractical to go to .

This is the strong argument against high speed rail in the USA. We don't even have anything close to regional rail, and highspeed rail would consume all public capital that would be used to improve regional rail systems.

> public capital that would be used to improve regional rail systems

could be used, but we all know thats not how it works ...

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

#317

Post by not2b »

samatman wrote: post #292
chrismartin wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has anyone considered the following? In a small town, you have a section of track running parallel to high speed rail. The track has a small and short "local" train (maybe just a couple of cars) that picks up passengers and accelerates to maybe 80 MPH, while the high-speed train slows to the same speed. The trains run next to each other for a couple of miles, some doors open between them, and people can step between…

I've mused about a similar idea for California's high speed rail, which, should it ever be built, would be rendered impractically slow by frequent stops. The idea is to drop cars without slowing down. These cars would have brakes, that's it. Before the station, drop the car, it slows enough to give safe time for switching, and cruises to a halt at the local station. That's drop off, pickup is the slow train, which ru…

The plan for California high speed rail was to replace plane flights and long distance car travel, not to have frequent stops (at least 40 miles/65 km between stops, sometimes longer). Only the major cities.

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

#319

Post by ryukafalz »

corrral wrote: post #311
samatman wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is a difference in attitude between Americans and French when describing their countries: the French tend to regard overseas territories as more vitally part of their country than Americans do. Not sure why, possibly it was a deliberately-cultivated attitude by the government at some point, or maybe the difference arose organically. Meanwhile I think a lot of Americans kinda-unconsiously barely even consider Haw…

American here, I’d disagree about Hawaii and Alaska but agree about the non-state territories. The non-state territories being unable to vote and not having representation in the legislature means that they don’t get as much attention in national politics, so they’re less top of mind. (Yes, both of those situations suck and I wish we would change them.)

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

#320

Post by flipbrad »

maeln wrote: 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 ...

Strasbourg seems fairly well-connected, too
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