431–440 of 457 posts
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Strasbourg seems fairly well-connected, too
Presumably because it’s where the European Parliament is based
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Wendover had a video on this topic just this week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9jirFqex6g For a short summary, the basic problem is that rail infrastructure is paid for by national funds, so there is a bigger incentive to connect two places within the same country than to connect one place within the country to another place within a neighboring country. Wendover theorizes that the decoupling of rail networks fr…
There are a lot of plans for international train lines in Europe and some of them are actually being built. If you check the Wikipedia page of the the Spanish rail service[1], you'll see that new connections to France should be completed sometime around 2023. Currently the only high speed link to France is from Barcelona, which makes traveling from Madrid and Spain's Northern coast to Paris more time consuming. There…
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The problem us that Spain uses a different track gauge than France, so connecting the countries is difficult.
Fun fact from Wikipedia: > Since the beginning of the 1990s new high-speed passenger lines in Spain have been built to the international standard gauge of 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in), to allow these lines to link to the European high-speed network. (...) > In general the interface between the two gauges in Spain is dealt with by means of gauge-changing installations, which can adjust the gauge of appropriately designed…
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> But concrete is pretty unfriendly to the environment and has a low expected lifespan reinforced concrete has low expected lifespan in exposed conditions because moisture causes rust causes degradation. The concrete used for division between units, as being discussed here, is unreinforced. As long as there's no sulfate-containing minerals in the aggregate (and it's protected from moisture), an unreinforced concrete…
I think anything greater than two story is fine. 3-5 story buildings are the best for social density the world around.
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> Wendover theorizes that the decoupling of rail networks from rail service operators (as pushed by the EU-level government) can lead to new demand for international routes as budget operators spring up that are less tied to the demands of a particular national government. Some problems with that approach are 1. It doesn't take that many different operators before you start running into capacity limits of the network…
I will admit to having only read the first point of the long post, so I'll just respond to that: > It doesn't take that many different operators before you start running into capacity limits of the network Don't get this. If there is that much demand, then clearly it makes sense to build out the system? More rails, higher speed, and/or better bypasses for trains that need to stop at each station for example. It's usu…
Open access operators also often start running only a few trains per day – building additional expensive infrastructure for just a few trains per day might not be worth it, but conversely a few trains per day are potentially already more than enough to upset an exiting regular interval timetable and timed connections.
You can also go Beijing to Shanghai in 4.5 hours. That's over 1200km or 750mi averaging above 260km/hr. I think it's the fastest long distance passenger service available and has the benefit of being central Shanghai to south-central Beijing (rather than north-east where PEK airport is). That made it noticeably better than business air travel between the two cities. You could also ride the Pudong maglev (at 430km/hr…
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Technically yes by the Jones Act, in a very limited sense... there are restrictions as well as tax exemptions. So I wouldn't really consider citizens of US territories full US citizens. So maybe it's more appropriate to say they aren't Americans, but they are US citizens. But that is all semantics. My main point was the reason they don't have US representation is they don't have US taxation.
The restrictions are tied to geography not persons. A Puerto Rican in California is entitled to all the benefits of US Citizenship whereas a Californian in Puerto Rico is not. Mostly these are related to welfare and elections. This would be the case for the Californian or Puerto Rican living anywhere in the world outside the US.
So a Californian that moves to, say, Germany can still vote by mail as though they were in California.
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You're mostly correct about the loss of welfare benefits, though. The only exception being that you do remain eligible for Social Security retirement, although some people may not consider that "welfare".
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They kind of are if you consider how many goods are still shipped by trucks. The US is perfect for rail - lots of long trips, with lots of goods. It could probably have more market share if goods could move more quickly and flexibly.
While there is a lot US rail could do to get more freight, the fact is we send a lot more freight by rail than Europe.
The fact is the us could do better, pointing to Europe which could also do better is moot.
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Wendover had a video on this topic just this week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9jirFqex6g For a short summary, the basic problem is that rail infrastructure is paid for by national funds, so there is a bigger incentive to connect two places within the same country than to connect one place within the country to another place within a neighboring country. Wendover theorizes that the decoupling of rail networks fr…
> For a short summary, the basic problem is that rail infrastructure is paid for by national funds EU co-founded projects can be forced to operate only domestically too. For example polish high speed railways: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pendolino#Poland > certification for international operation is not seen as a priority, as the trains are restricted to domestic services for an initial 10 years under the terms of…
Oh, the irony.
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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.
There is also Mapillary (now owned by Facebook unfortunately) and Yelp. I am not familiar with their APIs however.