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Koralm Railway

infrastruktur.oebb.at

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Re: Koralm Railway

#101

Post by contrarian1234 »

Austria is the only European country I've been to that doesn't have cheap affordable intercity buses. Seemingly none at all. It was kind of strange... Does anyone know why?

The only options to get around was the expensive train system - and anyone I asked was bewildered why I would want to take a bus.. Maybe next time I should look in to carpooling or some other options. How do low income people get around typically? I need to go to attend a conference, but it's not cheap coming from Asia

EDIT: Seems I was wrong! Sorry. There are buses, (maybe fewer than other countries?)

Re: Koralm Railway

#102

Post by tomhow »

fzeindl wrote: post #48
jfoster wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're using a strange definition of "within". It's 7% over.

In a world where large infrastructure projects regularly exceed their budget by 100-1000%, 7% is huge. It is important to show people that that is possible in government projects. If you find a more concise way of saying „with unusually small overrun of it‘s budget“ tell me. Also there were sections added after the initial estimate.

Does the site mention the budget and completion time/cost at all? I can't find it from a quick browse/search of the site. It's taking editorializing to a whole new level to add details that are not in the linked article or site at all.

The right thing to do in this case is find the best source for this information (about the budget, schedule and completion time/cost) and make that the URL of the submission. Please email us the best links you know of about this (hn@ycombinator.com) and we'll consider updating the URL.

Re: Koralm Railway

#103

Post by MangoToupe »

bluGill wrote: post #76
MangoToupe wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Big Dig style clusterfuck. The big dig is probably the last major success of American infrastructure. Referring to it as a clusterfuck is representative of why we'll never get another one.

IT is also correct - it costs way too much for what we got. It will be nice for future generations that don't have to pay for it, but it doesn't look like a good investment. Now if the costs were more reasonable it could be a great investment.

I don't see how you're justifying this. Yes the costs overran, but the investment would have been worth it at 4x the end cost. It made boston one of the nicest cities in the country, even if it still sucks ass to drive in.

Re: Koralm Railway

#104

Post by lxgr »

contrarian1234 wrote: post #101

Austria is the only European country I've been to that doesn't have cheap affordable intercity buses. Seemingly none at all. It was kind of strange... Does anyone know why? The only options to get around was the expensive train system - and anyone I asked was bewildered why I would want to take a bus.. Maybe next time I should look in to carpooling or some other options. How do low income people get around typically?…

Flixbus definitely exists in Austria, but people generally take the train, which is much faster and more comfortable.

There are various discount membership plans available that sometimes pay for themselves after just one round-trip or even one-way ride, and on the most popular connections there's now a private operator competing with the state-owned railway.

A yearly flat-rate ticket for intercity trains is also relatively affordable for EUR 1400 per year.

Re: Koralm Railway

#105

Post by contrarian1234 »

lxgr wrote: post #104
contrarian1234 wrote: post #101

Austria is the only European country I've been to that doesn't have cheap affordable intercity buses. Seemingly none at all. It was kind of strange... Does anyone know why? The only options to get around was the expensive train system - and anyone I asked was bewildered why I would want to take a bus.. Maybe next time I should look in to carpooling or some other options. How do low income people get around typically?…

Flixbus definitely exists in Austria, but people generally take the train, which is much faster and more comfortable. There are various discount membership plans available that sometimes pay for themselves after just one round-trip or even one-way ride, and on the most popular connections there's now a private operator competing with the state-owned railway. A yearly flat-rate ticket for intercity trains is also rela…

Oh really? I took the Flixbus from the Czech Republic and is stopped near the border and then after that it was train only. Maybe I ended up in a weird spot then! I just checked and there are indeed buses in-country. Strange that I somehow couldn't find any then

Thank you for the info!

Re: Koralm Railway

#106

Post by lxgr »

contrarian1234 wrote: post #105
lxgr wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Flixbus definitely exists in Austria, but people generally take the train, which is much faster and more comfortable. There are various discount membership plans available that sometimes pay for themselves after just one round-trip or even one-way ride, and on the most popular connections there's now a private operator competing with the state-owned railway. A yearly flat-rate ticket for intercity trains is also rela…

Oh really? I took the Flixbus from the Czech Republic and is stopped near the border and then after that it was train only. Maybe I ended up in a weird spot then! I just checked and there are indeed buses in-country. Strange that I somehow couldn't find any then Thank you for the info!

There's definitely bus service (not just Flixbus, also Regiojet and probably others) between Vienna and Prague.

Re: Koralm Railway

#107

Post by tomw1808 »

contrarian1234 wrote: post #101

Austria is the only European country I've been to that doesn't have cheap affordable intercity buses. Seemingly none at all. It was kind of strange... Does anyone know why? The only options to get around was the expensive train system - and anyone I asked was bewildered why I would want to take a bus.. Maybe next time I should look in to carpooling or some other options. How do low income people get around typically?…

yes, we do, e.g. flixbus. and some others I think. Haven't been traveling for a while by bus around Austria. Apples/Oranges probably, but I do know viennabratislava has like 3-4 different companies operating the same route with similar busses at similar times with different prices.

And talking about apples/oranges, let me add apples/bananas: Vienna to Budapest by train cost a lot when booking via öbb. And not a lot when booking via Regiojet.

The problem is the offers are all scattered around imho.

Re: Koralm Railway

#108

Post by mytailorisrich »

rsynnott wrote: post #54
tasuki wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the funding billboards for, anyway? They're an eyesore, and it's all paid by us EU taxpayers anyway. They should say "financed by you", or better yet, not exist to begin with.

I mean, see Brexit; there's a bit of a "what have the Romans ever done for us" aspect to a lot of euroscepticism. Some of the more Brexit-y regions were also amongst the poorest, and thus the largest beneficiaries of EU funding (eg https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jun/26/cornwall-fea... ) The idea is to show people the benefits of the EU, essentially. It is unclear how well it works. Cornwall, say, had reason…

Yes, I remember Wales received a lot of EU funding for infrastructure and there used to be those "funded by the EU" signs everywhere. They voted in favour of Brexit.

I think this sort of things does little to convince people. The road network was there and working before the EU, it is still there and working now.

Especially, people were well aware that the UK was a consistent net contributor to the EU budget so knew that EU funding for infrastructure was not reallly a benefit.

Re: Koralm Railway

#109

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

seqastian wrote: post #94
buybackoff wrote: post #44

Just yesterday B1M published an interesting video about the future longest tunnel between Lyon, France and Turin, Italy. It will be more than 50km, deeply below the Alps. The project has finally secured funding, from both countries and EU, and is on track. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFrr-L_BcC4

Another one between Italy, Austria and by extension Germany is scheduled for 2032 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenner_Base_Tunnel

Isn't Italy a little geologically unstable?

I'd be a bit nervous, going through a long tunnel, in a region known for vulcanism and earthquakes.

Re: Koralm Railway

#110

Post by zzbn00 »

aa-jv wrote: post #71
zzbn00 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would be interesting to read how the Austrian project was contracted out? It seems in the UK the big construction companies have got very good in extracting a lot of money from customers, wonder if things were different in Austria with this project.

Austria tends to have pretty rigorous bean-counters overseeing budgets like this, especially when it comes to public-good services such as railway. It is one of the things that makes living here so .. infuriating at times .. but also .. rewarding.

Interesting. In UK, I think the big construction companies would hire these bean-counters then use them to out-manoeuvre the ones that are hired to replace them. Quickly nobody knows what a reasonable price is, and the govmnt has to go with choice of one out of two overpriced bids. (I have no direct experience, this is just what it looks like from an observers perspective)
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