161–170 of 229 posts
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> If Europe could get on Japan's level, that would be a dream. To be fair Germany could at least reach France's or Italy's level first.
> To be fair Germany could at least reach France's or Italy's level first. I'm not sure Germany should be looking to Italy for advice on getting the trains to run on time.
You can visit 10 countries in 24 hours by train in Europe. It's a challenge but it's possible. I'm aiming to break my record with 11 countries, but we'll see. The problem is that even though the balkans are a lot of countries, the rail is very slow compared to going north and east towards Slovakia and Poland.
Trains are pretty awesome, especially in small Europe. Flying always comes with security hassle. A train is just: get in/get out. If Europe would just spent more money on infrastructure. We have trains in Germany that can do 350km/h but I've yet to ride one that goes faster than 200, probably because the rails aren't what they're used to be. Then we have the Germany Ticket. A 50€/month subscription to all regional tr…
Personally my main gripe is not so much the speed as going to higher speed is probably less efficient hence more expensive. My main gripe is the price (I am poor by european standards). For example going from Paris to Napoli only by train is currently above 300 euros whereas you can find a flight for 40 euros. I am ready to pay around 100 euros for that. Recently there was sleeper car train from Paris to Milano which…
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In the Netherlands, you can tap your credit card when entering the railway station, and tap again when you exit the destination station. The exact amount for the trip will be deducted. Works with all types of public transport and in the entire country. https://ovpay.nl/en/
This sounds incredible! Is this a private company, or a government program, or an open standard? I couldn't tell from the 'about' page on the linked site. I'd be interested in seeing how this could be adopted in other areas or modalities.
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> Flying always comes with security hassle Unfortunately that is not the case, the security theater seems to be slowly contaminating rail too. The Barcelona->Paris connection has some bullshit security on the Barcelona side (luggage x-ray & plastic trays for laptops), and I think the Eurostar had some of this on the London side too.
I cannot say for Spain, but for the Eurostar it has been like that for quite a long time and it is related to the Schengen area border. The checks are made on boarding, so in Paris, Lille, London, Brussels, and Amsterdam before they started refurbishing the station (I am not sure about seasonal destinations but I can’t see how they could avoid checks at some point). It is not an example of increasing security theatre…
Sorry to burst your bubble but the trains in western Europe are a transport mode that caters to a specific class of people, mainly urban well educated people that work for in government, academia or for big corporations. I would occasionally take a train to go to a conference if the venue is close to the station otherwise it is just not practical.
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It's so seamless that I was racing someone through Belgium and only realised I'd entered the Netherlands when I got a text telling me I was on a Dutch phone network!
By car you'd notice, but that's mostly because suddenly the car goes quiet upon crossing over onto the smooth asphalt of the Dutch snelwegen. (Despite being neighbouring countries, the contrasts are often interesting.)
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I have avoided flying and instead used trains for the last 10 years due to climate concerns. I know plenty of people who have made the same change in behaviour and my experience from the public debate in the nordic countries is that such a behaviour shift has grown more common among consumers in general. I found no study on consumer preferences on this topic that covers all of Europe but to get started here are two r…
Your second link also gives an alternative explanation of people being motivated economically, not environmentally. And quote from the first link: > 91% say they want to replace short-distance flights by fast, low-polluting trains in collaboration with neighbouring countries See how a train being fast was bundled into the question. Let’s forget about environment for a moment. Going by plane is a lot less convenient,…
Fast doesn't entail faster than a plane.
> the train would need to be more expensive
In my experience international train travel in Europe is always more expensive, sometimes 3-4 times more expensive, than airtravel. Due to subsidies and externalities. https://stay-grounded.org/privileged-position-revealing-the-...
Against your "almost nobody thinks like that" I and others described that we do think like that and personally know others who do too. I also posted two links that has some more general evidence against your claim. Your reply has some reason to lessen the weight given to that evidence, but not enough to cancel it. I rest my case until you present empirical counterevidence.
Your speculations/prejudice about motivations of others is not evidence and such stories can be made up in almost any direction e.g. maybe you delude yourself into thinking no one takes trains for environmental reasons because it makes you feel good and superior in thinking you know their motivations better than they do.
They’ve been talking about a high-speed route from Melbourne to Sydney — one of the worlds’ busiest rail corridors — for decades. God knows how much has been spent on feasibility studies. And yet we’re decades away from progress, and that’s optimistic.
Can rail be that hard? You acquire the land by compulsory acquisition — not popular, politically — and then you lay track. 99% of the land from the centre of both state capitals is farmland. Tracks exist to the outskirts of both cities. Actually, track exists between the cities! Agh fuck it makes me angry to even think about.
I live in Canberra, the capital. I can get a delightfully quaint train to Sydney. It takes 4 hours. It’s 245km by road. The only plus is that it’s fairly cheap.
Oh and the cost. How did we allow rail to cost BETWEEN SIXTEEN AND ONE HUNDRED AND TEN MILLION DOLLARS PER KILOMETRE? Excuse my French but: fuck me. [0]
It’s pathetic.
[0]: https://www.bitre.gov.au/sites/default/files/other_001_a_pro...