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Where can you go in Europe by train in 8h?

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Re: Where can you go in Europe by train in 8h?

#261

Post by chgs »

pontifk8r wrote: post #148
lotsoweiners wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure about that. I’d imagine that trains are going to have the worst of both worlds. They will take a long time (closer to amount of time to drive to destination). They also will have costs approaching that of a flight. To me a train trip makes sense if you enjoy trains and feel that the travel itself is part of the reward.

As a US person who has, You need to experience euro train travel. The whole experience, from booking using an app to waiting for a train. You’ll find the apps are good, the schedule information accurate and up to date. The apps don’t do stupid things mostly. When you arrive at the station, you’ll find it generally clean and well maintained. Signage is clear and tied into the train information system. Arrival times ac…

Have you travelled in Germany in the last couple of years?

Re: Where can you go in Europe by train in 8h?

#262

Post by pembrook »

drtgh wrote: post #206
pembrook wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a false conspiracy narrative that belongs on Reddit in the r/fuckcars filter bubble. Sure, the automotive industry stood to benefit from the decline of rail travel in the US. But they didn’t really need to do anything for that to happen on its own. Reality is far less interesting than that. Turns out when you have tons of fertile land, even pre-industrialization your population tends to spread out a bit (the…

https://jalopnik.com/did-musk-propose-hyperloop-to-stop-cali... At the time, it seemed that Musk had dished out the Hyperloop proposal just to make the public and legislators rethink the high-speed train. He didn’t actually intend to build the thing. It was more that he wanted to show people that more creative ideas were out there for things that might actually solve problems and push the state forward. With any luck…

Ahh the smoking gun...another conspiracy theory?

Trying to convince internet leftists that a cabal of Evil Capitalists are not behind all of the worlds ills is like trying to convince internet right wingers that most vaccines work.

Re: Where can you go in Europe by train in 8h?

#263

Post by gcanyon »

badpun wrote: post #178
thatcat wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China, Russia, and India have high speed rail. Can you cite the reasons that these large countries are capable of building high speed rail while the US is not? Where is the recent innovation in US air travel? It has gotten considerably worse over the last 30 years. Supersonic passenger flights stopped in 2003 around the same time that TSA added hours to every flight.

Russia hardly has high speed rail, it's just one line (Moscow to St. Petersburg) and top speed is just 200 km/h for most of the line.

And high speed in India is apparently 100mph/160kph.

Re: Where can you go in Europe by train in 8h?

#264

Post by chgs »

mitthrowaway2 wrote: post #199
likeabatterycar wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you provide sources for the Big Oil conspiracy you cite? Because nationwide high speed rail isn't as easy - or practical - as you think. California hadn't been able to build a train a fraction of that distance without delays and squandering massive amounts of money. The PNW has been unable to build it from Portland to Vancouver. The US is many times larger than any European country or Japan. There are US states s…

Japan is almost all mountains, it's one of the worst geographies to build high speed rail where tunnels and turn radii need to be especially large. But they pulled it off anyway. The bullet train initially only connected metros like Tokyo and Osaka but today runs all the way to many remoter areas. The most recently added line connects Fukui prefecture, population 780k. The US has many areas with suitable population d…

Washington - Atlanta with stops at Richmond, Raleigh, Charlotte. I don’t understand why this isn’t an hourly train.

Re: Where can you go in Europe by train in 8h?

#265

Post by bugglebeetle »

aziaziazi wrote: post #255

For those that think it’s impossible for the USA because of the density or geography or oil economy, please have a look at that map: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_Russia edit: traveled with the transiberian as a tourist, it was full of workers, business man, students, whatever, hopping on and of in different places for connections or destinations. Best human experience ever in all three classes. E…

American Exceptionalism is unfortunately a largely incurable mental illness.

Re: Where can you go in Europe by train in 8h?

#266

Post by pontifk8r »

chgs wrote: post #261
pontifk8r wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a US person who has, You need to experience euro train travel. The whole experience, from booking using an app to waiting for a train. You’ll find the apps are good, the schedule information accurate and up to date. The apps don’t do stupid things mostly. When you arrive at the station, you’ll find it generally clean and well maintained. Signage is clear and tied into the train information system. Arrival times ac…

Have you travelled in Germany in the last couple of years?

Not in the last four. Switzerland & UK, two years ago.

Re: Where can you go in Europe by train in 8h?

#267

Post by lukan »

voidfunc wrote: post #197
sdenton4 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's the source. There were actual-court cases which found that oil and car manufacturers conspired to monopolize and convert local public transit to buses from rail. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_consp... "Between 1938 and 1950, National City Lines and its subsidiaries, American City Lines and Pacific City Lines—with investment from GM, Firestone Tire, Standard Oil of California (through a…

Street cars != Intercity Rail Also I'd argue street cars are way worse than busses which have route flexibility. The bigger problem is Americans don't like being around other Americans and really don't like public transit. It's not some giant conspiracy.

"and really don't like public transit."

I don't like bad public transit either.

"Americans don't like being around other Americans "

There could be the option of having personal cabins for yourself.

Re: Where can you go in Europe by train in 8h?

#268

Post by gcanyon »

kortilla wrote: post #222
tzury wrote: post #80

About 20 years ago, I visited most of Europe’s major cities over the course of a two-month trip, traveling primarily by night train. Each overnight ride saved me the cost of a hostel or guesthouse, and I’d arrive in a new city each morning feeling refreshed because of the train’s sleeping accommodations. There used to be a similar service between Toronto and Montreal (both directions), where the train would pause for…

Sleeper cars in the US cost more than a hotel for a night. Saving the cost of a hotel is not really a selling point

This is the part that really frustrates me. Not that I've researched, but it seems like trains should have basically unlimited space for passengers, at very little increase in cost -- a five-mile-long train takes maybe 1-2 more people to operate than a 1-mile train? So why doesn't the U.S. lean into the sleeper concept? If we could increase speeds to 90mph and have affordable sleeper cars, trips of up to 1,000 miles would be conveniently achievable -- that's Chicago to Dallas, Los Angeles to Denver, or Miami to Washington, D.C.

Re: Where can you go in Europe by train in 8h?

#269

Post by lukan »

_DeadFred_ wrote: post #145
thatcat wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China, Russia, and India have high speed rail. Can you cite the reasons that these large countries are capable of building high speed rail while the US is not? Where is the recent innovation in US air travel? It has gotten considerably worse over the last 30 years. Supersonic passenger flights stopped in 2003 around the same time that TSA added hours to every flight.

[flagged]

"Supersonic was not feasible because nations didn't allow breaking the sound barrier over populated areas."

Because for some reasons, loud explosion noises causes stress in people and they don't want that.

It is not a arbitary government regulation.

"China's rail does not operate at enough profit "

And when you add in the global cost of flying, (climate change) maybe public infrastructure does not need to generate profit, to be beneficial?

Re: Where can you go in Europe by train in 8h?

#270

Post by toephu2 »

fforflo wrote: post #110

People living in central/western Europe: You have no idea how fortunate you are to be able to hop on a train and ride to another major city in a few hours. We mortals of the southeastern Europe feel detached from the rest of the world. Yeah, I know German trains occasionally are late, but I remember standing on the platform in Munich, envying those who could travel to Madrid or Brussels without going to the airport—s…

America has entered the chat...
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