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Stable 1.2 Gigabit/s Internet achieved in moving train in Switzerland

swisscom.ch

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Re: Stable 1.2 Gigabit/s Internet achieved in moving train in Switzerland

#311

Post by vidarh »

yitianjian wrote: post #200
dtwest wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Building such a network is less economically feasible in America compared to Europe or China because of America's suburban sprawl. First, it'll cost more to build because you'll need to clear out a route of suburban housing to get between any two cities. Second, the population density of the US is less concentrated, which makes getting to the station take longer, and improves the relative attractiveness of other tran…

The Northeast has a density comparable to Europe. I do agree on the culture issue, however - Americans definitely prefer cars by default. Although in the Washington-Philadelphia-NYC-Boston corridor it may be possible, if there is ever a culture of large public works again.

Europeans prefers cars when the train options are poor too.

Improve the trains, and people will eventually wake up to them.

Re: Stable 1.2 Gigabit/s Internet achieved in moving train in Switzerland

#313

Post by mamon »

apexalpha wrote: post #262
singhrac wrote: post #4

I would honestly pay significantly higher taxes if we could get Swiss-quality train service in parts of the US (and especially if they have good internet). When I traveled Boston to NY in the past, compare my flight experience vs Amtrak. Flight: - Take $25 Uber to airport and get there 1 hour early to go through security and wait. - Fly to JFK (1h 20m) - land, wait to get off, go through terminal again, then take $50…

One of the biggest improvements is absolutely free to do (by Congress). Give passenger rail priority. No where in the Western world does a passenger train have to give way to a freight train. It' s always the other way around. Except in the US. In the US when freight companies are late they make passenger trains wait. They can do this because they own the track. But with a presidential stroke of a pen many delays in…

Since freight companies own the tracks the only way to do it would be if government bought them, which I assume would cost hundreds billions of dollars. Just passing a bill giving passenger trains priority would be unconstitutional because it would interfere with property rights of the owner.

Re: Stable 1.2 Gigabit/s Internet achieved in moving train in Switzerland

#314

Post by Zach_the_Lizard »

ornornor wrote: post #236
supernova87a wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, but the early railroads of this country were built when there were no property rights of competing owners to defend (or respect), few comparable alternative modes of transportation, and practically no safety or regulatory measures to govern how it was built. That said, the cost of building things in the US is a major problem.

It was also built by Chinese immigrants slaves at essentially no cost to the builders, wasn’t it?

Depends on the region. Out West it was mostly Chinese workers. Back East it was the Irish.

Re: Stable 1.2 Gigabit/s Internet achieved in moving train in Switzerland

#315

Post by jbjohns »

nemanja wrote: post #150
singhrac wrote: post #4

I would honestly pay significantly higher taxes if we could get Swiss-quality train service in parts of the US (and especially if they have good internet). When I traveled Boston to NY in the past, compare my flight experience vs Amtrak. Flight: - Take $25 Uber to airport and get there 1 hour early to go through security and wait. - Fly to JFK (1h 20m) - land, wait to get off, go through terminal again, then take $50…

Switzerland in fact has significantly lower taxes in most cantons than most (all?) states in the U.S. I am afraid higher taxes would simply yield more mediocre Amtrak.

Some states have 0 income tax AFAIK but it's irrelevant. Contrary to Switzerland, in the US the big tax bill (by a huge amount too) is federal.

Re: Stable 1.2 Gigabit/s Internet achieved in moving train in Switzerland

#316

Post by 867-5309 »

> stream videos, play online games or work in virtual offices. This requires a great deal of bandwidth

only the first might if someone were streaming 8K video with 7.1 lossless audio, which wouldn't even come close to 1.2Gbps, but on a mobile device on public transport? no

I'm pretty certain 1.2Gbps would serve an entire train 720p video with 128kbps stereo audio, which for 99.9% of people would be adequate for a mobile device on public transport

it's a bit like breaking the land speed record, a bit pointless and you'll never get (nor need) to be the driver

Re: Stable 1.2 Gigabit/s Internet achieved in moving train in Switzerland

#317

Post by SturgeonsLaw »

867-5309 wrote: post #316

> stream videos, play online games or work in virtual offices. This requires a great deal of bandwidth only the first might if someone were streaming 8K video with 7.1 lossless audio, which wouldn't even come close to 1.2Gbps, but on a mobile device on public transport? no I'm pretty certain 1.2Gbps would serve an entire train 720p video with 128kbps stereo audio, which for 99.9% of people would be adequate for a mob…

For today's usage sure, but as an infra guy I like seeing the tech that will be needed for the next decade's capacity rolled out today

Re: Stable 1.2 Gigabit/s Internet achieved in moving train in Switzerland

#318

Post by Leherenn »

thu2111 wrote: post #294
ggm wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think you would be willing to pay the amount of taxes you would need to, to completely redo the railways haha. This premise feels wrong: The Swiss, German, Chinese, Spanish experience is that people pay to have high speed rail services, and the G20 economies in that list pay high marginal rates of taxes just fine, for this outcome. The "you" here is conditionally the "you" of current social mores America. I…

Switzerland doesn't have any high speed rail services, defined conventionally. All trains in Switzerland are pretty slow, but it's a small country so it rarely matters. Also, Swiss trains are pretty expensive. You don't notice because wages are high, but really, everything in this country is very expensive compared to neighbouring countries. In most countries inter-city rail is used by commuters so governments impose…

I personally would say it matters quite a bit. In most cases the train is not competitive with a car, both in term of time and money. Convenience is less clear: availability is good during peak time, but the trains are crowded so good luck taking your laptop out to work. The rest of the time, availability is still decent if you stick to the main lines and the ride is very confortable.

Also, cars are not expensive in Switzerland, especially when you take into account the high salaries.

Re: Stable 1.2 Gigabit/s Internet achieved in moving train in Switzerland

#319

Post by gattilorenz »

soziawa wrote: post #231
folli wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not the same network. There are three providers in Switzerland. From my own experience the most expensive one (Swisscom, by whom this article is) has much better coverage in the mountaineous areas compared to the other two.

It is, Wingo is 24 CHF a month on the Swisscom network. Its also owned by Swisscom. The main differentiation is support.

> I don't understand how the more expensive providers can still have customers.

> The main differentiation is support.

Might be a case of decoy effect in action. Swisscom (the expensive option) gets more customers by introducing a cheaper option with worse support. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decoy_effect

Re: Stable 1.2 Gigabit/s Internet achieved in moving train in Switzerland

#320

Post by mschuster91 »

thu2111 wrote: post #292
fergbrain wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Specifically the freight companies own the lines and prioritize their own freight trains above passenger service.

And even more specifically, this means the US moves a lot more stuff by rail freight than in Europe, where the rail freight industry is sickly and dying.

The dimensions seem to be from another world, lol:

> 4730 m – United States — The Kansas City Southern Railway regularly runs between Kansas City, MO and Shreveport, LA

> 3658 m – United States – Trains are limited by air brake capability. electronically controlled pneumatic braked (180 wagons) – AAR Standard S-4200.[15]

Meanwhile, ordinary German trains are limited to 740m (Europe wide/UIC limit: 750m) and single-stack operation because of overhead power lines.

On the other side, the US has a lot of space that can be devoted to something like classification yards - the longer the train, the longer the yards have to be.

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