I'm wondering if a four hour (international) train trip can really compete with air and that the inflexion point lies around the three and a half hour mark. The

I'm wondering if a four hour (international) train trip can really compete with air and that the inflexion point lies around the three and a half hour mark. There is a series of nice graphics from JR East (Japan Railway East) factsheet "Railway Business" http://www.jreast.co.jp/investor/factsheet/pdf/factsheet_03.pdf http://www.jreast.co.jp/investor/factsheet/pdf/factsheet_03.... (linked from http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/investor/factsheet/index.html http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/investor/factsheet/index.html) that deals with this question directly of introducing a high speed rail service to compete with domestic airlines. Basically if the trip is under 3 hours expect airline market share to drop to 25% or lower. The lone four hour trip Tokyo to Hakodate, still only has 13% market share. Add on border formalities to the planned London-Amsterdam four hours and you'll move past the sweet spot and air will continue to dominate. To succeed the train will need to be even faster and probably do border formalities on the train to get nearer to 210 minutes.