3 ms·

Whatever baggage China had, France and Japan didn't, and they are criss-crossed with high speed rail. A flight from Paris to Marseille takes 1:20h and starts fr

Whatever baggage China had, France and Japan didn't, and they are criss-crossed with high speed rail. A flight from Paris to Marseille takes 1:20h and starts from $133 and a TGV takes 3:09 and starts from $35 [1]. I would take the train any time. I personally take the train even if the comparison is not that clear cut. Recently I travelled with Acela from NYC to Boston for journey time of about 4h. The flight time would only be 1:05, but considering the security wait time and the airport to city center time, you'd probably end up around 3-4 hours depending on luck. Oh, and luck is what you don't want do depend if you can avoid it. Unfortunately, Acela is an HSR only in name. But allow one to dream that Acela could run at 200mp (like the Shinkansen or TGV) and extended all the way to Miami. That would be about 6:15h travel time vs 3h for the flight time. Many, many people would take the train without blinking. Not sure if we should start talking CO2 emissions, where I feel the airplanes don't stand a chance. [1] https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Marseille,+France/Paris,+France/@45.9961677,-0.6298464,6z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x12c9bf4344da5333:0x40819a5fd970220!2m2!1d5.36978!2d43.296482!1m5!1m1!1s0x47e66e1f06e2b70f:0x40b82c3688c9460!2m2!1d2.3522219!2d48.856614!3e4 https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Marseille,+France/Paris,+Fra...

repolfx 7y ago
Both French and Japanese HSR were/are financial black holes that bankrupted the relevant railway companies. French TGV is nice but again, stations are often far outside the city centres. Compared to flying (profitable on its own) it's not at all clear any of these countries made the right decisions. WRT CO2, it's not quite so clear cut unfortunately. Planes emit more only because they travel further. Mile for mile they aren't that different these days.
- credit_guy 7y ago
  > Planes emit more only because they travel further. Mile for mile they aren't that different these days. May I point out that electric trains have zero emissions?
  - repolfx 7y ago
    Only if powered entirely by non-emitting power sources, which requires you to assume nuclear power creates no pollution. Not much CO2 I'll give you that, but no pollution, not the case.
    - credit_guy 7y ago
      If we were to be in a debate class, and you were assigned to argue in favor of electric trains, I'm sure you would point out that in a single month California build more than enough solar capacity to power all 16 trains for the Phase 1. Every month for the next 5 years, California is projected to build an average of 250 MW solar (15 GW overall [1]). The highest power TGV: 12.24 MW [2]. It's in fact enough to power 20 trains. [1] https://www.seia.org/state-solar-policy/california-solar https://www.seia.org/state-solar-policy/california-solar [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TGV#Rolling_stock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TGV#Rolling_stock

repolfx 7y ago

Both French and Japanese HSR were/are financial black holes that bankrupted the relevant railway companies. French TGV is nice but again, stations are often far outside the city centres. Compared to flying (profitable on its own) it's not at all clear any of these countries made the right decisions. WRT CO2, it's not quite so clear cut unfortunately. Planes emit more only because they travel further. Mile for mile they aren't that different these days.

credit_guy 7y ago
> Planes emit more only because they travel further. Mile for mile they aren't that different these days. May I point out that electric trains have zero emissions?
- repolfx 7y ago
  Only if powered entirely by non-emitting power sources, which requires you to assume nuclear power creates no pollution. Not much CO2 I'll give you that, but no pollution, not the case.
  - credit_guy 7y ago
    If we were to be in a debate class, and you were assigned to argue in favor of electric trains, I'm sure you would point out that in a single month California build more than enough solar capacity to power all 16 trains for the Phase 1. Every month for the next 5 years, California is projected to build an average of 250 MW solar (15 GW overall [1]). The highest power TGV: 12.24 MW [2]. It's in fact enough to power 20 trains. [1] https://www.seia.org/state-solar-policy/california-solar https://www.seia.org/state-solar-policy/california-solar [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TGV#Rolling_stock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TGV#Rolling_stock