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> Converting all existing routes to high speed is a no brainer, which will be delayed beyond all reasonable duration just because they're all government organiz

> Converting all existing routes to high speed is a no brainer, which will be delayed beyond all reasonable duration just because they're all government organizations. It varies between "not easy" and "not possible", certainly far away from a "no brainer". High-speed train routes are very sensible to curvature and have to be built as plain as possible. Second problem: if other, slower, trains also use high-speed routes all kinds of ugly things happen and the high-speed trains are not so high-speed in anymore - it is one of the main reasons why german DB trains are so slow and unreliable. In practice, countries with good high-speed train networks (Japan, France, China) have separate high-speed routes which are used only by high-speed trains. Which turns the necessary investment up to 11.

radu_floricica 5y ago
Yet another reason why we'll end up with ubers + planes. Separate lines is not really feasible in most of EU. I'm mostly pissed at the subsidizing part. There is a comment in this thread saying we should tax air companies more to convince people to take trains. I hate this with a burning passion. If an industry isn't working anymore, the solution isn't to throw money at it. It can find its own place, probably a mix of cargo and dedicated high speed lines. Anyways, it's still early - right now there are precious few electric ubers, and none that are self driving.
- lycopodiopsida 5y ago
  I think it is certainly true that planes are subsidized - they are not paying tax on fuel, for example, and I can't think of any good reason why it should be the case. I am not so bullish on trains, however - it takes a long time to build the lines and it will again benefit only few big cities. As with bikes, it is a discussion of city inhabitants for city inhabitants, for the rest of us car is still the only comfortable solution because it can take you anytime anywhere.

radu_floricica 5y ago

Yet another reason why we'll end up with ubers + planes. Separate lines is not really feasible in most of EU. I'm mostly pissed at the subsidizing part. There is a comment in this thread saying we should tax air companies more to convince people to take trains. I hate this with a burning passion. If an industry isn't working anymore, the solution isn't to throw money at it. It can find its own place, probably a mix of cargo and dedicated high speed lines. Anyways, it's still early - right now there are precious few electric ubers, and none that are self driving.

lycopodiopsida 5y ago
I think it is certainly true that planes are subsidized - they are not paying tax on fuel, for example, and I can't think of any good reason why it should be the case. I am not so bullish on trains, however - it takes a long time to build the lines and it will again benefit only few big cities. As with bikes, it is a discussion of city inhabitants for city inhabitants, for the rest of us car is still the only comfortable solution because it can take you anytime anywhere.