5 ms·

Rail services in European countries are not covering their costs in any country, as far as I know. Speaking of Switzerland (which is notably at the extreme end

by jcfrei 5y ago

Rail services in European countries are not covering their costs in any country, as far as I know. Speaking of Switzerland (which is notably at the extreme end in terms of costs) public rail services are run a lot like infrastructure projects / economic booster packages by the government. Whether or not ticket prices or capacities are increased is more down to politics and economic perception than actual demand. So it's fairly obvious that there are no incentives to make cross country traveling more attractive. Politicians decide about the rail services and they are only interested in the opinions of their constituents. More crowded trains due to tourists might as well hurt their popularity. It's a broken system in certain ways.

Stranger43 5y ago
The fact that a lot of the money for passenger rail in europe is coming in from regional bodies for running regional trains also means that fast intercity trains don't get priority when there is congestion, and that the planners kind of assume that people who miss their connection can just take the next one which is true for regional trains but not always cross continental express routes.
MomoXenosaga 5y ago
If we actually had a high speed rail network that linked the big European cities it would pay for itself like in Japan. Tax kerosene and nobody would fly from Amsterdam to Berlin.
ant6n 5y ago
The infrastructure is subsidized, local transit is subsidized, but long distance and high speed rail operations can be profitable, even including the capex of rolling stock (In fact EU rules stipulate that they should be unsubsidized). Also, the EU mandates open track access, which means technically it's possible for private companies to compete (and they do, there are several private operators like Flixtrain, RegioJet, LeoExpress, even a high speed one in Italy, Italo). It's also possible to have rolling stock that is fairly usable all over Europe (RIC carriages, usually 200km/h). There is even a bit of a market for used vehicles. As for locomotives, traditionally they only work in one country, or perhaps two. Now there are more and more locomotives that work in multiple countries, e.g. TRAXX and Vectron. It's possible to rent carriages and trains. It's also possible to rent traction. In some sense it's getting close to possible to do a startup in European rail. I'm thinking about the problem a lot.

by jcfrei 5y ago

Stranger43 5y ago

The fact that a lot of the money for passenger rail in europe is coming in from regional bodies for running regional trains also means that fast intercity trains don't get priority when there is congestion, and that the planners kind of assume that people who miss their connection can just take the next one which is true for regional trains but not always cross continental express routes.

MomoXenosaga 5y ago

If we actually had a high speed rail network that linked the big European cities it would pay for itself like in Japan. Tax kerosene and nobody would fly from Amsterdam to Berlin.

ant6n 5y ago

The infrastructure is subsidized, local transit is subsidized, but long distance and high speed rail operations can be profitable, even including the capex of rolling stock (In fact EU rules stipulate that they should be unsubsidized). Also, the EU mandates open track access, which means technically it's possible for private companies to compete (and they do, there are several private operators like Flixtrain, RegioJet, LeoExpress, even a high speed one in Italy, Italo). It's also possible to have rolling stock that is fairly usable all over Europe (RIC carriages, usually 200km/h). There is even a bit of a market for used vehicles. As for locomotives, traditionally they only work in one country, or perhaps two. Now there are more and more locomotives that work in multiple countries, e.g. TRAXX and Vectron. It's possible to rent carriages and trains. It's also possible to rent traction. In some sense it's getting close to possible to do a startup in European rail. I'm thinking about the problem a lot.