3 ms·

This is going to be tough. Rail is absolutely fantastic for commuting and short haul city to city, but air still reigns for medium to longer distances. The key

This is going to be tough. Rail is absolutely fantastic for commuting and short haul city to city, but air still reigns for medium to longer distances. The key advantage flight has is you don't need to maintain much infrastructure between the termini apart from radars, ATC and other such stuff. Trains need rail, signalling, bridges, tunnels, power, fences, flora control, flood management, etc. Flights are also quicker, which means fewer pilots, less crew, fewer planes, less maintenance, etc. That makes long distance rail quite expensive by comparison, if left to the free market. The only way this works is huge government subsidies, but my gut feeling is that'd be better spent on developing zero emissions flying, as I don't think flying is going anywhere. I'm guessing biofuels, synthetic fuels or maybe hydrogen will replace fossil fuels in flight. That being said, I love travelling around by rail and I'm generally a train nerd, so more investment in the rail would make me personally happy.

ysleepy 4y ago
Subsidies like the tax exemption for kerosene?
theluketaylor 4y ago
High speed rail is faster door to door than flights until around 1000 km / 600 miles, which gets you an awfully long way. Add in the renaissance of night train service in central europe and suddenly you're covering a ton of travel under 2000-3000 km with rail. I agree carbon neutral aviation fuel is likely going to need to part of future transportation plans, but it's likely going to be really expensive per passenger km, so would be better saved for truly necessary cases like crossing oceans. I'm not sure there is a sustainable way to continue our current level of short and medium haul flight usage.
atwood22 4y ago
It will definitely be tough, but the Shinkansen at least proves its possible. Taking the Shinkansen is almost disorienting with how fast it is. Not so much its raw speed while in motion, but rather the fact that you hop in in a very normal-looking train station and a few hours later are so, so far away from where you started. I remember opening Google Maps and thinking there was something wrong with my GPS.

ysleepy 4y ago

Subsidies like the tax exemption for kerosene?

theluketaylor 4y ago

High speed rail is faster door to door than flights until around 1000 km / 600 miles, which gets you an awfully long way. Add in the renaissance of night train service in central europe and suddenly you're covering a ton of travel under 2000-3000 km with rail. I agree carbon neutral aviation fuel is likely going to need to part of future transportation plans, but it's likely going to be really expensive per passenger km, so would be better saved for truly necessary cases like crossing oceans. I'm not sure there is a sustainable way to continue our current level of short and medium haul flight usage.

atwood22 4y ago

It will definitely be tough, but the Shinkansen at least proves its possible. Taking the Shinkansen is almost disorienting with how fast it is. Not so much its raw speed while in motion, but rather the fact that you hop in in a very normal-looking train station and a few hours later are so, so far away from where you started. I remember opening Google Maps and thinking there was something wrong with my GPS.