7 ms·
You can really see the Paris-centric approach in France: From Paris you can reach almost any other major city in 4h, but on the other hand, all the other metrop
by maeln 4y ago
You can really see the Paris-centric approach in France: From Paris you can reach almost any other major city in 4h, but on the other hand, all the other metropolis can barely reach 1/4th of the other major population center in 4h.
Compare this to Germany where almost any major metropolis can reach 80% of the country in 4h ...
- OJFord 4y agoInfamously similar in the UK, even despite being smaller. Particularly East-West travel anywhere much North of London. Many inter-city routes are via London. (I'm not complaining, j'habite à Londres ;))
- xenocratus 4y ago> anywhere much North of London You don't need to go that much North - I used to live in Oxfordshire, trying to get to Cambridge for work was a joke (I don't drive). It would take 3.5h+ for a 140km journey from Oxford to Cambridge because train journeys were only through London (+ a railway station change), and there was only one coach that stopped in every town along the way (and which has been axed into two separate legs since the pandemic, making it 4h+ now). In the end I moved to London, so that's manageable now...
- OJFord 4y agoI didn't mean much North! Heh, another of those BrE words like 'quite'. Oxford/Cambridge is a classic example, yes. (For those unfamiliar, they're like two spokes right next to each other on quite a small rim where London is the hub. But large enough (or close enough spokes) that 'in and back out' seems silly.)
- ErikCorry 4y agoThis is actually being fixed. Someone put huge telescopes on part of the old line, but they are building a new one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_West_Rail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_West_Rail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mullard_Radio_Astronomy_Observatory#/media/File:Cmglee_Cambridge_MRAO_Half_Mile_Telescope.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mullard_Radio_Astronomy_Observ...
- AdamGibbins 4y agoThat's being fixed in theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_West_Rail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_West_Rail
- nonethewiser 4y agoActually, it seems like the fastest driving route goes down to London as well. In fact, since Oxfordshire isn't very far north of London it's kind of a bad example. Of course it goes through London.
- rjh29 4y agoSouth West connectivity is fine, you can get from Plymouth to Exeter to Bristol to Birmingham and up to Edinburgh without going anywhere near London.
- midasuni 4y agoAt an average speed that makes a horse blush, and a capacity that is barely more than a Vauxhall corsa. Cross country routes are local trains masquerading as long distance, thus with ridiculous prices and the requirement to do split tickets. There’s nowhere near enough capacity on the line. Penzance to Exeter takes 3 hours - half the speed of a drive. From Exeter to Birmingham it’s another 2h30 at just 60mph average. A good line would be an hour faster on both legs.
- throwaway-blue2 4y agoYou’d be hard pushed to drive Penzance to Exeter in 1hr30, more like 2 hours really. And whilst the train is slow the journey is lovely along the Exe estuary and then along the coast. Having said that it is a bit silly that when going from London to Penzance most of the time is spent on the final third of the journey past Exeter.
- OJFord 4y agoThe South West is er not at all 'North of London' though, last I was there (where I was 'born and raised'). We also don't really have any of the major cities I meant in that context, Bristol I suppose. How do you get from Bournemouth to Bristol for example - via Dorchester with a station change? How about Southampton to Exeter - via Bristol? It's by no means the worst region, and I claimed the opposite, but it still suffers in the same way (albeit on a smaller scale) really, NW-SE rather than W-E in the North, in both cases its opposing the 'spokes' into London.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- darkwater 4y agoOr Spain with Madrid-centric approach.
- marcolussetti 4y agoAt least Madrid is roughly in the center of the Peninsula, whereas London is quite a bit off that.
- izacus 4y agoAnd then you have Brussels, center of EU which has a massive reach.
- rurban 4y agoAnd then you have Lille, the logistic centre of the European train network. (Eurotunnel)
- aj7 4y agoThese are countries the size of Oregon.
- School-Cotton 4y agoFrance is way bigger than Oregon (it's about the size of Texas)
- twelvechairs 4y agoMetropolitan france is 54% larger than Germany so its not a fair comparison
- quelltext 4y agoHuh? How can metropolitan France be larger than the entirety of Germany?
- DanBC 4y ago"Metropolitan France" is the area of France that's in Europe, and that's 543,940 km².
- samatman 4y agoBecause Metropolitan France (note the capitalization) is how the European portion of France is referred to: compare with Overseas France, which includes territories in South America and Oceania, to be non-exhaustive.
- corrral 4y agoThis is a difference in attitude between Americans and French when describing their countries: the French tend to regard overseas territories as more vitally part of their country than Americans do. Not sure why, possibly it was a deliberately-cultivated attitude by the government at some point, or maybe the difference arose organically. Meanwhile I think a lot of Americans kinda-unconsiously barely even consider Hawaii and Alaska really parts of America, let alone the numerous non-state territories. Actually, now that I think about it, the sense of "Metropolitan France" is very similar to the term "the continental United States"
- ryukafalz 4y agoAmerican here, I’d disagree about Hawaii and Alaska but agree about the non-state territories. The non-state territories being unable to vote and not having representation in the legislature means that they don’t get as much attention in national politics, so they’re less top of mind. (Yes, both of those situations suck and I wish we would change them.)
- flipbrad 4y agoStrasbourg seems fairly well-connected, too
- cjrp 4y agoPresumably because it’s where the European Parliament is based
- littlecranky67 4y agoI doubt it has to do with the EU institutions but rather the convenient location at the rhine valley. The section of the rhine valley between Mannheim (Germany) and Basel (Switzerland) is one of the busiest train routes in Europe for freight and passengers.
- jobigoud 4y agoThe asymmetry from my home town of Bordeaux in the South West is striking, towards the North I can reach Brussels, 763 Km away, but going South I can barely enter Spain which is only about 200 Km away!
- littlecranky67 4y agoThe problem us that Spain uses a different track gauge than France, so connecting the countries is difficult.
- haspok 4y agoFun fact from Wikipedia: > Since the beginning of the 1990s new high-speed passenger lines in Spain have been built to the international standard gauge of 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in), to allow these lines to link to the European high-speed network. (...) > In general the interface between the two gauges in Spain is dealt with by means of gauge-changing installations, which can adjust the gauge of appropriately designed wheelsets on the move. I didn't know that!
- littlecranky67 4y agoThe Talgo train with adjustable track gauges has been connecting france/spain for quite a while, but it is by no means designed for long-distance, high-speed travel so Spain kind of had to resort to switching to standard gauge which is also what other important neighbouring countries and possible destinations use (France, Germany, parts of Switzerland , Benelux, Italy).
- ianleighton 4y agoI believe I’ve read this was also due to Iberian gauge high speed rail technology not really being existent at the time Spain started building HSR in a hurry for Expo ‘92? in Sevilla, and they’ve continued using standard gauge for it (to the benefit of the link with France). However the huge investment in HSR (longest network after China, but low utilization), has also come at the cost of the local and regional train network (which still use broad gauge, yes there are gauge changing trains, but the broad gauge network is languishing).