3 ms·
As distance grows cost really becomes prohibitive and flying also becomes faster.
by mytailorisrich 2y ago
As distance grows cost really becomes prohibitive and flying also becomes faster.
- 7bit 2y agoNot really. Flying is fast, but when you measure door to door, in distances of under 1000k, a high speed rail network would not be slower.
- mytailorisrich 2y agoHence "as distance grows"...
- gmueckl 2y agoBut a 1000km radius around any major center in Europe covers a lot of potential destinations. I assume that a lot of people, especially in the US underestimate the density of Europe.
- mytailorisrich 2y ago1000km is a stretch to set the threshold at which trains win on time. It is also costly, not least when you hit a mountain range... at some point you need to balance billions of euros vs saving an hour (or even less).
- mike_hearn 2y agoIs that always true? In France HSR stations are often like airports, way out of town and you have to get a taxi in/out of wherever you're going. And the rail network seems more exposed to mechanical breakdown in general. I don't have hard data but it feels to me like trains fail or get cancelled much more often than flights do, and when a flight does get cancelled it's usually due to some major failure that'd take out trains too (e.g. power failure).
- d--b 2y agoIt's an investment though. Every part of France that's next to the high-speed train really blossomed.
- mytailorisrich 2y agoIn France pretty much anywhere near a high-speed train station becomes within convenient reach of Paris and so attracts a boom in second homes and hybrid/remote workers.
- enaaem 2y agoDifferent optimal solutions for different scenarios.
- riffraff 2y agosure, that's why I mentioned "<600km", which is a distance covering many connections in Europe. E.g. Paris-Milan, Amsterdam-Berlin, Budapest-Vienna, London-Brussels, Geneve-Genoa etc These would be * many hours by car * <3 hours by fast train * <1 hour in flight by plane The flight time is offset by security controls and getting to/from the airport, so a fast train is a good alternative (not perfect, just good).
- herbst 2y agoThere is also always the comfort factor. Increasing travel time by 25% or even more can be a non issue if I have high speed internet and proper food and drink service available.