How it looks from across the pond

[Martin Wynne]

.
A sad read:

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/britain-railways-hs2-nervous-breakdown/index.html

Martin.

 

[Paul Boyd]

It doesn’t look much better from this side of the pond. It really is sad, seeing how much the network has been run down. I used to travel by train a lot, going back to the mid-70s when my age was still in single digits, regularly catching a train on my own from Stapleton Road to Clifton Down for dental work. Train was my default travel mode, but it’s got to the point where I simply couldn’t rely on it. You can no longer rely on being able to get bikes on trains even when booked, you’re often crammed into an airline seat with insufficient leg room, you can’t rely on being able to make a connection, you can’t rely on them even running, it’s often considerably cheaper to drive even with parking . It saddens me that it’s come to that.

I gave up trains completely about 5 years or so ago, during a previous round of strikes. Apart from using Nottingham’s trams, I now drive to most places I need to get to which I hate doing. I suppose at least that’ll please Sunak.

 

[Hayfield]

Having recently travelled to Italy and back for a holiday I have seen how good the railways can be when money, time and commitment are spent on improving the infrastructure.

But when people are NIMBIES, construction firms charge so much and far too many people expect to be supported by the state there is no money

From what I see in France the country/government build where they want to, the cost per mile/k is many times cheaper and looking at the number of rough sleepers state aid for the person is far less

But then, I travelled from the Italian / French border to Paris over a day and a half ***, Not all French areas are superfast. From Ventimiglia to Marseille is very slow, yes TGV trains run on the line but the speeds are a fraction of Marseille to Paris. Sitting on the top deck of a double decker seeing wonderful scenery is a great way of spending time, rather than rushing by at 300 kph

Like wise the route we should have taken on the outward trip (Line was blocked by a rock fall) from Paris to Turin is only very fast between Paris and Lyon, then Lyon to Turin is quite slow

Can the money be used in a better way ? Time will tell !! As for the USA I thought they flew everywhere ?

*** stopped overnight in St Raphael

 

[Phil O]

Having travelled extensively in North America this year, the only fast track, 100 MPH that I covered was New York to Washington. That has electric traction from Boston, I don't know if New York to Boston is also 100 MPH.

The only investment by Amtrack seems to be in new diesel traction and the coaching stock on the Surfliner, LA to San Diego. I think that the Californian government may have put some money up for that.

In Canada, I didn't see any investment by Via Rail.

 

[Rob Manchester]

Can the money be used in a better way ? Time will tell !! As for the USA I thought they flew everywhere ?

John, Phil,

There would appear to be a 'campaign' to get high speed rail in many places in the US. If you just consider journey time there is a distance range that suits it, somewhere between 150 and 400 miles. With check-in times, security checks and the fact that airports are often located a good distance from the cities they serve there is quite an overhead over the actual flight time. High speed rail starts become less attractive over longer distances and, of course, costs a lot of money to build.

The North-East corridor ( AKA Acela ) that Phil mentioned is quite poular as it joins a few large population centres that are close together but it isn't 'High Speed' in the way the TGV is. Proper high speed rail needs pairs ( or several pairs ) of cities that would generate large ridership numbers to justify the investment. It also needs a frequent service - precisely what is missing from most of the Amtrak passenger network. Two trains a day in each direction just doesn't make sense.

Getting the Yanks out of their cars and on to other forms of transport is the hard bit. You have to own a car in most of the US as the residential zoning system that seperated the suburban housing from the strip-malls and big box shopping centres means a trip to the shops needs a car. The days of high density housing in cities that enabled people to live, shop and work in close proximity to each other have all but gone although there are projects afoot to drag some places back to that.

If you want to wind-up an american 'suburbanite' ask him how far the nearest corner shop is to his home.......the answer in most cases is there isn't one to walk to. Residential zoning category R1 meant the area was only for single family homes and that was about it.

Rob

 

[Phil O]

The Northeast corridor has about the best service in the country, not only the Acela services, but also the Northeast corridor stopping services giving around a half hourly service at some locations.

 

[Rob Manchester]

Phil, John,

Rob