Comments on: France bans short haul domestic flights…

By: Art Deco

Art Deco — Thu, 25 May 2023 20:42:17 +0000

At home, any trip of less than 500 miles I drive.
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Not catching me driving 500 miles.

By: Art Deco

Art Deco — Thu, 25 May 2023 20:40:20 +0000

The European governments are keeping the railrods afloat with subsidies so this may reduce gubbmint costs.
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All of them? How much is the subsidy?
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Note, if car and truck transport were free of subsidy, maintenance and amortization of limited access highways would be paid for by tolls and that of ordinary public roads would be paid for by a mix of vehicle registration fees and excises on motor fuels. When you make opaque costs transparent, the smart money says you get a lot of bitching and moaning. You’ll notice the sensible things not done in 1973. (The prevalence of economically illiterate lawyers in public office also inhibits doing sensible things).

By: Art Deco

Art Deco — Thu, 25 May 2023 20:34:21 +0000

The passenger train (stop then go like Hell) have a crew of minders, need clean bathrooms, heating and AC, need electric power, WiFi, etc.
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IOW, like passenger air travel.

By: Art Deco

Art Deco — Thu, 25 May 2023 20:06:45 +0000

If I’m reading the story correctly and it is accurate, this is a consequence of statutory law, not an administrative regulation. At least there’s that.
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If things are as they were ca 1981, France has an agreeable train network and may have the capacity to absorb the extra passengers. In this country, AmTrack is responsible for an inconsequential slice of passenger trips, so would never have the capacity. It’s also expensive and the schedules are often hopelessly inconvenient. I like trains and they are more comfortable than airplanes. In this country, they appear to be economically viable only for freight hauling.

By: Dwaz

Dwaz — Thu, 25 May 2023 02:21:34 +0000

Neo

When has the possibility of a desire ever prevented the left from trying to act upon it? Why, it’s just the thing to encourage the construction of more rail lines.

By: David Foster

David Foster — Wed, 24 May 2023 19:52:48 +0000

Mike-SMO…”ploy designed by someone who spent too much time playing with his toy trains”

A Chinese railway expert (a *very brave* Chinese railway expert) made a similar comment about his government’s excessive focus on prestige passenger rail vs workaday freight rail.

By: Mike-SMO

Mike-SMO — Wed, 24 May 2023 19:44:09 +0000

The European governments are keeping the railrods afloat with subsidies so this may reduce gubbmint costs. The new fares will pay some of the costs. I bet that they will not be banning private or leased aircraft runs for their “special” friends. They can probably eliminate trans-Atlantic runs since the big airports (Paris, London, Frankfurt, etc.) are all just a train ride away. You just need one. I wonder if they will go back to “private” cars for the “Worthies”. Some of the “oldies” had spiffy wood interiors, kitchens, and sleeping suites, while the “employees” were back in the Coach “cattle cars”. If you don’t have to stop at stations, you can make good time. Europe doesn’t have the High Plains like the US and Canada (e.g. Kansas, Nebraska, Montana, etc.) to eat up the hours. My late wife and I considered a trans-Canadian run, but the service was canceled. There were not enough stupid tourists willing to spend forever looking out the window at nothing. European trains were pleasant except for Baba. Baba is short for babushka (grandmother). They were typically about 4 feet tall and carried about 17 bags of whatever grandmas carry. They are hard to block and if you get in her way, the encounter is similar to a football scrimmage. Granny always gets to the goal. I suppose that they will separate the Babas from the “Elites”.

Passenger trains are horribly expensive due to costs of land, amenities, and equipment. There is no way to make passenger service “cheap”. The “money maker” for the rail roads is bulk cargo (oil, grain, coal, containers, etc.) Those 100+ car trains start and stop with difficulty and have a crew of 1 or 2. The passenger train (stop then go like Hell) have a crew of minders, need clean bathrooms, heating and AC, need electric power, WiFi, etc. passenger service will never be “cheap” and it interferes with the profitable freight business. Maybe the Europeans will find a way to do both. In a densely populated area, it may work, if it doesn’t booger the freight system too much. Mostly, switching a mass of passenger travel from aircraft to the rails sounds like a ploy designed by someone who spent too much time playing with his toy trains. Alternatively, it may be a plan from a politician who figures on collecting lots of grift from the necessary construction and equipment purchases.

By: Frederick

Frederick — Wed, 24 May 2023 19:16:48 +0000

The scale of Europe is totally different, and of course France has very different ideas about personal liberty than Americans or even the British have (erm, had).

I was Italy last year and I went between cities by train, it was much more convenient, cheaper, and comfortable than even first class on a plane would have been. The longest one I took was Venice to Rome, about 4 hours on Frecciarossa. By plane I’d have had a little over 1 hour in the air, at least twice the price, and possibly 3 – 4 hours. Not to mention that Rome’s airport is about an hour away from Rome…

Not a reason to ban air travel, in my opinion, but they’ll not be suffering hardship like we would if here in America we tried to do the same. Except in the Acela corridor there is no density to support convenient rail travel. I’ve traveled by train for fun from Seattle to other towns in Washington and it takes far longer than driving, mostly because you’re sitting while freight trains go by.

By: Roofer dude

Roofer dude — Wed, 24 May 2023 19:10:23 +0000

Maybe the US should just consider converting all the rail lines carrying the trillions of tons of goods to passenger trains so we can be just like Europe and satisfy all the Germans on perpetual vacation

By: not_a_lawyer

not_a_lawyer — Wed, 24 May 2023 19:09:53 +0000

It doesn’t matter if 2.5 hr radius seems reasonable.

First it is a seemingly reasonable 2.5 hr radius. Then it goes to 4. Then all flights are outlawed.

First, the ’15 minute cities’ in which you are locked into your corner of the city. Now this.

They say that the world has been getting smaller with the advent of commercial air travel. It is about to start getting larger again.

Erronius