I think the goal of reducing short flights isn’t bad (or rather decrease transportation CO2 emissions).
But, the way is not working: even today flights are faster and often cheaper than trains, with less delays.
Because flights are massively subsidized. Also, passenger rail has to yield for freight as the latter brings on more money.
Personally I prefer high speed rail over flights where available. It is far more comfortable and end to end usually as fast as flying in Europe.
Eventually, we'll have to either decide to get serious about not burning fossils, or not.
If we do become serious about it, there's no reason internal flights that can easily be replaced by slower rail today, shouldn't be pay as high taxes for fuel, as the cars do.
Cars can also be more convenient than transit, and we tax them for it.
>Cars can also be more convenient than transit, and we tax them for it.
Well, it is not taxed because it is convenient. It is taxed because of the huge negative externalities it brings with it.
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Ah yes, The European Solution. Tax the better method until it’s at least as bad as the worse method.
Better than pretending the problem doesn't exist.
There's a story I heard about the oil industry in not-europe. Flaring off natural gas because it wasn't economically feasible to capture it and store it for energy is just "how things were". Ever idiot can see it's a waste, but it takes a special government to see how to fix that waste.
Talk to the engineers to figure out how much it would cost to capture that natgas. Set the fine for flaring natural gas to be that, + $10,000 or so per day.
Voila! Suddenly it's economical to capture that natgas.
Cheaper != Better.
That's why we need to make the worse method more expensive, so price sensitive buyers don't go for that one.
“Today, the European Commission is unveiling a comprehensive plan to accelerate the development of high-speed rail…
…the plan sets the ambition…
…In preparation for the plan, Commissioner Tzitzikostas held an Implementation Dialogue with relevant stakeholders…”
https://transport.ec.europa.eu/news-events/news/commission-l...
By 2040? That is a very ambitious target by European standard. I would have thought they will still be in the planing stage. And unfortunately UK would not be part of it.
Sometimes I do admire the speed which China get things done.
They should figure out how to put a part of the 371B under military budgets, given that rail is the only serious way of war logistics at the moment.
Can’t wait for it. Can’t believe I ever need to take a fucking flight from Vienna to Berlin which takes longer with transfer and security than the train would take if it just had a reasonably fast speed. But the direct track through Prague is so slow it is literally faster to go through Munich on a 400km detour
The slow Czech train is incredible though! Their dining car still has a full-on kitchen where you can get freshly made Schnitzel and Pilsner Urquell from the tap, complete with white tablecloth.
Yes, there should be a faster option. But if you have the time, do give it a shot, it's quite the experience.
The continent scale management system is an interesting challenge and could probably make for a good game also.
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Jeez you could buy everyone in Europe an aeroplane for that.
An $824 aeroplane?
I saw someone on youtube the other day building a single seater out of cardboard. Could work, especially with economies of scale. /s