Those fast train would never go over big in the U.S.A.
We can't keep trains on the track a 40 mph.
A few years ago a complete train bridge fell on the road below it about 5 min. after I and others went under it.
Before day light the next day the rail road pick up the old bridge and set a new one in. One big hunk already put together.
Next would come the lawyers because the train didn't stop at every small town along their travels. Infringing on some ones rights.
Right, that is so bad that the US is so backward when it comes to public infrastructure. Except for coast to coast, those trains would be great. 5-6 hours from NYC to Florida. Beats the plane and is a lot more comfortable.
From my little town in the Black Forest I can go anywhere In Europe with the train. I first take the local train to Stuttgart or Karlsruhe which are major hubs and from there I take the fast train. I went to Paris, France (650KM) in 3 hours with the TGV plus another hour to get to it.
I doubt that. The German Railroad transported more than 1 Billion passengers in the first 6 months of 2012. And Germany is a much smaller country than the US. The railroad also made a hefty profit in 2012 - 40 Billion Euros (52 Billion Dollar). Train tickets are often more expensive than airline tickets. But people like the creature comforts of the train.
Amtrak rail travel growing fast, but it's profitable on few routes
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http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/Conten...=1246041980246
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Their are many sites that all say the same thing.
We don't seem to know how to run a railroad that movers people.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2012/01/amtrak
The problem is that nobody creates the infrastructure in the US. In Germany and France the train tracks, signals, etc. are owned, maintained and paid for by the federal goverment - like the roads. The trains can then be run by anybody.
In Germany we have private companies running the big trains too and a lot of the little feeder trains are run by a bunch of counties or the state. In France the whole railroad is owned by 'federal' state.
If the US goverment would spend the same amount of money for Railroad infrastructure as they spend for roads, the situation would change. Even the airlines could run the trains if they are afraid of the competition. But as I know the US ways of doing things, it is not going to happen and you have to live with a bunch of tracks dating back to the civil war.
Hi there
In Europe I always use the train -- usually excellent and certainly infinitely more comfortable than the Plane. - Even between UK and Europe I use the Eurostar service via the Channel Tunnel for trips between London and Brussels / Paris.
Even in the UK the train service on the whole is improving (at least on longer distance routes --commuter routes are incredibly overcrowded and horrible) although the level of "Walk on" fares (those that you for one reason or another you can't buy in advance) are literally HORRENDOUS -- for example London to York (approx. 340 KM) in advance 15 GBP / 18 EUR. Buy at the station on the day -- could be as much as 108 GBP / 120 EUR !!!!!! depending on the time you want to travel --and that's on the "East Cost Line" which is still the only train company owned by the Government so they must be coining it !!.
But as others have said Plane travel in a lot of cases is unavoidable -- and paying Ist Class isn't an option for most of us.
The other thing about this type of infrastructure is that "Profitability" can't really be measured in pure Revenue terms.
For example there are huge amounts of benefits in "De congesting the Roads" and you have a huge amount of skilled workers in ancillary engineering services who have to maintain the track etc -- a lot of these people might be on Social Security otherwise which costs the state FAR MORE than providing subsidies to the Rail companies -- not a perfect solution as some of the bosses walk away with literally obscene amounts of money but good infrastructure provides the best possible incentives to businesses -- China for example wouldn't be spending a Fortune on upgrading its railway system if it didn't see any value in it -- and with that size system there is no way in the known universe that it will ever be "profitable" by conventional standards.
If you've ever travelled from Shanghai Airport to the City I'll bet you wish why can't we have trains like that back home.
Cheers
jimbo
Here is the levitation train in China which they bought from Germany. In Germany we have a test track of that train since nearly 40 years. But it was never implemented because our traditional train system is so good.
This technology would be ideal for the US because there is no train infrastructure to speak of and they would have to start from scratch anyhow and given the distances in the US, this would make sense.
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