when Paris will be 3 hours from Munich or 5:35 from Barcelona, beginning in 2009.
The second may be true, but Munich in 3 hours, maybe in 2025...
Contrary to the triumphant tone of the article, it is actually still a problem that railways and countries seem to keep up firewalls between their high-speed systems.
The lead that France has built and to date maintained in the race for modern rail transport
Well, both on level of technology and passengers carried, Japan may be justified to contest that claim, even without ever holding the speed record. And the lead ahead of Germany, Spain or Italy is not that big. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Is there a way for the EU, Spain and the respective Départements to get around this? "It's the statue, man, The Statue."
The busiest section is Moisenay junction to Pasilly junction (e.g. the end of the Interconnexion to the branch-off towards Dijon). I looked up Monday and direction away from Paris (Gare de Lyon/Massy/CDG). Between 15:50 and 20:00, I counted 46 trains (may have missed some).
Minimum headway was 5 minutes on the old units with old signalling, it's now 3 minutes with the TVM 430. But scheduled times usually alternate between 4 and 6 min, only sometimes down to the 3 min minimum. Yet this is not being generous with time: you need some buffer for lateness, and if the previous train has one more stop, then the next non-stop train must leave a longer buffer for the first train to accelerate back.
So with view to this, between these 46 trains from 15:50 and 20:00, I found just six empty slots (had they been used by trains from Gare de Lyon: 16:14, 16:34, 16:40, 19:34, 19:50, 19:54). And those slots will certainly be filled up once the TGV Rhin-Rhône and the line to Turin are built. Pretty close to saturation. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
However, how is TGV Rhin-Rhône supposed to feed that branch? Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
Though, it is just the Ouest branch that'll be built last, and until then, Mulhouse will also get access from Paris via Strasbourg, so maybe there won't be much of a frequency increase via Dijon when the first leg opens (2011?). *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
*Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Madrid-Zaragoza-Irun-Bordeaux-Tours-Paris is 1400 Km according to Google maps. That's 4 hours at 350 Km/h [though I'm not counting the stops]. It would blow all but low-cost flights out of the water, because of the time to get to/from the airports at either end, and the waiting times at check-in and baggage collection. "It's the statue, man, The Statue."
As things stand, Zaragoza to Pamplona will be a partial high-speed line, the rest in direction of San Sebastián less certain, while the main route towards Irún will be through the Guadarrama tunnel to Valladolid, across Burgos to Vitoria, then on the Basque Y ("Y Vasca") to Irún (altogether c. 530 km). Madrid to Irún will be c. 2h20m, the Paris to Bordeaux line (535 km), if all ready by 2016, is promised at 2h10m, a Bordeaux-Dax-border line (235 km) could be done in one hour, that would add up to 5h30m. But 350 km/h and non-stop, 1300 km, even 3h50m would seem possible. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Of course, politically, the Autonomous Community of Castilla-Leon would prefer to see Valladolid served first. I wouldn't be surprised if the connection between Burgos and the Basque Y takes a long while to be completed, especially if the PP is in the National government.
Valladolid would likely become a hub in any event, serving Madrid, Burgos-Vitoria, Galicia and Porto. "It's the statue, man, The Statue."
I agree that such a triumphalism let me feel a bit uneasy. Cooperation beetween Deutsche Bahn und SNCF is nihil, and it won't be better.
Problem is, Siemens choose the transrapid, and being in bed with the DB, they are now entrenched in a defensive position. And I believe the SNCF guy are not the most international experienced of the french economy too.
Just an example: You can't buy a special fare ticket of one country in the other. German Bahncard has agreement with 26 countries in Europe, but not France. So, I should get out of the train in the first station after the border.
The TGV in Munich is just a Show, no improvement between Stuttgart an Munich. I stop here, I'm just upset. I have sent a customer brief to the DBahn out of frustation amonths ago when I discovered the "fahrplan" won't change in any meaningful way to attract interstate traffic. La répartie est dans l'escalier. Elle revient de suite.
Doesn't mean it will happen, of course. And it will take stronger federal institutions, or maybe just forcing existing insitutions to do their job in the public interest (eg I can't believe that the competition commission isn't doing something about this, are they only good for ramming through neo-lib prescriptions on behalf of private industrial interest?) Fai de bèn a Bertrand, te lou rendra en cagant
I have read that one of your compatriot is the project manager put in Charge by the commission for accelerating the corridor paris -Munich -Vienna -Budapest - ?
I hope he is good... La répartie est dans l'escalier. Elle revient de suite.
Seems to be a good EU bureaucrat, even if probably marketista, what he isn't is either a railway expert or someone influential who could push national governments around.
What I could gather from press reports is that the EU's effect so far is constrained to countries promising at least no delays in already planned projects along the corridor. I mean, in practice -- the press conferences made these appear bold new initiatives. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Under Giscard, surely? "It's the statue, man, The Statue."
The European Rail Road Agency, railroading local communities from Porto to Tallinn!
Seriously, this should really be a federal issue. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
Seriously, this is exactly where I was going with this. And if I might be permitted to connect a few more dots, this is seriously a competitivity issue.
Anybody remember this from last week?
Now, remember that what Migeru says about what happened to regional carriers in France after the TGV roll-out is largely true, and it stands to reason that if one can get to Barca or Rome of Franfurt from Paris in 5 hours, this will put some more pressure on other carriers. And then, open skies agreement with US is clearly advantageous to the EU and EU carriers, and less so to US carriers.
The important thing is what lacordaire is alluding to, above. Which is clearly a case where competition, and I mean this in a larger sense, is not served by competing firms whose interests are simply expressed by the state entities (like db) to further the sorts of parochial interests that weaken Europe.
The answer is less market liberalisation, not more. Fai de bèn a Bertrand, te lou rendra en cagant
