European Tribune - Comments - European HSR expansion in 2007

European HSR expansion in 2007 | 62 comments (62 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: European HSR expansion in 2007 (none / 0)

Here I disagre!!!!

At long last!!!

The four main networks will be all integrated by 2020.

i think it is really teh day most travel in europe wil be done my train... the key country is Italy.

portugal, netherlands, Spain, Frange, GB will eb ready for sure (maybe the ondon Scotland link will eb missing but other than that).

So if Italy finishes on time... 2020 is the date.. no need to wait until 2035....

Unless you include Sacandaniva and some easter coutnries.. then .. yes 2035 to get them onboard... maybe 2025 if they do a viable 200km/h network ...

A pleasure

I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude

by kcurie on Sat Jan 19th, 2008 at 03:26:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: European HSR expansion in 2007 (none / 0)

I have no doubt that high-speed trains will run all across the borders. But I have grave doubts that they will do so at 300 km/h or even 250 km/h.

There might be a SPain/France link at Irún by 2020, but I doubt it: we can be happy if Bordeaux-Dax is kicked off in the early 2010s, and finished at the end of that decade. As for Perpignan-Montpellier, not even plans.
The French/BeNeLux and German networks would have three link-up points. But there are no German plans for a Düren-Aachen gap (would be short), Saarbrücken-Mannheim is only upgraded for 200 km/h and only in part (and full high-speed would require big tunnels), and the two railways are content with dozens of kilometres of 200 km/h or lower speed connections of their high-speed lines into Strasbourg, and not even thinking of a bypass.
Italy-Germany would require a full transsect of the Alps. On the Bologna-Verona-Innsbruck-Munich axis, nothing high-speed is planned, only the Brenner Base Tunnel, which won't turn a reality before 2020 itself. There could be a connection across Switzerland earlier, but the Swiss won't complete just the full Gotthard Axis (Zurich-Italian border) until the 2020s, and think onventional lines suffice for their purposes on the Basel-Zurich route. Now 250 km/h lines all the way from Basel to the Lötschberg Base Tunnel have a greater probability until 2020, but no plans for an Italian continuation including a second Simplon.
France-Italy: in effect, that's the Lyon-Turin line with the Mount d'Ambin Base Tunnel. With the delays thanks to Chirac et al, the base tunnel may open only in 2023, and even then, it is likely that the connecting lines won't be all high-speed (current italian plans are to leave passenger trains on the old line and build a line doubling in tunnels for freight).

Overall, note that for a high-speed line, ten years from start of planning to opening is often even optimistic.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sat Jan 19th, 2008 at 05:29:08 PM EST
[ Parent ]

European HSR expansion in 2007 | 62 comments (62 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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