zlacker

> The fact that it takes six hours to get from Baltimore to Boston, when a faster train can cover the longer distance between Paris and Marseille in four, does not move us to protest the obvious failure of ambition.

Paris > Marseille by train is 3:08, not 4:00.

Nice writup, thanks for sharing.

>>aziazi+(OP)
We quite often take the car to my parents home near Glasgow from our home on the outskirts of London. The train from London to Glasgow is about 4.5h if it runs to time (that's a pretty big if on the UKs rail network). The drive is about 8 hours including some reasonable stops, often we split it overnight with a stop midway.

The problem is we don't live near Euston station, it would take about 1.5 hours to get to Waterloo then maybe 30 minutes to get across London on the underground. With two small children and the stuff they require for a week it would be excruciating. When we get to the other end we wouldn't have a car to visit the family members were traveling to see and realistically would have to rent a car.

I've done the journey by train more times than I can count, both when I was single and before we had kids. I would be happy to do it again but the cost is easily 5x what it would be to just drive and is far less flexible.

>>aziazi+(OP)
3 hours to go 400 miles in France vs 6 hours in the US?

The United States sat out the HSR revolution. China built 26,000 miles in the past 20 years. The US has essentially nothing.

Personally, I think the creation of China’s subway system is even more impressive.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metro_systems#:~:text=....

>>mellin+Le
My wife's small hometown (small meaning ~1 million people) in China was served by an HSR station, so we would often take an 8 hour ride on the HSR (on the Beijing - Guangzhou route) to get there. But an airport opened up recently (a decade after the HSR station opened), I think next time we will just take the plane instead given that it is still a very long train ride from Beijing.

I think in the USA, pre-existing airports have reduced demand for HSR. The US has airports in almost every city with more than 500k people, while that is definitely not true in China (even still).

>>mellin+Le
It's not just the lack of HSR (trains, power, etc), it's the lack of passenger trains in general. The tracks that exist are simply not suitable for greater than 50mph (80kph), and those that might be are dominated by stupidly long cargo trains.

>>mellin+Le
China HSR isn't that impressive. They mostly built outside of city centers then added new developments around the train station, immensly diminishing the costs and construction time for the HSR, at the cost of convenience for already established citizen (and probably feeding their housng bubble too).

Agree however that some of their subway systems are their most impressive engineering feat and prove that they could have done a better job with their HSR.

>>VBprog+Y8
> I would be happy to do it again but the cost is easily 5x what it would be to just drive and is far less flexible.

To me this is a huge part of the problem.

I've wanted to take the train many times in the US, but it also is wildly expensive here. Much faster and cheaper to take a plane in most cases.

I'd think the way to solve this is to tax driving a car appropriately, whether through parking or other methods, to encourage and subsidize train travel. If the cost comes down, I'm guessing many more people would do it.

>>seanmc+Jn
An 8 hour train ride is outside of what is acceptable for normal train use. Up to about 5 hours on the train most people will prefer the train to flying. For short and medium distance trips trains have several advantages. The train is probably closer to your house and where you are going (air ports are way out on the edge of town in most cases, while train stations are closer to the center). You don't have the long wait for security for the train. You get more legroom on the train. For longer trips an airplane is worth those disadvantages, but not for shorter trips.

>>bluGil+Aq1
Yes, but without an airport in my wife's hometown, 8 hours by HSR is better than flying from Beijing to Changsha or Guangzhou and transferring to HSR.

Chinese HSR stations can be as inconveniently located as airports, so that isn't much of a benefit. Security is a bit better, they mostly make you put your bag through some sort of X-ray machine that I doubt they are looking at.

>>aziazi+(OP)
> does not move us to protest the obvious failure of ambition.

Speaking of protest...

After the events of the past few years, I think about protest when I think about public transportation infrastructure.

Seeing people chain themselves together across roadways, railways, and entrances to other infrastructure - it honestly made me more supportive of automobiles.

Less susceptible to be corralled by government or interest groups if we all have personal transportation.

>>seanmc+Jn
> small hometown

> ~1 million people

Here I am in a town of 8k thinking it'd be nice if they finally connect these two bike paths.

>>falcol+Gr
Lots of US rail infrastructure has been quietly being upgraded, and there are portions outside the north east corridor that can hit the technical minimum for high-speed rail now (125 mph).

Pacific Surfliner is one, and it boards millions per year.