A new high-speed train service linking Paris and Berlin was launched on Monday – just in time for the Christmas travel season. Joint operators SNCF and Deutsche Bahn say they hope passengers will see it as a “greener” alternative to flying.
A new high-speed train service linking Paris and Berlin was launched on Monday – just in time for the Christmas travel season. Joint operators SNCF and Deutsche Bahn say they hope passengers will see it as a “greener” alternative to flying.
Doubt. Rail in Europe will never compete with air travel unless there will be a Pan European rail system managed by one public company. At the moment there are just too many cooks and they all use their own tools and speak their own language.
So, like the expensive nationalized airlines until they were deregulated and suddenly became 5 times cheaper? What you are advocating, assuming it’s serious, is literally the opposite of the solution.
You can have a singular rail network system managed by one public company that is exploited by multiple private transport companies. The problem currently is that in Europe the rails are often also owned by the companies that use the rails and they don’t want to share. And the different networks often aren’t even connected to each other. If you take the high speed rail from France to Spain you need to get off near the border to take a slower train to cross the border and then you have to walk to a different platform to board the Spanish high speed train. Since the Spanish railway company and the French one don’t like each other. Not to mention that not every country uses standard-gauge.
There is no real competition between the different railway companies in Europe. Almost every route is monopolized by the owners of the different rail networks. While I can choose between different airlines for most routes. Put the rails under a separate pan European public company and force the transport companies to share the rails would solve this problem.
Didn’t realize you were referring to the track infrastructure only. Yes, sure, that obviously has always made sense. It’s a natural monopoly.