Re:The train that shrunk France and Western Europe
by deetsb on Tuesday September 28, 2021 @04:21PM
(#28687032)
I don’t mean to be vulgar, but the net effect is one group of people (those in Bordeaux or those in Ruffec) had to pay the price of a longer commute to Paris. In the prior this advantaged those in Ruffec over those in Bordeaux. Why was that any more fair than this? And, aren’t more people being serviced by this (noting Ruffec’s population is far smaller than that of Bordeaux). As these are situations of symmetry you have to pick a side to bear it?
Re:The train that shrunk France and Western Europe
by BeFlatXIII on Tuesday September 28, 2021 @03:26PM
(#28686454)
The flip side of the coin is that a high-speed system that has stops at all the struggling towns along the way ceases to be high-speed, no matter the maximum track velocity.
Re:The train that shrunk France and Western Europe
by mc32 on Tuesday September 28, 2021 @08:49PM
(#28689151)
The NYC subway has the concept of local and express trains. They use the same right of way with much of it four-track. So you can provide a slow train that makes every stop and the express which only stops at major stations.
Re:The train that shrunk France and Western Europe
by bambax on Tuesday September 28, 2021 @03:34PM
(#28686522)
Actually, no. You can have trains that stop some stations, some at others, and yet some more that are direct. It used to work quite well.
Now it's not possible anymore because the new line avoids the towns.
Ruffec is about 2/3rds of the way between Paris and Bordeaux. The TGV that goes from Paris to Bordeaux used to have a stop in Ruffec. Not any more, because they had to build a completely new line for the last leg of the trip, that goes through the countryside.
In fact there are now ZERO direct trains from Paris to Ruffec; to get there you need to change trains at Poitiers, which can be complicated if you're old or you have lots of luggage. The train from Poitiers to Ruffec is a regional one that stops everywhere. Going from Paris to Ruffec used to take less than 2 hours and now takes at least 3.
So high speed train isn't about helping transform urbanites into country people; it's about moving urbanites around.