High Speed Rail a threat to Oz Aviation?
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: On the road...
Age: 49
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Its not so much the speed of the train although it does need to be fast.
My experience is from London to Paris return on the eurostar. Get to the station, walk through with prebooked tickets, wait about 10mins, carry bags on. sit down in a nice big seat. carry bags off at the other end and away you go. Paris station is right in town.
The same as a flight. Get to the airport, wait to check bags, queue for screening, wait for boarding. Wait for take off slot. Fly in a small cramped seat. Wait for bag at other end. The thing that makes the train as fast is there is less waiting and queueing. Also trains generally leave from the centre of town so no need for taxi/bus/car.
Did note though that the train goes fairly slow in the UK, found out it is because the track is not up to the faster speeds and also the fencing to keep animals/people out is lacking.
My experience is from London to Paris return on the eurostar. Get to the station, walk through with prebooked tickets, wait about 10mins, carry bags on. sit down in a nice big seat. carry bags off at the other end and away you go. Paris station is right in town.
The same as a flight. Get to the airport, wait to check bags, queue for screening, wait for boarding. Wait for take off slot. Fly in a small cramped seat. Wait for bag at other end. The thing that makes the train as fast is there is less waiting and queueing. Also trains generally leave from the centre of town so no need for taxi/bus/car.
Did note though that the train goes fairly slow in the UK, found out it is because the track is not up to the faster speeds and also the fencing to keep animals/people out is lacking.
I hope it happens - but like most I don't ever see it happening in my working life.
It's very interesting to watch the XPT rumble its way south across the QLD border - the tracks not only bend outwards, but the bolts holding them to the rotten wooden sleepers bounce about (as do the sleepers). As you proceed further south, you have plenty of time to appreciate the scenery as you wind your way around and around and around and around just about every slight rise in the landscape.
As a recent passenger, having not been on the XPT for 15 years, it was good to see not much has changed. The first class seats looked like the economy class seats - which on the whole resembled something you might expect to see being used to strap people to for torture in a dingy sex club or 3rd world prison (not that i've been to many lately).
The passengers on board this 1/4 filled train were generally dementia cases or enthusiasts sampling what has been voted the worst train service in the world.
QR's offering is not much better, on the aptly named 'tilt train' (that sometimes tilt's through a whole 720 degrees before coming to a smouldering rest in a paddock).
One of those maglevs operating BNE-SYD-MEL (with maybe a stop on the gold coast, coffs, newcastle, woolongong, albury etc) a second one doing BNE-CBR-MEL and a third just doing CBR-SYD would do the trick though - they could crew it out of any of the stops as a day trip. It would make big $ alone in the commuters between bne-gc and ntl-syd-cbr (not to mention the $ it would save on having to build new highways and maintain existing ones etc
It's very interesting to watch the XPT rumble its way south across the QLD border - the tracks not only bend outwards, but the bolts holding them to the rotten wooden sleepers bounce about (as do the sleepers). As you proceed further south, you have plenty of time to appreciate the scenery as you wind your way around and around and around and around just about every slight rise in the landscape.
As a recent passenger, having not been on the XPT for 15 years, it was good to see not much has changed. The first class seats looked like the economy class seats - which on the whole resembled something you might expect to see being used to strap people to for torture in a dingy sex club or 3rd world prison (not that i've been to many lately).
The passengers on board this 1/4 filled train were generally dementia cases or enthusiasts sampling what has been voted the worst train service in the world.
QR's offering is not much better, on the aptly named 'tilt train' (that sometimes tilt's through a whole 720 degrees before coming to a smouldering rest in a paddock).
One of those maglevs operating BNE-SYD-MEL (with maybe a stop on the gold coast, coffs, newcastle, woolongong, albury etc) a second one doing BNE-CBR-MEL and a third just doing CBR-SYD would do the trick though - they could crew it out of any of the stops as a day trip. It would make big $ alone in the commuters between bne-gc and ntl-syd-cbr (not to mention the $ it would save on having to build new highways and maintain existing ones etc
Originally Posted by Metro Man
That's a minor problem compared to the rest of the bureaucratic nonsense in the way of a major project such as this. Factor in state governments, federal government, special interest groups, environmentalists, lawyers, native title (I bet at least one sacred burial site needs crossing) and it would be delayed for years and billions over budget if it ever happened at all.
Originally Posted by Resume Own Nav
Would the public have trust in such a network? How many times has QLDs Tilt train been de-railed?
The second time was when fuggwit truckie ignored the flashing lights and bells at a level crossing, and cleaned up the train. Killed the two Driver's too. Mind you, this was north of Townsville where the train was limited to 80kph. So just because it involved the Tilt Train is meaningless as the 160kph maximum speed wasn't a factor in the accident. It was the truckie ignoring running the crossing that caused it.
Originally Posted by 601
If they proposed to use computers on these hi-speed trains, I just hope that they use a different computer programming company to what Airbus and Toyota have used
Originally Posted by Worrals in the Wilds
a high speed railway network could complement aviation and get scary overtired drivers off the National Highway.
But, so long as the head of the Australian Trucking Association is a former National Party politician, any hope of rail actually being able to compete fairly with road - where "cost recovery" is a term found only in the dictionary - is null and void.
Originally Posted by Trojan1981
It could be built in existing rail corridors between Sydney-Canberra-Melbourne with little fuss.
Originally Posted by Lodown
If the various rail bodies get high speed Internet and accommodate the business traveller more within the constraints of current infrastructure, then that might be considered a legitimate attempt at becoming a threat
The current infrastructure was designed, for the most part, well over 100 years ago. Airlines, partly due to technology, but also trying to save money have been very innovative and progressive, something rail has been lacking. Rail could be making money hand over fist if they were prepared to spend some money to make money. Some companies (SCT at Parkes is one) think nothing of doing so, and they're successful. Others still operate locomotives and wagons that arrived in the 50's...
How many 707's are flying around in this day and age - and how viable are they financially?
