Comment on China has built the world’s largest bullet-train network
jabjoe@feddit.uk 4 days agoThe car is king is the problem. Which is dumb. Also, in densely populated Europe at least, with private property right, and hundreds, if not thousands, of years of legacy, environmental regulations, it’s hard to build train lines and stations. Also, the rich own so much of the country’s wealth and power, and they just fly, so don’t care.
flora_explora@beehaw.org 4 days ago
I doubt it would be hard to actually have better train infrastructure in Europe (and some countries do). For example, as a German, my perspective on this is that our government just doesn’t care to invest in most infrastructure because it isn’t seen as prestigious enough. The only projects that do get build are some shiny new additions that no one needs, like a new train station in Stuttgart that has been in planning for over 3 decades, will cost many billions and has seen huge protests against it from the start till today. But any project that is just basic maintenance, be it for cars or trains, just gets ignored and postponed. The German Autobahn is just as defunct and on the brink of collapse in many parts of Germany as its train network. And our infrastructure ministers have been corrupt and utterly incompetent for many decades now.
hanrahan@slrpnk.net 3 days ago
www.youtube.com/watch?v=88nkbjsLbI8
jabjoe@feddit.uk 4 days ago
Not sure if you mean in the UK, but in the UK, I think it is hard. We had the politically lead Beeching cuts that messed up what we had. Then those lines had homes and shops built on them. So there a numerous places in the UK cut off from rail that are hard to reconnect without causing a lot of upset. Building new lines is very hard, see HS2 debacle. However, HS2 should have been focused on join up the north, not linking it to London. Also, there is a lot of improvement possible on existing lines. Though won’t get us to bullet trains.
Egonallanon@feddit.uk 4 days ago
The annoying thing about HS2 is that is was focused in the north. The link from Birmingham to London was somewhat tacked on to make of more politically palpable to those folk seeming allergic to spending any money outside of the south east. Now the project has been so messed up in its current state it’ll probably make transportation north of Birmingham worse than it currently is.
jabjoe@feddit.uk 4 days ago
The north wasn’t set to join up the Northern cities. Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, New Castle all needs better connection. Going by rail East/West is terrible. Birmingham to London wasn’t even going to be much faster.