More constructively: if you had a massive pot of cash for EU rail, and wanted to better use rail to reduce CO2 emissions, what should you *actually* do?
I am pretty sure this thread of mine won't get 1100 retweets like this ridiculous load of squiggles on a map, but here goes...
I am pretty sure this thread of mine won't get 1100 retweets like this ridiculous load of squiggles on a map, but here goes...
On passenger rail:
- start by identifying the centres of population that have massive transit between them, and rail has a low market share, and work out how to fix that. Examples: Ruhr or Frankfurt - London, Frankfurt - Paris, Amsterdam - Paris
- start by identifying the centres of population that have massive transit between them, and rail has a low market share, and work out how to fix that. Examples: Ruhr or Frankfurt - London, Frankfurt - Paris, Amsterdam - Paris
- this is not just about new lines. It's about unblocking congested junctions and stations, and also finding ways to up speeds through heavily built up areas
- good luck sticking a 300km/h railway through the places on that map! The inhabitants will *scream*!
- good luck sticking a 300km/h railway through the places on that map! The inhabitants will *scream*!
- Warsaw-Madrid or Brussels-Bucharest is *never* going to be viable by train, however much you might dream. You instead need a relentless focus on >1000km trips, and sorting those
- Multimodal trips are also still a nightmare - allow rail trips to be combined with plane trips. So a Berlin-Beijing is a train Berlin to Frankfurt, then a plane, rather than 2 planes.
- Massive investment in regional services, especially cross-border. And invest to make the cost of tickets cheaper, perhaps even free. Most of the time people hate regional trains because they're grotty and overcrowded - fix it! Run 8 or 10 coaches rather than 4.
- For the really long distance stuff, invest in a *big* fleet (100+ trains) of 230km/h night trains, with 4 voltage locomotives propelling them. This makes all kinds of distances you can't do daytimes possible overnight.
- For freight (totally unsexy) sort out the bottlenecks in the network. Massively invest in multi-modal freight terminals, and systems for truck half bodies onto trains
- Make freight trains longer, and quieter.
- Make freight trains longer, and quieter.
- Oblige greater digitisation by law - ALL tickets for ALL trains to be combined however the customer wants, with passenger rights central to the lot of it
- Some new infra is going to be needed, but build it all in light of that. Don't get stuck with a shiny new high speed line - work out what reduces CO2 emissions the most, and quickest, and build that
