1. Forum
  2. Fidonet
  3. RAILFAN

  • The Economist on High-Speed Rail

    From Conklin@1:2320/100 to All on Tue Jan 13 20:17:04 2015

    From: nilknocgeo@earthlink.net

    The January10-61 issue of The Economist argues that HSR passenger rates are growing in Europe mostly by taking passengers from slower rail. Passenger-kilometer travelled were 6.4% in 2011. Cars share is at 72.5%.
    buses (coaches) lost 1% at 8.2%. Airtravel agined a point to 8.9%. Cars
    wre 72.5%. In France rvenues and profit margins have fallen from their
    peaks. On some routes (Spain mentioned) there are many empty seats. Check
    it out. Page 57.

    --- SoupGate/W32 v1.03
    # Origin: LiveWire BBS -=*=- UseNet FTN Gateway (1:2320/1)
    * Origin: LiveWire BBS - Synchronet - LiveWireBBS.com (1:2320/100)
  • From Bob@1:2320/100 to Conklin on Wed Jan 14 19:01:52 2015

    From: rcp27g@gmail.com

    On 2015-01-14 01:17:03 +0000, conklin said:

    The January10-61 issue of The Economist argues that HSR passenger rates
    are growing in Europe mostly by taking passengers from slower rail. Passenger-kilometer travelled were 6.4% in 2011. Cars share is at
    72.5%. buses (coaches) lost 1% at 8.2%. Airtravel agined a point to
    8.9%. Cars wre 72.5%. In France rvenues and profit margins have
    fallen from their peaks. On some routes (Spain mentioned) there are
    many empty seats. Check it out. Page 57.

    Not very much detail in that article. Of course it is worth bearing in
    mind that the "conventional" rail from which high speed rail is
    abstracting traffic in Europe would be classed as "high speed" rail in
    the US. The article comments that profits are down, but gives no
    figures for how the total market for travel has developed in the last
    few years. Given the economic situation in Europe in the last 5 years,
    i would expect that passenger-miles on all modes has declined in that
    period. The article decries the lack of rail-on-rail competition, but
    entirely begs the question of whether such competition, which does
    exist on some routes [1], actually increases either rail's market share
    or increases traffic levels.

    [1] routes that spring to mind include Brussels-Amsterdam,
    Brussels-Cologne and London-Edinburgh/Glasgow, Milan-Rome

    Robin

    --- SoupGate/W32 v1.03
    # Origin: LiveWire BBS -=*=- UseNet FTN Gateway (1:2320/1)
    * Origin: LiveWire BBS - Synchronet - LiveWireBBS.com (1:2320/100)
  • From Johnsuth@nospam.com.au@1:2320/100 to Conklin on Thu Jan 15 02:13:24 2015

    In <CO6dnXZ4LacMXijJnZ2dnUU7-K2dnZ2d@earthlink.com>, "conklin" <nilknocgeo@earthlink.net> writes:
    The January10-61 issue of The Economist argues that HSR passenger rates are >growing in Europe mostly by taking passengers from slower rail. >Passenger-kilometer travelled were 6.4% in 2011. Cars share is at 72.5%. >buses (coaches) lost 1% at 8.2%. Airtravel agined a point to 8.9%. Cars
    wre 72.5%. In France rvenues and profit margins have fallen from their >peaks. On some routes (Spain mentioned) there are many empty seats. Check >it out. Page 57.


    I suspect that the Spanish Government debt arose from over investing in HSR and solar power projects which failed to produce enough revenue to repay the money borrowed to fund them.

    --- SoupGate/W32 v1.03
    # Origin: LiveWire BBS -=*=- UseNet FTN Gateway (1:2320/1)
    * Origin: LiveWire BBS - Synchronet - LiveWireBBS.com (1:2320/100)