Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
Being in the Southern Hemisphere, I didn't get to see the program on High Speed Trains on TV, but I am tickled by some of the comments I have read on the forum and would add a few of my own. Coming to Australia as a migrant from the UK , I was quite shocked by the primitive rail system here. It seems to have suffered badly from early lack of visionaries just as many of the writers to the forum have complained of. Each State had its own gauge for a start! New South Wales runs on standard 4ft 81/2 inches, but Queensland had 3ft 6in because the then State treasurer was told that the narrow gauge would save sixpence a sleeper! So no trains from NSW can run in Qld except on the short link from the border up to Brisbane! I decided to experience the Brisbane-Sydney return run a couple of years ago on the HST InterCity Express. I forgot to ask the arrival time and it took a staggering 14 hours to travel only 600 miles! Some High Speed Express! The same journey would have taken about 6 hours in the UK - and a lot less in France or Germany. Amusingly enough, I was supposed to pick up my brother in Sydney - he was visiting from the UK - but when he found that it would take 14 hours to get to Brisbane on a non-smoking train (he is a heavy smoker and in Australia ALL public transport, public buildings, most restaurants, etc are absolutely non-smoking!) he refused to get on and went back to the UK on the next plane! To answer the anti-socialist whose comments about low tax in the USA made me fall about laughing: obviously this poor person has not ventured out of Darkest Arkansas. I have visited the USA on very many occasions and every time I am appalled by the abject misery and staggering poverty I see in every city. I have NEVER seen the likes of that in any European city or indeed in Australia. I would much rather live in 'socialist' Europe than in the USA where EVERYTHING is taxed so much and people care nothing for the plight of their neighbours. Not a single shop in the USA shows the actual price of anyything - tax is always to added on to the ticketed price. People are paid so miserably that they actually have to rely on begging tips to survive! Hospitals exploit the sick and needy in the most inhumane ways. I was appalled when visiting my friend in Louisiana when he asked for an aspirin for a headache while in hospital - and he was charged $20 for a paper cup of water and one tablet! That is obscene greed! Sorry guy, you seriously need to experience living in a 'socialist' country where your taxes pay for your children's complete education and the hospitals do not throw you out because you have no money left. I think most people now realise that passenger railways will only pay their way when they can run at high speed on dedicated tracks where there are no interruptions. That way they can compete with airlines. Remember, too, that airline fares have plummeted over the past 50 years in comparison with train fares which were already as competitive as they could be. To cross the Atlantic in the 1950's cost as much as a year's wages. Now it is about a week's income. BIG difference. On short runs trains have the advantage of access to city centres whereas most airports are some distance from the cities they serve. High speed short runs are where trains will be able to best compete. When I travel to Brisbane it takes 50-60 minutes by car on the freeway. By train it is 55 minutes - but I have no parking costs, do not have to breathe petrol fumes from other vehicles and never get caught in a traffic jam. I can get up and walk around or sit and read a paper or even snooze. Try doing that in a car! Yes, there will always be a future for passenger train travel, but I think it will need more visionaries to make it happen on a big scale.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag

Update Reply

Subscriber & Member Login

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

Model Railroader Newsletter See all

Sign up for our FREE e-newsletter and get model railroad news in your inbox!

Subscriber & Member Login

Edit post

Post Body

Tags (Optional)

Subscriber & Member Login

Users Online

Search the Community