Mastodawn

Trump & Epstein: Biz partners.Nov 27, 2023

@breadandcircuses
"Avoiding a long distance flight" comes in at #3 for best ways to reduce your carbon footprint.

Imagine if just HALF of all domestic air travel were replaced by high speed rail? #ThinkOutsideTheBox #MagLev #Trains #GND #ClimateChange

Richard Knott Nov 27, 2023

@MugsysRapSheet @breadandcircuses Was watching a video on the history of the French TGV a few weeks ago, and when that opened between Paris and Lyon air passengers between the two cities dropped by 60%. France is now banning all short internal flights
https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/12/02/is-france-banning-private-jets-everything-we-know-from-a-week-of-green-transport-proposals

Short-haul flights are now banned in France thanks to new law

The idea for the ban originally came from a Citizens' Assembly.

euronews

Dominic 🇪🇺 🏳️‍🌈 🇺🇦Nov 27, 2023

@richardknott @MugsysRapSheet @breadandcircuses The same thing happened with the Milan-Rome corridor in Italy and Barcelona-Madrid in Spain, formerly two of the most profitable air routes in the world.

The one aspect that needs to be considered carefully is integration with other networks. Airports are pretty good at having big car parks, but getting to a city-centre railway station from out of town early in the morning or late at night can be a bit of an adventure.

Trump & Epstein: Biz partners.Nov 27, 2023

@riotnrrd @richardknott @breadandcircuses
Fortunately, here in the U.S., there is plenty of open land around Interstate highways for train stations with plenty of parking.

Driving to a HS Rail train station with parking wouldn't be any different from driving to an airport.

IN FACT, if the airlines are providing the trains, they might want to have train stations AT the airport (with tracks running between airports.)

Dominic 🇪🇺 🏳️‍🌈 🇺🇦Nov 28, 2023

@MugsysRapSheet @richardknott @breadandcircuses See, that is NOT what I was talking about. We need a local transport network that can act as a feeder to longer-range travel. The carbon-intensive version is drive to the airport and fly; the sustainable version is local public transport to high-speed rail, but it has to work throughout the day and with high frequency and reliability to be a true end-to-end option.

@riotnrrd @richardknott @breadandcircuses
As the chart pointed out, ground travel to the airport is far less carbon intensive than the flight itself.

@MugsysRapSheet @riotnrrd @breadandcircuses car to airport still more than local public transport, but arguably a different discussion. Train beats Plane, Light rail/bus beats car, Integrated transport network seems logical but oddly not always done. See Dublin airport, & London City airport and the number of underground stations called Sheppard bush...😋

@richardknott @riotnrrd @breadandcircuses
How exactly do commuters get to the bus that takes them to the train station? 🤨

@MugsysRapSheet @riotnrrd @breadandcircuses Personally i walk. I think there will always be a use case for cars to fill in the gaps in coverage or for those with reduced mobility, but a good local public transport network makes a huge difference

@richardknott @riotnrrd @breadandcircuses
If you're traveling, don't expect an entire family with luggage to walk to the bus just to get to the train station.

And waiting for the construction of subways to take you to the MagLev train station only dramatically delays such a project.

Dominic 🇪🇺 🏳️‍🌈 🇺🇦

@MugsysRapSheet @richardknott @breadandcircuses I’m actually away from home right now, and I did indeed walk (with my luggage) to the city-centre railway station. Pretty convenient — except that because of how early my connection was, there was no commuter rail service that was convenient, so I had to do the first leg the night before. Public transport works best when it’s so frequent that people don’t have to make special plans around its schedule.

@riotnrrd @richardknott @breadandcircuses
All true, but doesn't apply to (nor negate) the immediate benefits of replacing domestic air travel with high speed #MagLev trains.

@MugsysRapSheet @riotnrrd @breadandcircuses no, no one’s disagreeing here, and doesn’t have to be maglev, normal high speed rail requires significantly less energy.

@richardknott @riotnrrd @breadandcircuses
"Normal" high speed rail still uses fossil fuels, and runs around half the speed of #MagLev (which can be 100% powered by renewable energy.)

Only MagLev trains are fast enough to challenge the speed of air travel.

@MugsysRapSheet @riotnrrd @breadandcircuses France's TGV has always been electric and is actively replacing air, when it opened between Paris and Lyon air travelers dropped by 60%. Europe is extending electric High speed rail across the continent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEgAgJc8Heg&ab_channel=Mustard

Why French Trains Are The Fastest

YouTube

@richardknott @riotnrrd @breadandcircuses
Something unnerving about traveling 350MPH on rails.

The fastest rail train in the U.S. is Amtrak's "Acela" which tops out at a mere 150MPH.

Dominic 🇪🇺 🏳️‍🌈 🇺🇦Nov 28, 2023

@MugsysRapSheet @richardknott @breadandcircuses You don’t feel the speed; the fast trains run on dedicated high-speed track that is laid out for that speed (grade, curve radius, etc). The best thing is no security, no being stuck in your seat without your laptop or your drink for takeoff and landing, just show up and go (but again, needs decent frequency of service for that to work).
Maglev would be nice, especially for longer distances, but current tech already works well.

@riotnrrd @richardknott @breadandcircuses
Feeling the speed is not anything I was thinking about.

If we try to run a 350MPH train on rails, YOU KNOW #Republicans would try to cut costs by making it run on *existing* rails (some laid over 150 years ago) that were never designed to support such speeds.

With #MagLev, they'd have no choice but to lay modern ML tracks designed for high speed travel.

@riotnrrd @richardknott @breadandcircuses
"No being stuck in your seat."

The modern #MagLev train experience is not much different than riding on a plane: https://youtu.be/Y-yJjIoZ11M?si=0e6qyXzgrBSC2BaF

China’s New Maglev Bullet Train Is Now World’s Fastest Land Vehicle!

YouTube