Stumbled upon this 2001 article in the Japan Railway & Transport Review about the history of EMUs vs loco-hauled trains in Japan. https://www.ejrcf.or.jp/jrtr/jrtr27/pdf/f40_ina.pdf
It adds some nice background context to @jon 's recent article regarding TGVs and how different choices they made in the 70s and 80s lead to lauding gauge problems in 2026… https://jonworth.eu/rail-path-dependency-how-the-oil-crisis-and-the-british-government-left-sncf-with-a-problem-in-italian-tunnels/
@apicultor @Moritz_Kleine @jon + you can have specific hardware such as head-end power that you only have on the passenger variant and that has implications in terms of electromagnetic compatibility and so on…
But it’s not enough of an excuse to blame the locomotive manufacturers for the situation 😅
@jon @wrzlbrnft Wait there are direct TGVs from Zurich de Besançon Franche Comté?!?
(I agree, it makes no sense, but it would be very useful to me personally, and a big news that I somehow missed)
Nothing new in this Le Temps article on #CrossBorderRail but interesting nevertheless. @jon
Les diplomates suisses s’inquiètent des conséquences de la rigueur. Le député du Doubs Matthieu Bloch juge le comportement français problématique envers un «partenaire exemplaire»
@jon Absolutely would subscribe! And very happy to hear that you’d be using Ghost and Stripe.
I would argue that you might even be able to charge more. Especially if you also offer the newsletter as a podcast (I’m thinking something like Stratechery’s format) and a discount for yearly subscribers (12 months for the price of 10 or 11).
benz