this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2023
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Fuck Cars

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A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!

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[–] FMT99 31 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Just wish they'd make these things a bit more affordable. Taking the train to Paris or London with my family is literally twice the price of flying and god knows how many times driving. I'd much rather take the train.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (2 children)

The train takes you right in the city centre though. If you fly you usually have to buy an extra train ticket to get to your actual destination.

[–] voltus 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Fair point. But it would still be way better if it was cheaper.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Oh yes, of course. You would think operating a train would be cheaper than flying if you excluded the initial capital investment costs of actually building the line.

[–] FMT99 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yes, but it doesn't double the cost. We usually end up just driving which is even cheaper than flying, even including the crazy parking costs. And relatively low carbon compared to flying. Taking the train would make it very hard to justify the cost.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

A car with most or all seats taken is usually not that bad in carbon footprint, it's very different from the 1 person per car with 4 empty seats in a daily commute footprint. For me, longer distance, the train is just a lot more comfortable than a car (if you don't have to switch trains too often).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

On many routes within Germany, ICE is actually the best price/comfort deal imo. Trains always suck when crossing borders somehow.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If you think of it in terms of carbon footprint and what your children's future is worth to you, then the train wins no contest.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago

Sure but they may also think in terms of what’s possible. Perhaps they can’t afford to pay double for a vacation.

[–] alvvayson 19 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Great news.

They should honestly just skip stopping at Hilversum and Deventer, too.

From Hilversum there are enough other trains to Amersfoort and Amsterdam. And from Deventer it is easy enough to go to Apeldoorn or Hengelo.

And they are getting trains that can go 230 km/h, so Amsterdam to Berlin in five hours could be feasible.

And after that a properly fast Amsterdam - Hanover - Berlin high speed rail in 3 hours... That would be amazing.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The Deventer stop is not there primarily for locals in Deventer. It's there to service the entire eastern half of the Netherlands. Scrapping it would mean those in e.g. Groningen would first have to travel for 3h to Amsterdam.

[–] alvvayson 5 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Fair enough, I looked it up and you are right.

Deventer is the eastern hub (I thought it was Apeldoorn), so keeping Deventer and scrapping Apeldoorn and Hengelo would be more logical.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

The regular service between Amsterdam and Berlin already has some trains not stopping in Apeldoorn. The European Sleeper between Brussels and Berlin (via Amsterdam) does not stop in Apeldoorn nor Hengelo already.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Scrapping Hengelo would be a pretty bad idea too.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

As someone living in Magdeburg I always envy Hannover for how well connected that city is not just east to west but also north to south

Feels like 90% of the good connections go though that main station while my city doesn't even get ICEs as a state capital...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Magdeburg has less than half the population of Hanover though...

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I know - but small villages in Bavaria have a better train access because the local Bavarian party controlled the traffic ministry for decades

Also Hannover gets all the east-west connections and a city like Erfurt gets none even though they are on a similar trajectory south of the harz

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Erfurt gets none

What? Erfurt has direct ICE connections to Leipzig/Berlin, Dresden, Frankfurt, and Nürnberg/München. It’s pretty well connected for a city of just 200k.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_der_Intercity-Express-Linien

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Ah so it's just really shitty to reach from Hannover/Braunschweig/Wolfsburg/Magdeburg - also it seems that there is no good connection to the whole Ruhr area

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Well, it’s located in a basin and has lots of mountainous areas north, south, and west, so it’s kind of expensive building rails through there. It’s annoying as fuck to get there by car as well. I used to drive that a lot, Cologne – Erfurt, sucks big time.

I guess you could get a route via Kassel and Hamm. I mean, I’m all for it, but I don’t think that’s economically feasible for DB.

Improving the route Hannover – Leipzig would make sense, especially if they could finally upgrade the route Dresden – Prague (one of the most important cargo routes).

Hannover is just lucky. It sits on a giant plain right in the middle of the two axes Hamburg – „the South“, and Berlin – Rhein-Ruhr.