Paris to Berlin in an hour: Welcome to the future of high-speed rail travel

The main reasons people choose airplanes over trains is:

A) Cost

B) Time

Journeys like london->edinburgh are already equivalent to flying times in real world conditions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6MGpvuCKD8

So why don't people take the train for these distances? Cost. The easy solution is to tax flights and use the taxes to offset railway prices.

The existing rail networks are there today and deploying 400kmph trains is possible using existing, safe technology. This would mean paris->berlin in 2.5 hours which solves the time problem for even larger distances

> there is a long way to go in encouraging passengers and freight off aircraft and into train stations

75% of intra-EU freight is by road, and the proportion of intra-EU air freight is already dropping. [1]

> What’s more, unlike the aviation sector, rail passenger rights in the EU leave international travellers liable for missed connections and cancellations if they have to book tickets with multiple operators.

If you book air travel with multiple operators and miss your connection, that's tough luck, too. If I fly Air France from Lyon to Paris and then have a RyanAir ticket booked to London that I miss because the first flight was late, that's on me, not Air France.

> Paris to Berlin in an hour: Welcome to the future of high-speed rail travel in Europe

According to the article this future - at best - is decades away...and it relies on completely rethinking and rebuilding the transport infrastructure of a continent.

I love living in Europe and I love the convenience that the TGV and high speed rail networks offer compared to air travel. But this article is all about a future that is not at all guaranteed to emerge.

1: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php...

Just stop with it already. Might as well talk about pocket wormholes as means of transportation.