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Comment by sofixa | Hacker News Reader

Especially considering Spain already has a serious high speed rail network.

They fly to a lot of places outside of Spain:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Air_Nostrum_destinatio...

Even within Spain the Balearic islands and Canary islands are very popular destinations and probably not going to be on any high speed rail network any time soon. :-)

Hmm according to this https://www.hybridairvehicles.com/our-aircraft/faq/ the max speed is 130kph, distance from valencia to palma is about 270km so its about 2 hour flight. Its 7:40 by ferry and 55m by plane... So this seems like a very good route for this type of aircraft.

They also have good comparisons here: https://www.hybridairvehicles.com/news-and-media/overview/in...

I've flown between Tenerife and La Gomera and El Hiero a few times - I was curious if they did the inter island flights, which I don't think they do.

Edit: I suspect the idea of flying around in airships looking up a huge volcano is just reminding me of Red|Green|Blue Mars.

Yes however this network is organized in a star layout, meaning there are few connections between the outer cities. If all you want is to visit Madrid from the coast, sure. But going from one coastal city to another, that's not happening. And don't get me started on the rail network towards Portugal.

It is almost ridiculous that there's no easy rail connection between Madrid and Lisbon. I assume it's because, when push comes to shove, the governments never come to agree on who pays for what

There was a plan that got derailed due to the European financial crisis which affected both countries.

Sounds just like the TGV in France. Nice to travel between Paris and Bordeaux or Marseille for example, but travel between Bordeaux and Marseille would require going via Paris. It's hardly worth the name 'network' really.

That's not even talking about the fact that the lines don't even all connect to each other at Paris. They often terminate in different stations necessitating cumbersome travel from one station to the other.

That's a bit of a negative look. It's true that some city pairs are really poorly linked (e.g. Marseille / Bordeaux, it's just a regular slow train), however for many others the Paris-centric network is perfectly fine. Lille / Rennes / Bordeaux / Lyon / / Reims / Marseille going by Paris is not that much of an issue (direct high speed links between those wouldn't be financially worth it). The direct trains, which bypass the city of Paris itself and go on the Interconnection ring road, with its suburban (Massy, Marne la Vallée and CDG Airport) train stations, aren't frequent enough and that needs to be improved. The direct links between some cities also need improving, but there simply wouldn't be enough traffic for direct high speed rail for most city pairs.

It isn't serious for the very simple and immediately nullifying fact that it doesn't run the coast.

If you check the population centers in Spain, it clearly should have the form of a bike wheel (full circle and radials), but it is an asterisk.

Yes, with a serious ticket price also. For most destinations inside the country, flights are cheaper (and faster, obviously).

Considering the time you spend in airport, for < 500Km is usually faster and more convenient to use the train if you can. That is my experience in Spain, at least.

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