Recent European vacation was a major reality check on high-speed rail and ubiquitous public transportation in general.
It ain’t cheap. A one-day bus pass in, say, Copenhagen runs about $25 US, which coulda got me a full tank of gas not so long ago. A short intercity train trip like Bonn-Amsterdam (about 200 miles) runs $120 US one way, or about the cost of an SAN-SFO flight on Southwest.
It ain’t always convenient. For example, Paris is the hub for all long-distance trains in France … but trains arrive at / depart from different stations and you gotta schlep your stuff through the subway or take a cab. After weighing all the alternatives I booked a trip on an unsubsidized carbon-spewing private bus instead … it was a very proletarian experience and toward the end of the trip a malodorous one too, but I saved a bunch of money and arrived at my destination at noon rather than 1 a.m.
Don’t get me wrong. I think high-speed rail will work well in the right corridors. I’m not entirely convinced SFO-LAX-SAN is the right corridor. And I’m not too encouraged by the fact that we can’t even get conventional train service running again on a no-brainer route like LAX-LAS!
(edit: I meant LAX-LAS … a route I’d love to see in operation again. I mean who actually enjoys the weekend drive out to Vegas?)
