Trains vs Planes in Spain
Posted by davidwfox on 02 Feb 2008 at 03:31 pm | Tagged as: transport
The Guardian and Treehugger report on a new high-speed link between Madrid and Barcelona. The Ave covers the 410 miles between Madrid and Barcelona in just 2 hours and 35 minutes.
From The Guardian: The aim is to have 10,000km (6,200 miles) of high-speed track in Spain by 2020, meaning that 90% of the population will be no more than 30 miles from a station through which the train passes…trains produce at least four times less carbon dioxide per mile than planes, and even less when compared with short-haul flights. Spain is preparing itself for a future in which there may be limits on the number of flights a person is allowed to take, particularly within the EU.
Given the choice I will happily take a train over a plane any day. How about you?
High speed surface transport is relatively vulnerable to mishap, with the damage rising as the square of the speed.
What we really need for a sustainable future is widespread frequent services running at moderate speeds with ubiquitous internal communications capabilities built into the ticket price … full internet, wifi, power supply and real time connecting service info for starters.
Presumably the energy costs would drop even further if there was a serious effort to reduce the weight of rolling stock required per passenger for trains of moderate speed.
Trains are already by far the most cost effective way of traveling into large cities, even more so if you have reading to catch up on, but in Australia the construction of new lines doesn’t even try to keep in touch with the sprawl nor with road construction.
But even more we need our opinion leaders to concede that the rushed transport and airport indignities they have accepted as part of their lives have failed to provide any of the benefits assumed.
I fully agree Tony. Speed is certainly a factor, but for the most part reliability is more important. Air travel in the US seems to be ever less reliable, and the hassle of getting in through security…auggh!