[lbo-talk] French set new rail speed record

[tfast]

It is interesting there is long standing debate on which is ultimately
faster the plane or train from downtown Toronto to downtown Montreal.  The
train takes four hours the plane takes an hour.  But neither in Toronto nor
in Montreal is the airport downtown but both train stations are.  The math
looks like this.

Train

 4 hours + 20 minutes for boarding.
4hours 20 min.

Plane

30 minutes to get to the airport from downtown and vice a versa = 1 hour.
1 hour pre boarding + 30 minutes to exit = 1 hour 30min
1 hour in flight

3h 30min

So the train takes about 50 minutes longer.  Many take the train because
they can get more work done on the train (4hours) whereas taking the plane
leaves only about 40 minutes of undisturbed working time.

A high speed train would extend the effective competitive distance to about
600 kilometres (assuming non stop travel)

____________________________________
Travis W Fast

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jordan Hayes" <jmhayes at j-o-r-d-a-n.com>
To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2007 2:26 PM
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] French set new rail speed record


> Gar writes:
>
> > But when you add in time waiting for gates, waiting for landing
> > strips and so on, total journey time will be comparable to air travel
> > even for 2,000 or 3,000 mile trips.
>
> C'mon, this is outrageous.  The crossover between (current and planned)
> fast trains and flying is more like *300* miles.
>
> Example math provided here, including a lengthy thread on Joanna wanting
> to take a train to NYC:
>
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2005/2005-September/019240.html
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2005/2005-September/019859.html
>
> /jordan
>
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