Rail vs. Air
Funny, when the service is equivalent, and people are given the chance to take a high-speed train instead of a plane, they will:
[T]he country where high speed trains are growing the fastest is seeing the effects as well: The Madrid-Barcelona high speed link in Spain (AVE), which started operating in March, has reduced by about 18.4 percent the air traffic between the two cities.
That's almost 1 in 5 flights, eliminated! Think of the relief that brings to overstretched airports. And, of course, it makes perfect sense. When you can go 400 miles in 2 hours -- downtown to downtown, with no security checkpoints -- why would you ever fly?
- Frank's blog
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I heard that it is worse on the Paris-Brussels Corridor, the TGV-like Thalys trains literally wiped it out.
Now a few mornings ago on WNYC/Public Radio International's The Takeaway, a former American Airlines CEO says that there is almost no reason for the New York-Washington Air Service. Although one would ask if they did so, why didn't he do that when he was CEO? The answer was that the ACELA EXPRESS had some problems. On that stretch, it cannot go it's top speed.
Now if we managed to get even 110MPH on the Seattle-Portland Corridor, and on frequencies of every hour, Horizon Air might be looking for what markets they can add service to that there are no fast trains going into.
Just wait for California to get started. Even if we don't get 110mph soon, when our people see what's happening there, they'll start paying attention.
If and when Amtrak Cascades increases to 110mph running - the need for regional flights will pretty much be eliminated between Seattle and Portland. 2 hours and 30 minutes from Downtown Seattle to Downtown Portland and it's vast array of light-rail and streetcar connections would kill the need for any taxi from the Airport, etc.
My last plight on Horizon was 3 hours and 15 minutes..the main reason it took so long on Horizon was the delay at the terminal, then delay getting into PDX and the god awful taxi ride to Downtown...currently it's 3 hours and 20 minutes on Amtrak.
Never again - though I will miss the flight attendants... =D
Brian Bundridge
Seattle Transit Blog
While I never visited Strasbourg before the TGV Est opened between there and Paris last summer, I'm told that the Entzheim airport that serves Strasbourg has seen a significant reduction in passenger load between the two points since last summer. Flying is not cost or time competitive with taking the train - in fact, because there are several services a day directly between Strasbourg and Charles de Gaulle, it's often faster to take a train directly to the Paris airport than to fly there!