€9 rail pass: 52 million cheap train tickets sold in three months as Germans embrace deal By Charlotte Elton SOURCE: Eurones

A study by the Technical University of Munich showed that while 35 per cent of the 1,000 study participants took the bus and train more often, just three per cent used their own vehicle less often.

 

Suburban Deutsche Bahn Train at Ulm Railway StationLeonid Andronov / canva

EU watchdog calls Spain’s high-speed network “ineffective” SOURCE: Catalan News

Despite the cost, the report says that Europe’s high-speed rail network remains “ineffective” and slow. In fact, the study finds that only half of the trains actually run at their maximum speed, while in most cases they do not carry enough passengers to make them profitable. In Spain, for example, the stretch of the network between Madrid and León runs at 39% of its potential speed, while for the section between Figueres and Perpignan the number is 36%.

The Indian Railways, Built By The British, Was A Gigantic Colonial Scam & Not A Favour: Shashi Tharoor SOURCE: The Logical Indian

“The railways were a gigantic colonial scam,” says Tharoor. “The British did so at the expense of the Indians. It was the Indian taxpayers money that paid for the entire construction of the Indian railways, but the profits were all made by the British.”

High Speed Trains are Killing the European Railway Network SOURCE: Low-Tech Magazine

The EuroCity network in 1987 (left) and in 2010 (right). Western Europe now opts for high-speed trains. Maps from Wikipedia Commons.

A 2009 study by Spanish researchers analysing the economic impact of high speed rail in Europe [10] puts it this way:

"Building, maintaining and operating high speed rail may substantially compromise both the transport policy of a country and the development of its transport sector for decades... An exhaustive revision of the specific economic literature shows that the research effort devoted to the economic analysis of investing in high speed railways is almost insignificant... It deserves a closer look, well beyond the technological hype and the demand figures... Deciding to reject the construction of a high speed rail line is not necessarily a position against progress."

In less than 10 years, Spain has built the most extensive high speed rail network in Europe. Today, the country is virtually broke and can hardly afford to keep its trains running.