(no subject)
A few years ago, my government decided that in order to improve train connections between major Dutch cities and Belgium, a high speed train line had to be built. This would reduce the travel time to Belgium by at least an hour.
Now, there are several things wrong with this idea.
Now, there are several things wrong with this idea.
- There isn't much demand for the connection. The main service to Antwerp and Brussels runs only once an hour with an additional six Thalys trains a day to Paris.
- When the line is in place, the existing regular service will be scrapped and replaced by only high-speed services, which will be about 60% more expensive.
- Domestic train services will be reduced, partly to make way for the new high speed trains on shared tracks, and partly to force people into the high speed services.
- An 8 km stretch of tunnel has been bored underneath the "Green Heart of Holland" area, in order to "preserve" the area. I live in the Green Heart area and it doesn't need preservation of any kind, it's just farmland. It's green alright, but only because such things as grass and tree foliage are green. This tunnel will cost about €1bn.
- Because of various infrastructural and rolling stock issues, the service will be significantly slower than planned. In fact, it'll be similar to existing non-High-Speed services in England and the American east coast, lines which are a lot longer and didn't cost several billion euros.