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European Citizens Initiative: Connecting all European capitals and people through a high-speed train network (eci.ec.europa.eu)

submitted 2 years ago by fritz@feddit.de to c/europe@feddit.de

11 comments fedilink hide all child comments

If you are from the EU: Sign it it’s free. If it gets enough signatures the organizers get to meet with European Commission representatives and a public hearing in parliament. Credit to Adam Something on YouTube for posting about this.

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[–] druppel@feddit.nl 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I don't agree with it. There are many capital cities that are in terrible locations for highspeed rail and are would be a diservice to the rest of the country.

Cities like Amsterdam, Berlin, and Viena are just the worst places to reach for most of their respective countries. Say you live in Munich and you want to travel to Amsterdam, you are still stuck on the slow train if you focus on a Berlin-Amsterdam route.

If high speed rail is supposed to be successful it should be about covering geographical distance fast. Or the car and planes are still going to be the prefered option.

[–] fritz@feddit.de 0 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Yeah that’s a fair point but most people in these countries still live in the capitols. Connecting Amsterdam and Berlin for example with HSR would allow millions to travel quickly. I get it we should focus first on getting the countries connected, but it can’t hurt to sign this.

[–] geissi@feddit.de 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

most people in these countries still live in the capitols

Well for Berlin, the City proper has a population of 3.6 million (~ 4.2% of Germans) and the larger metropolitan area has about 6.1 m (~ 7.2%).

Contrast that to the Ruhr area that has a metropolitan area with 10.6m population (~ 12%).
Also outside those areas, western Germany is more densely populated that the east around Berlin.

[–] agrammatic@feddit.de 0 points 2 years ago

While I don't necessarily agree with this ECI, keep in mind that Germany's decentralisation is the exception in Europe, rather than the norm. In most other countries the population is concentrated in a few cities only.

Of course, why would you want to incentivize and reward that centralisation by making the capitals even more appealing by focusing HSR expansion there? That's another question.

[–] druppel@feddit.nl 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

No they don't, most people live outside of the capitals.

Amsterdam-Berlin is vanity project that is a diservice to both the Netherlands and Germany. The only benefactors are Amsterdam and Berlin

[–] fritz@feddit.de 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I wrote it badly, sorry about that of course I know that most people in germany don‘t live in berlin. I was just trying to say that it definitely is still worth it to connect these cities at some point, but currently there absolutely are more important projects.

[–] druppel@feddit.nl 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

At somepoint probably yeah. Unfortunately, it does seem that Amsterdam-Berlin seems to be pushed for a lot, and I fear for that poor decision fucking up the rest of the raillines.

An Amsterdam-hamburg-berlin line makes more sense imo, especially when you push it more towards the north as it doesn't cut the countries in half. It also gives you possibility to expand both north towards scandanavia, which you can extend further south to the rest of europe, or eastern europe through berlin.

But I doubt that will happen, because that is a bit slower than through hanover

[–] agrammatic@feddit.de 0 points 2 years ago

What would you think of a Berlin-Hamburg-Groningen-Amsterdam high-speed connection (if Germany is arsed to fix that bridge outside Leer)?

[–] agrammatic@feddit.de 0 points 2 years ago

I want to see them try to connect Nicosia with the nearest EU capital by rail. That'll be an engineering feat.

[–] Barbarian@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Thanks for posting this! I'm a firm believer that the best way to reduce emissions from planes (not the biggest polluter, but definitely up there) is providing viable alternatives. Trains are the clear alternative.

Just signed the initiative.

[–] fritz@feddit.de 0 points 2 years ago

Honestly train travel is just such a nice experience compared to flying. No security, no coming early, almost no limit on luggage, bigger seats, food on board, less noise, I could go on. If I have to take a 2 hour flight I would rather take a five hour train ride.