marcvanderlee.bsky.social
Train nerd & fan of theme parks 🚄🎢
🎓 Planologie / Urban planning
Treinrondreis.nl
🇳🇱🇺🇦🇪🇺
95 posts
34 followers
42 following
Active Commenter
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Nice to read! Yeah, the biking infrastructure is good here. That is without doubt. But that is also the main reason why people bike. Due to the safe and extensive infrastructure. Not so much due to the country size as a whole.
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Our country may be small, but no one travels half the country by bike as a daily commute here either. What makes the difference is how the places where people do live are setup. It helps that Dutch cities are denser than Australian ones. But safe and useful infrastructure is just as important.
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I mean, it's already possible. But with 9/10 hours of travel time, I doubt any operator dares offering this route right now
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The gain is much bigger than 20 minutes, more like 1 hour and 20 minutes. That said, I agree that regional connections are very important as well. So an overhaul of the old line next to the new line I fully support.
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Likely when the high speed line between Lyon and Turin is finished. Travel times of 7 hours will be feasible, almost an hour less when Montpellier - Perpignan opens in parts (2034 and 2042)
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A child could have drawn this better. Assuming they ignore current lines: Who builds Bordeaux - Lyon but not Bordeaux - Paris? And, if they do take into account current lines: Why build a second Euro Tunnel if the current one has loads of capacity left still? Just some examples.
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Yes, SNCF Réseau confirmed the reopening, so both Trenitalia and SNCF started sales.
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I get what you mean. I think it's interesting to check for youself why use a car in these trips? Is public transport just not efficient on that route? Does it not run at the times you need to travel? Is there maybe a fast route by car? And could public transport be improved to become competitive?
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That potential is partly used already (car ownership and usage rates are already lower in cities) but there is still a lot to win.
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Cars are a huge burden for people without them realizing and bring several other problems with them. Many people would gladly take a train, tram or bus if it was realtively fast and frequent. Of course, you cannot have that everywhere, but in cities there is potential.
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The post doesn't neccessarily criticize people buying or owning a car. It criticizes the system that makes a car needed in the first place. You say that public transport and car share aren't useful enough. That is indeed true for many people. But in places where they are, car ownership decreases.
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Haha, dat is inderdaad een dingetje 😂
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Er is iedere dag wel een optie per trein. Maar de rit is ook erg lang. Zelf zou ik wel altijd de trein pakken, maar ik snap wel dat je op dit traject vliegt. Of je maakt er een iets langer reisje van en pakt heen Salzburg en terug Neurenberg mee, nog leuker natuurlijk :p
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Er is inderdaad beperkte catering, wat snacks en wat dranken. Er komen nieuwe treinen, mét restauratie, maar de toelating op het Nederlandse spor is vertraagd, dus tot die tijd inderdaad geen echte BordBistro. :(
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Naar Berlijn is de trein vaak helemaal niet duurder, zeker niet als je meer dan een kleine tas aan bagage meeneemt, niet om de hoek van een luchthaven woont of met kinderen reist.
De voorbeelden zijn er zeker, maar juist het herhalen ervan zorgt ervoor dat mensen de trein minder snel overwegen
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I completely agree, don't get me wrong. But realistically, I do not expect people to start behaving different, or if they do it likely gets worse. Call me negative on this, haha. I just do not see big legislation changing this soon. It will go step by step I think
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So while quick change is possible in theory, I do not see how this would happen. Long term, sure, I believe flying will become much greener. But I think it will easily take 20/30 years before we start to see some serious effects that are more than 8% fuel savings with a new model.
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And a mean a lot more expensive. Whily I do see that happening at some point. I believe it will take years and years before it is the case. And if you want to go all in on SAF, you need to be able to produce it first. Which will take years as well.
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Think about it. Even if you start producing electric planes for more than a few people right now (which we don't yet), it would likely take 10/15 years before mass production can start. And that is assuming that airliners would want to make the switch. That only happens when kerosine becomes 💰💰💰
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That's something I actually support, but the few % emission wins by adding some SAF will not make the difference. The only way to make flying truly green is by switching to electric planes or hydrogen. Both have potential, but also major challenges. It will take decades before we see that happening.
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I'm not saying it cannot be achieved. But I do not see big changes coming anytime soon. The EU is working on their ETS trade system, reducing ETS rights every year. It also sets some rules about SAF. But the reality is that these measures mostly make flying less attractive compared to other modes
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If you want to travel a longer distance by train and/or ferry but aren't sure how to book or plan it? Let me know! And also let me know if you have any thoughts on my trip! 😁
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Overall, I really enjoyed my trip from Lidköping to Amsterdam. Yes, the delay wasn't ideal. But overall, it was still a very enjoyable experience for a good price and much less polluting than a flight. I highly recommend it!
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While the ferry itself clearly emits some CO2, this is still much lower than from all the vehicles combined, were they to drive. And the extra foot passenger? Sure, they emit some due to consumption on board. But the impact is low. Thus, emissions for a foot passenger are also low.
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The same goes on a ferry. Without it, the cars and trucks would have had to drive the distance, usually having to make a big detour (clearly the case for Göteborg - Kiel), resulting in a lot of emissions. The ferry takes these emissions from the road.
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And so, focussing on the emssions per passenger is a bit unfair. The emissions per passenger on a mega container ship, that transports millions of kg of goods but only has a few crew members, are also extremely high. But does it make the container ship very polluting? Not neccessarily.
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What about a ferry? Funnily enough, the emissions per passenger aren't much lower on a ferry, sometimes even higher. But why does it score to well on a graph that wlI just showed? That is because a ferry often has a big focus on transporting vehicles and their load.
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But what makes a ferry so green? And why is a cruise ship so polluting, then? There are several reasons, but the most important one is because of what they carry.
A cruise ship carries mainly people it carries a lot of them, but also emits a lot. The emissions per passenger are still high.
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The ferry sails on recycled methanol, which cuts emissions by up to 25% in terms of CO2 and by up to 99% SOx and 60%NOx (thanks Wikipedia!). I don't expect the airline industry to take such a big step anytime soon, meaning the emisssion gap is likely to increase in the coming years.
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Trains and ferry's, on the other hand, are much more likely to cut their emissions even further. Trains are often electric and as the production of electricity becomes greener every year, so does the train. Ferry's have some things to solve, but the ferry I took, the Stena Germanica, took a big step
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It shows how not flying can save a lot of emissions. Important to know is that flights have a very big challenges ahead in terms of cutting emissions, and it is not likely that they will be able to achieve a lot in the coming decades. Batteries are too heavy, and hydrogen isn't dense enough.
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According to them, a comparable train journey would have emitted about 50 kg of CO2. More than 4x lower. That rougly corresponds with this graph. Interestingly, a ferry scores even lower. Combined with the shorter distance the ferry takes, my trip from Göteborg likely emitted less than 35kg of CO2.
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And what about sustainability? For the flight, EcoPassenger calcukates that a direct flight emits about 145kg CO2 per passenger. But since emissions on high altitude have a bigger influence on the climate, they say 210-215kg CO2 is more realistic for a good comparison.
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Good to know that I could have gotten a cheaper inside cabin in the Stena and a 2nd class ticket for the train, which would have easily saved me 40 Euros. In my situation, flying is often a little more expensive on this route. That might not be the case for everyone, but at least it's quite equal.
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That is without my bus ticket from the station in Göteborg to the airport, and my train ticket from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam to my nearest station in Amsterdam. 270 then easily becomes 285/290. And yes, a return flight (with KLM) is often cheaper per flight, but not that much.
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The starting price for a direct flight is lower on this route, about 150 Euros. But that does not gi e me any flexibility and only hand luggage. I had two big pieces of big luggage, so would I have chosen to fly, my ticket would have easily costed me 270 Euros.
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What about price?
I paid 170 Euros for my Stena Line ticket + cabin and 80 Euros for my train ticket from Kiel to Amsterdam in 1st class. I don't count the ticket from Liddköping to Göteborg, since I would have to buy that anyway, also when flying
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Trains run quite frequent, so even with several problems on the way, my final delay was 'only' 1,5 hours. Not great, but on such a long journey, I don't mind it too much, especially since I got some money back from the delay.
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While Germany is known for its delays, the flexibility you get when missing a connection means it is usually not too bad (except for very busy days when many trains are fully booked). I made a new free reservation, but had I not done this then I would have had no problem finding a new seat.
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So, what can we conclude after this trip?
- This route takes much longer than flying. But in return you get a more comfortable and pleasant journey. The missed connections didn't help, but due to the flexibility of train travel I never had to rush anywhere or wait in line for a new ticket.
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Eventually, the delay built up a bit more and arrival time in Amsterdam was just before 19h, a little less than 1,5 hours later than originally planned. Good new was that this allowed me to get a compensation of 25% of the ticket price, which earned me back my curry and beers on the ICE.
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While my original last transfer was in Duisburg. The missed cinnection in Hamburg meant that it was now faster to head out in Osnabrück and catch the IC from Berlin on its way to Amsterdam.
But due to a technical faillure, that train was eventually cancelled and replaced by another train.
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After the snow blanket diceded to glide down a bit more, I enjoyed the views on the German countryside. The vegetarian curry and beer that I ordered added to the experience. Sadly, tap beer will disappear from the ICE's soon. I decided to have another one, to make a point. :)
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Luckily, the other side had better views. Always make sure to check the right side of the train when approaching Hamburg Hauptbahnhof from the North!
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My train was an ICE 4 towards Basel SBB. I really like this train. It offers a lot of capacity and while some say the seats aren't great, I personally like them.
I did find out the true reason why German high speed trains are called ICE, however..
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I decided to leave the S-Bahn at Hamburg-Altona. That is the station where most ICE trains from Hamburg originate. Altona might not be as impressive, but it is a much nicer station in my opinion. There are plenty of shops, and trains usually open doors at least 20 minutes before departure.
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I had to continue my journey by S-Bahn.
My original transfer in Hamburg Hauptbahnhof would be missed, that was certain. While Hamburg Hauptbahnhof is an impressive station, and in fact the bsuiest in Germany, I am not a big fan. It can be very crowded.
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The regional train to Hamburg offered nice views on the snowy landscaped of Schleswig-Holstein. The same snow also caused problems on the tracks, however. After building up a delay due to signalling problems, our train was eventually stopped at Pinneberg, just outside Hamburg.
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The walk to the station in Kiel is about 10 minutes. Since I had 40 minutes, I decided to waive the Stena Germanica goodby and spot the incoming Color Line from Oslo. I then went to the station, where my train arrived soon after.