Comment by jajko
15 days ago
Hate to burst anyone's bubble but trains in its current form aren't solution to mass transit. They help, sure, under certain circumstances, but are very costly to run and in peak you need huge amount of them. 1 disruption and everything stops, you can't just take an exit and go through villages.
Case point Switzerland, the train country of this world. Efficiency, cleanness, reach, small country. Yet its prohibitively expensive here and highways are chock full of commuters just like anywhere else. For weekend trip ie to mountains they (+ post buses where trains don't go) are very restrictive which is understandable, but car becomes a must anyway.
> expensive
Not so much. As a tourist yes, no question.
If you’re a resident, there is a card that costs 160/year (180 the first year) and give you half price on all trains. Also works with any local public transit system (municipal buses, etc) across the country.
Train is quite affordable like that. For example St Gallen to Zurich is 90 minutes by train and costs 16.- with 1/2 fare card. You can even get a super saver (valid on this train only) for 21.20 or 11.20 1/2 fare. That’s for this Monday.
Swiss salaries are some of the highest in the world. The overwhelming majority of trains run on time, don’t strike, and are clean.
It’s cheaper than driving (gas and maintenance) + parking by a long margin.
You can go ski by train there. Haven’t owned a car in 5 years living there.
Sure if you build and restrict your life around no car, then its doable. Very restricted.
Also that part about cost being cheaper ain't true - I have that half tariff. For going somewhere, anywhere, its the same cost (+ saving tons of time). Taking family of 4... you do the math.
There is reason why there are so many cars everywhere. Families with kids usually have 2. Basically everybody has at least 1. If what you said is true people wouldn't be buying and using them constantly.
> Taking family of 4... you do the math.
That's a fair point, I didn't think of including it.
Cars are even more expensive to run. However nobody counts that cost while they see the cost of a ticket.
> Yet its prohibitively expensive here
If it was 'prohibitively expensive' then why do so many people use and why is usage increasing?
Unless you buy individual tickets all the time its really not that expensive.
And depending on how you organize and finance it you can make it really cheap, see Belgium.
Its a hell of a lot cheaper then driving.
For a whole society, to primarly use trains, instead of primarily using cars is WAY, WAY CHEAPER!
> Case point Switzerland, the train country of this world.
This might be the case but Switzerland still spends decades and decades under investing in trains. The Bahn 2000 project was a huge success, but it was a success driven by minimal investment.
If a country like Switzerland had contentiously invested in high quality rail since WW2, we would be in a completely, competently different situation.
> For weekend trip ie to mountains they (+ post buses where trains don't go) are very restrictive which is understandable, but car becomes a must anyway.
And yet I have lived my whole live without a car and only rarely drive in the car with somebody else.
Yes, only trains as the only thing isn't a solution. That clear to anybody, but you can decently do a hell of a lot. And you can do much, much more then Switzerland is currently doing.
For example, we are 'the train country' but we don't even have a high speed rail line.
That somebody can say 'the train country' with a serious face about Switzerland only shows how utterly under-invested rail was since the 1930 in most countries.