Average train speeds in Europe

https://i.redd.it/10on3mt8iyod1.jpeg

Posted by booOfBorg

19 Comments

  1. Found this on Hatebook, without a source. Quite illustrative how different the average speed of trains is in Europe. And that CH as a rich country lags so much behind. There’s this mindset that high speed rail in CH is “too expensive”, “the country too small”, “stops too close”, “there’s no land”. Small country, small minds if you ask me.

    Modern high speed trains accelerate quickly, btw. And we can afford tunnels.

    What do you think?

    Edit: Yep, small minds. Nothing unexpected. Pile on the knee-jerk emotional downvotes! 🙂

  2. i am not buying it… Poland with 113.6? this would be only possible if a lot of regular, slow speed connections were cancelled and thus the high speed network would bring up the stats…

    oh wait…

  3. Oh no, it’s another “why does Switzerland not have a dedicated high speed rail network??” post.. Has it already been 24 hours?

  4. If the train has to go through tunnels and mountains, duh it’s gonna be a bit slower than on the flatland. But hey…. It’s actually faster in Switzerland than in Netherlands…

  5. What is “average”?
    Fast trains in Italy go faster than that, but regional trains are way slower (and you would not care so much about their speed would you?)

    Average speed of long-distance connections?

  6. Having a high density network with many smaller trains that have many stops mixed with high speed trains will obviously give a lower average speed than if your country only invests in a few long distance trains. So how does this graphic have anything to say?

    Speed is irrelevant, what matters is throughput.

  7. A point that no one has brought up yet is distances. We are not a big country, that means that to get from one point to another within a reasonable timeframe is possible without having to rely on high speed trains. So why would you invest in infrastructure that is not that much more beneficial but much more costly.

  8. It would be amazing to have a high speed trains between cities like zurich and Basel… So many people do this painful commute everyday

  9. Classic-Increase938 on

    What do the countries with a a high speed have in common. France, Italy, Spain, Germany. Exactly, They are broke. Switzerland would rather not be part of it.

  10. SpiritedInflation835 on

    Did they analyze the relevant train connections? The ones that the average traveler uses several times a week?

    And looking at train speeds misses obvious other things, like train services in rural areas (where Switzerland is absolutely top).

  11. So this map shows which countries have a good regional train network (slow/many stops) and which have only long distance trains (fast).