Sunday, December 11, 2022

Around High Speed Rail

 As you head out of Stuttgart....going SE....it's about a 15 km drive to reach Wendingen.  It's a town of 16,000 residents.  If you stayed on A8 (the autobahn)...it's about 70 km to reach the next big town of Ulm.  Driving?  It's a 45 minute drive.  Via the old train route?  It was about two hours.

The Bahn guys got into a project for a high-speed rail deal...from Ulm to Wendingen.  Cost?  Four billion Euro.  

What it gave people in Ulm?  You can board the train and reach Wendingen at a speed of 250 kph.  

A radical change?  Roughly once an hour....a ICE high-speed train can make the run on this track....from Stuttgart to Ulm in about 61 minutes.  

Selling the public on speed?  There is a fair amount of discussion going on.....that you can cut various routes....meaning mid-sized towns are just thirty to fifty minutes away from major urban centers.  You can live beyond the shadow of Munich or Stuttgart, and be happy. 

Amount of cost?  Yeah, this comes up a great deal....it benefits certain cities.  The rest are screwed.  

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