Re: Eurostar electrical and signalling

Arthur Figgis schrieb:


> Does this allow for the huge increase in costs over the past few
> years? The point isn't how much is spent, as what it is spent on. It
> would be interesting to see how much a particular item costs in
> different countries. If you have EUR1m to spend, you get different
> results if you spend it on concrete to if you spend it on lawyers.

The DB has been good in cost overruns, for the Berlin city tunnel, for
Köln-Frankfurt, for Nürnberg-Ingolstadt.

But that said, I'm quite sure that the SNCF would generate more
infrastructure out of the money spent for the WCML upgrade, and the
kilometer costs of the CTRL are ... amazing, especially when looking at
the easy landscape.


> I've seen claims that the average commute in the UK is longer
> than elsewhere, but I've no idea if it is true.

AFAIK, the Danes are those with the most kilometers per year in the EU,
and I would expect, that commuting is responsible for lots of that.


> ICBW, but I thought it
> is not that unusual for people to live in city centres on the
> continent?

The 1960s planning concepts were different, but the political fights in
the 1970s, culminating in squatting and streetfights in the early 80s,
have indeed forced a policy change. It has to be said, that it wasn't
the planners, but mostly the citizens protecting their cities.

At least, that's how it happened in Germany, and if I remember right, the
Netherlands have a quite similar history.


> Also, the UK is very much London-oriented. France is
> supposed to be similar, but I think Germany is more regionalised?

That's true, but won't change the fact, that people want to arrive at
very few locations within a very short timeframe. If you add up the
locations around Marienplatz in Munich, the Frankfurt banking city, and
the area around Mönckebergstraße in Hamburg, it's not much bigger than
the City of London.

It's true that regionalisation of Germany creates different traffic
patterns in long distance traffic.

As an advantage, this makes it easier to accomodate.

As a disadvantage, German highspeed lines will never be as fast as French
highspeed lines.

If Paris-Lyon would have been built in Germany, it would go through Dijon
and be 10 minutes slower. The region would have sabotaged the planning,
until SNCF would have given up. "More power to the regions" also means,
that they usually defend their interests, and are able to do.


> Sadly, many people believe railways simply aren't value for money any
> more. Why pay for the railway to install a hugely expensive crossover
> on the WCML, if it then has to be locked out of use and never used?
> Also much of the money disappears into the interfaces between the
> various companies, not "pounds in the ground". 

The sellout of the rail infrastructure to Railtrack will finally cost the
British citizens some dozen billions, that's unavoidable. That's the fate
of citizens, to pay for major (sic!) political errors.

Question is, wether a better practice can be established. In my view,
Banestyrelsen in Denmark is doing rather well.


Hans-Joachim


-- 
Mit der DB ist schwer zu verhandeln, weil die Konzernspitze sich zwar als Gott
empfindet, aber nicht so handelt.

Martin Husmann, Aufsichtsratsvorsitzender der Agentur Nahverkehr NRW