Posted on 05/22/2007 5:29:05 AM PDT by iowamark
Arriving soon on Platform 2 is the latest contribution by Germany and France to fast-track European integration: a high-speed train that will slice two hours off the journey from Frankfurt to Paris.
It is being hailed as a breakthrough for the European Union, which trumpets the merits of more closely knit transport links but which all too often buckles under the weight of competing national bureaucracies. By the time the whistle blows for the final test drive on Friday, the 320 km/h (199mph) express will have spent almost a decade in the sidings because of Franco-German quarrels about coffee cups, braking systems, on-board handcuffs and little red flags.
“The French SNCF, the national carrier, slowed down things a lot during the initial years,” admits Peter Lankes, of German Railways’ high-speed technology department. That is putting it mildly: there has been a veritable clash of railway civilisations since the two neighbours developed their sleek engines, the French TGV and the German ICE.
Berlin first allowed the TGV to operate on German track in 2001 – a service from Paris to Stuttgart that takes 5 hours 56 minutes. First, though, the French had to meet German standards: stronger brakes because Germany insists on shorter braking times, drinkable water in the lavatories and real porcelain rather than plastic crockery in the dining car.
It was probably the affront of the Germans telling the French how to eat that released the counter-blast. Before the ICE was allowed to enter France, it had to accept dozens of alterations, adding €8 million (£5.5 million) of additional expense to every train on the route. French trains have a special seat with metal rings to hold any criminal detained on board; the German trains did not. Each French train has, under rules drawn up in the steam age, an emergency kit that includes red flags and flares – pointless, say the Germans, when travelling at these kinds of speeds. The new German trains, in order to meet French specifications, now have three wiring systems and five different fuses. “It’s as if trucks were obliged to have diesel, super and ordinary petrol tanks before crossing the French border,” grumbled the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Before the French were wholly satisfied, the ICE had to complete 120,000km of tests and more than 30 drivers had to pass an exam in the French language. But the biggest non-technical sticking point was the refusal of French ticket inspectors to serve coffee and meals to first-class customers. This is a normal part of the service for German ICE trains but was a step too far for the proud controlleurs. German inspectors will now double as waiters for the whole journey to Paris.
It has been a long wait, and a great deal of aggravation, but the Germans clearly believe it was worth it. “We are optimistic that we will be able to double our market share on these routes to 40 per cent within five years compared to cars and air traffic,” says Mr Lankes.
The TGV travelling from Paris to Stuttgart will be able to trim travel time to 3 hours 39 minutes. The same train will be able to reach Munich in 6 hours 11 minutes, saving almost two and a half hours on the current journey. The Frankfurt to Paris line will take 4 hours 11 minutes, saving just over two hours. By the end of the year, the train should shave another 20 minutes off the trip. Among the first beneficiaries will be employees of the European Central Bank, based in Frankfurt, but headed by the Frenchman Jean-Claude Trichet.
If the final test drive goes according to plan this week, the service will begin on June 10. The timesaving comes largely because locomotives will no longer be changed at the border. The ICE, with its bilingual drivers and joint Franco-German ticket inspection team, will drive straight through to Paris.
Just be sure not to shout “Garçon!” at the inspector when ordering your meal on porcelain plates. However, “Herr Ober!” might do the trick.
Ahhh..... It all becomes clear now. It's as true now as it ever was with the French: when in doubt: cherchez l'argent...
I didn't want to know that.
ICE trains rule. They’re comfortable, clean and fast, and you just hop right on without having to go through an hour-long bureaucratic nightmare at the airport.
I’ve driven in fast cars on the Autobahn between the same cities as I took ICE, and I’ve never come close to the ICE’s time. That includes the ICE stopping a few times for passengers (they don’t stop at every little station, just the big ones).
That's because you didn't drive fast enough.
The reason France and Germany have high-speed trains while we don't is that they are Socialist countries. The TGV has never made money and never will.
Because the state owns both the railroads and the national airlines, airline ticket prices are higher than they should be - to help keep the trains competitive.
SNCF workers are among the most radical communists existing in any Western country today. Their union, the CGT, received money from the KGB right up until 1989. They believe that the trains actually belong to them (rather than the taxpayers), and have no qualms about going on random work stoppages, or using the trains to block stations, highway crossings or whatever.
They have almost single-handedly kept France from modernizing.
Be careful what you wish for...
How many years has our FAA made a profit?
You are certainly correct about the unions, but that is a separate issue.
I don’t understand your point. The FAA isn’t a business, it’s a regulatory agency.
Where the US has the right distance/population density mix, we have high-speed rail - Acela - Boston/New York/Washington.
Elsewhere in the country, it just doesn’t make sense. They’ve been talking about a high-speed link from LA to Vegas for almost 20 years now, but no one can crunch the numbers in such a way as to make monetary sense.
You can't normally consistently drive fast enough on the Autobahn to beat the average time of an ICE straight-shot, even when traffic is good. I normally did well over 100mph when traffic allowed.
Sorry, I forgot to put a :^) after my comment. With gas on it’s way to $4.00/gallon, I’m all for mass transit of any kind.
Verdammt amerikanische ... stay out of the fast lane, OK then?
Sorry I didn't catch it. Gas is over $7 a gallon in Germany, and don't forget that driving high-speed can use over twice the gas as going around 60.
100mph will generally have you passing far more people than pass you. Most people stay below 100mph. But I have had a Porsche magically appear in my rear-view mirror when I was already going 120.
I would do it just to avoid having to practically strip during the security checkpoints, sitting with my knees in my chin for hours (I'm 6'3), and the biggest benefit of all, no longer having to deal with a 50 yr old stewardess who's only ambition in life is to make your life as miserable as hers.
Count two hours just getting to your plane and another hour waiting for your luggage, plus the usual flight delays and being stacked for landing, and a 200mph train would have a rather large distance that it could effectively cover faster than a plane if stops are infrequent and/or quick.
Let's say our 200mph train gets to average 100mph including stops. That's a 300-mile head start on the plane counting only the three hours above. Then the 600mph plane would cover that in 30 minutes, by which time the train would be another 50 miles out. The plane catches up again in a few minutes. So our train has at least a 350-mile radius for being faster than a plane. That's about Los Angeles to San Francisco.
Add to that the fact that it's easy to put a train station in the middle of the city (the usual destination) rather than way out where the airports usually are.
Cross-country wouldn't be bad either. Sure, it's three thousand miles, but you could go 200mph most of the time, especially in the Southwest. I'd give around 20 hours coast-to-coast.
During those hours, the ICE is comfy even in second class, and the dining cars are superb, with real, edible food, seating and real dishes (as mentioned) and metal utensils. You can get a cabin or row seats. You can walk around all you like without being too crowded. And it's fun to pass the time watching the scenery go by really fast. There are even displays at the front of the car to show you the current speed and computer kiosks where you can get a bunch of information.
That's how I'd travel if they had it here. More time in some cases, but a lot less stress.
Same general concept as here. But while the speed is less restricted, getting a license is harder (mandatory professional training) and the rules are much stricter. You can do 100 on an unrestricted Autobahn, but don't pass on the right a guy who's just sitting in the left lane. You can get a ticket for passing on the right, while he can get a ticket for not being in the right lane (thus eliminating the need for you to pass on the right).
And don't give the guy who cut you off the finger. He can get a ticket for doing it, but you can also get a ticket for that gesture.
Oh, and those idiots here who drive around all day with their fog lights on and neons blazing to look cool? Ticket for both, and you will be ordered to remove the neons.
I like that kind of ticketing!
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