It's going to take more than fancy new planes to put the "excitement back into air travel" for me. It's not the flights that are the problem, it's the nightmare that awaits at the airports.
- One of several good arguments for high speed trains.
I often enjoy flying, but I wish to see more of trains like the Maglev, the TGV and Thalys.
The infrastructure of Western Europe is, from an international perspective, on a very high level, but there is A LOT to do. I guess the situation is more or less the same in the US. I’ve heard a lot of complaints from US Americans, even though the US, obviously, has one of the best infrastructures of all nations.
In terms of infrastructure, the European Union is very disunited. Two examples of this is that the Alps still is very effective in isolating Italy from the rest of Europe (the solution would be more freeways and improved rail traffic) and another one the lack of decent connections between the Scandinavin peninsula and the European continent.
I live in Gothenburg, second largest city in Sweden. If I wish to go to Stockholm a high speed train (called the X200)can take me there in 3 hours and 15 minutes, but going to Hamburg in Germany, which is more or less at the same distance from Gothenburg as Stockholm is, it would take me around 12 hours if I go by train. Something is basically wrong.