“potentially cutting rail travel time between London and Beijing to as little as two days.”
And why would you take a two-day train-trip to a destination you can reach in just hours by airplane (and probably for a lower price as well)??????
It was modern commercial and passenger airplane travel that ended the popularity of the “orient express” as much as changed geopolitical factors. I don’t think an offer of a “high speed” two-day trip will change the situation that much. “High speed” rail, at present maximum rail speeds is more hype and “nationalist pride” that economically sound, in most cases (in most cases no different and no better, in economic fundamentals, than the Concorde supersonic airliner).
1. Many restrooms
2. Better sightseeing
3. Meals served hot, and on real dishes
4. Sleep overnight in a bed with sheets and pillows instead of in a seat; wake up at destination feeling human
5. CLUB CAR
6. Freedom to get up, stretch, walk about instead of being strapped down for hours
7. Possibility of meeting people, making friends
8. Luggage stays with you the entire time
9. Impossibility of terrorists driving train into heavily populated skyscrapers
10. Passengers not manhandled like meat by TSA retards
11. Judy Garland sang about the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe; never mentioned ValuJet
It was modern commercial and passenger airplane travel that ended the popularity of the “orient express” as much as changed geopolitical factors
That was back when traveling by air was fast, efficient, comfortable and enjoyable.
Today air travel sucks, period. It takes me about 3 hours less to drive 1,000 miles then it does to fly taking into account all the BS you have to go through now just to get on the plane and get in the air. In driving it I arrive feeling alot more "human" then if I would have flown, there are excellent places to stop and eat along the way, my car is economical, reliable and comfortable, it costs me less to drive then to fly (with all that entails) and I have my own vehicle when I get there.
The next time I have to go to the UK I will not be flying, I will go by ship. I have the time and the cost is comparable to flying business class. The cost of a Deluxe Balcony Stateroom on the Queen Mary $3,300 roundtrip, the average cost of a business class fare is $3,000. I will never fly cattle car class ever again on a transatlantic flight-it just isn't worth the pain.