[muawiyah]

Look, the core areas of Western Europe, e.g. Germany, are quite small. In fact, Germany is roughly the size of Indiana + Ohio.

Texas is about the size of France but with more arable land.

UK comes in toward Illinois.

Imagine stuffing 70 million people into Indiana and Ohio ~ trains happen.

I think it's an error to even think about inter city travel in Europe by air ~ makes me laugh imagining flying from Rhine-Mein to Nurnburg ~ no need to pull the wheels up eh.

[LIBERTARIAN JOE]

I know there are arguments for passenger rail, and I know a lot of people are passionate about trains - I've always wanted to take a train trip. In South Africa, taking the Blue Train between Cape Town & Johannesburg must be awesome, but because of the difference in price, I always flew when down there (IIRC, $90 air vs $600 rail).

I'm just arguing the economic aspects of passenger rail - it can almost never compete economically with other forms of travel. When you fly, 99%-plus of the trip is made on free infrastructure (air) - every inch a train travels must be on expensive infrastructure, often situated on expensive real estate.

As far as train vs cars go, the people have voted. Even in the heart of western europe and in Japan, with super efficient, clean & safe trains, the vast majority of people choose autos and airlines over trains. And while roads may be a little more expensive to construct than high-speed rail track, I would guess that maintenance and security costs significantly close, if not eliminate, that difference.

The Rhine-Mein to Nurnburg trip? Sounds like Savannah to Atlanta. Done that one about 100 times.

[Erasmus]

The only time I did it was Wien-->München. Of course, that was on the company's Groschen.

[10Ring]

Germany is roughly the size of Indiana + Ohio...UK comes in toward Illinois

LOL! Not on this planet. UK = Oregon. Germany = Montana.