[HN Gopher] How the Channel Tunnel changed Europe (2019)
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How the Channel Tunnel changed Europe (2019)
Author : Tomte
Score : 31 points
Date : 2022-03-30 14:14 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.cnn.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.cnn.com)
| irrational wrote:
| How has the use of the Channel Tunnel changed since Brexit? I
| presume border control has changed significantly. How much more
| time does it add to the crossing?
| agd wrote:
| As an individual traveler, not much has changed. You always had
| to do border control as the UK is not part of Schengen.
|
| However, I imagine things have changed for freight traffic
| through the tunnel.
| loopbit wrote:
| Changed Europe? Changed the UK and very little else...
|
| I mean, it's a cool bit of engineering and it took ages to build.
| But for most people in Europe means nothing.
|
| > "It put international rail travel back in the game"
|
| Yeah, for England. Again, for the rest of Europe, rail travel was
| always there.
| [deleted]
| sonicggg wrote:
| Author is British, probably still think they are the main
| protagonist of the World.
| Animats wrote:
| "Fog in Channel, continent isolated" - classic British
| headline
| xyzzyz wrote:
| > Some 4.5 million UK tourists use the Channel Tunnel every year,
| with 1.6 million trucks transporting goods.
|
| > "It put international rail travel back in the game," says Mark
| Smith, founder of rail travel website The Man in Seat 61.
|
| I don't know what game is international rail in UK playing, but
| most certainly it's a losing one. 4.5 million passengers is only
| a quarter of what London Luton airport is seen annually, which
| itself is only fifth most popular airport in UK. Quite
| apparently, very few travelers choose rail, relative to airlines.
| steffandroid wrote:
| "4.5 million UK tourists" is not the same as total passengers.
| Individual tourists can make multiple journeys, and overseas
| tourists are excluded from this figure. Over 20 million
| passengers use the tunnel annually.
| lostlogin wrote:
| It's a shame they choose air over rail. We chose air when cash
| strapped, but the train was superior in every other way. We
| arrived in the middle of the city we wanted to go to, it was
| quicker to get there and there way space and comfort. 10/10
| from me.
|
| Time in an airport is a waste of life from my perspective.
| yodsanklai wrote:
| London - Paris is fast and convenient indeed. But train
| becomes slower as soon as you need to catch a connection in
| Paris. I don't like airports either, but I'd rather spend
| time in an airport than in a train station and Paris subway
| with all my luggage.
|
| That being said, train should be the preferred option due to
| lower CO2 emissions. It's a shame prices don't reflect that.
| lostlogin wrote:
| > I'd rather spend time in an airport than in a train
| station and Paris subway with all my luggage.
|
| But once the plane lands you then need to get on a train or
| brave a taxi. Having tried the taxi, that's out.
| cameronh90 wrote:
| Trains are just really expensive, sadly.
|
| Trains are subsidised in most places, either by publicly
| funding the huge amounts of infrastructure required, or by
| subsidising the operations. Meanwhile air travel is usually
| taxed overall. Yet despite this, flying is often less than
| half the cost of a train.
|
| I'm all for taxing air travel CO2, but I suspect it would
| lead to quicker zero carbon fuel rather than more rail
| travel long term.
| lostlogin wrote:
| Air travel is often directly subsidised too. Airline
| bailouts happen, and the the use of land, pollution of
| the air and the noise they cause are not paid for in
| full.
| JimDabell wrote:
| Why is this surprising? You can get to dozens of different
| countries in a few hours by flying from Luton. Unless you're
| counting Northern Ireland to Ireland, all international rail
| journeys go through France and take much longer.
|
| You can go for a cheap holiday to Alicante in a few hours from
| Luton. How long would that take by train? It's quick and easy
| to get all around Europe by train if you live in, say, Germany.
| Simple geography rules that out for the UK.
| fabioborellini wrote:
| It takes roughly the same time to reach Spain from London and
| southwest Germany, though. Meaning that London is closer to
| Spain by rail than most of Germany. Eurostar and (the rest
| of) the French high speed network really compensate some
| simple geography.
|
| Of course the journeys to southern Spain take too long to
| appeal the mainstream, and it is easier to purchase plane
| tickets, too.
|
| To answer your question, it takes 12 hours to reach Barcelona
| from London and a few more the next day to reach Alicante...
| ginnungagap wrote:
| > Eurostar and (the rest of) the French high speed network
| really compensate some simple geography.
|
| Wouldn't German travelers also take advantage of French
| high speed trains when travelling to Spain?
| alexanderchr wrote:
| Problem is you have to go through Paris du to the way the
| French HSR is built. And time-wise London is closer to
| Paris than most German cities.
| ginnungagap wrote:
| Makes sense, the French railway metric strikes again...
| spzb wrote:
| Eurostar trains, as opposed to the drive-on-drive-off
| Eurotunnel ones, have always been prohibitively expensive
| whenever I've looked at them. Maybe it's a viable option for
| the London, Paris, Brussels executives who put it on expenses
| but for us plebs it's cheaper to fly or drive.
| johannes1234321 wrote:
| Flying by plane is incredible cheap compared to railway not
| only on that connection unfortunately.
|
| The plane business is extremely cost effective organized (not
| only thanks to cheap players like RyanAir) and benefits a lot
| from state sponsored infrastructure (airports, ATC) and
| subsidized resources (no Kerosene tax) compared to railways
| which need more infrastructure (tracks everywhere instead of
| "simply" using air) and need to refinance having trains going
| "everywhere"
|
| The railway ticket to and from the airport is almost more
| expensive than a flight across the continent ...
| desas wrote:
| I'm flying from the north of the continent to the south
| soon (Manchester to Sicily, Sicily to Gatwick). My train
| tickets to get to and from the airports in the UK are
| PS160, my air tickets are PS120
| netsharc wrote:
| > French engineer Albert Mathieu-Flavier first proposed a
| subterranean link between Britain and France in 1802, suggesting
| the creation of an artificial island in the English Channel for
| trains to change the horses that would be required to pull the
| carriages.
|
| I wonder if there are right-hand-riding horses and left-hand-
| riding horses, i.e. horses that are used to galloping on one
| particular side of the road.
| bob2222 wrote:
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