I bet it was still late.
this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2025
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But now it's late, faster.
It's late, but earlier late!
Der sitzt!
Außer die Sitzplatz Reservierung funktioniert nicht
The problem for higher speeds aren't the trains but the rails. There are just a few tracks were the ICEs can even hit 300 km/h
So even if these speeds were practical during normal operation, we'd need significant investments into the track infrastructure first and right now we don't even get enough investments into the track infrastructure to fix the coverage and punctuality.
Meanwhile, Spain is constantly expanding the high speed network, second in the world after china, with excellent punctuality, and not fixating on speed records.
Please don't compare our Rail to that of other countries, seeing it alone is already humiliating enough
The Spanish system has different issues though.
E.g., I found it very irritiating that Renfe Cercanias commuter rail doesn't have a real-time time table. Hence, any trip-planning apps will completely ignore commuter rail.
This kind of head-ache doesn't exist in Germany, as DB and the various regional operators have integrated trip planning and you can plan a trip right from the bus stop across from your home to the metro station next to the hotel in another city, often even if that city is in France or Switzerland.
Yeah, no. I use real time apps daily. That you are unable to find them only speaks to your inability to find them.
Here is an example.
Anyway. Germany may have real time apps, but you can't plan anything as the timetables don't match real time.
I'd rather have less "real time" apps if the trains adhere to schedule.
It's great that there is an app, but I am obviously not going to install a Madrid-only app as a tourist who may only need a single train. I just noticed that Google Maps does allow planning integrated trips too which I missed because I avoid Google services usually, so they're not as present on my mind. (But at least Google Maps is available as website too.)
Renfe itself somehow does not offer a way to plan a trip or book a ticket that integrates high-speed rail and commuter rail. Nor do they appear to be able to sell TGV tickets, as all I see on their booking site are AVE and Avant trains.
In comparison, in Germany, I can book trains from any German operator through the bahn.de website and book tickets into neighboring countries, even including TGV trains to Brussels or Paris.
Granted, Germany is nowhere near perfect, and Trainline as a third party still does a lot more, especially when you're traveling through more than 2 countries, but even they can't offer Cercanias. And really, why is there no way to just book any train/tram/bus in any EU country, from any EU country?
I have not made any comment about Germany. My comment is about DB. Tell me about DB. We are not talking about apps.
I am a little puzzled what you mean by your comment.
Your first comment enthused about the Spanish rail system. Then my first comment in thread said that the Spanish rail system has issues too, just different ones than there are in Germany, i.e. planning and booking. You responded saying that my issue wasn't real. I said your critique missed the point, and compared with the planning/booking situation for German rail. What now..?
Irrelevant considering pricing, frequency and connectivity of minor cities. Going fast is ok. Going often and cheaply while doing an average of 100kmh would be amazing.
I don't think that these goals are mutually exclusive.
Unfortunately for politicians they will be
Politicians love the shit that is completely useless but flashy, like a train doing 400kph
Nobody gives a shit about that, we want free trains to everywhere, even if its sorta slow, but that's very boring politically
That's the problem with politics:
People need boring politicians doing boring improvements to society but everyone keeps voting for these vapid but flashy idiots that constantly ruin everything.
I want boring politics
The problem is people want fun politics when they vote.
"Fun" ofc.
In many ways they literally are exclusive. The amount of stops drastically reduces possible frequency as well as speed of service, it takes a long time and really long distance to accelerate and brake at these ~300 kph speeds.
Local rail can service high density areas as well as smaller towns, so you want tracks closer to people. High speed rail usually only connects major stations, so most of the length of tracks could go through the middle of a field.
Two different use cases for rail transport which would ideally each get their own infrastructure, and of course there's plenty of options in between, too.
I once went from Tokyo to Osaka, with very few stops in between ~~and the train topped out at 500kph~~ [apparently it did not :( ]. The only minor annoyance being that my camera wasn't fast enough to capture Mt Fuji at that speed.
It would be awesome to have that same experience between, say, London-Paris-Berlin-Warsaw, and you could consider additional stops in Luxembourg, Frankfurt, and Poznan.
Tokyo to Osaka services don't go upto 500 kph. IIRC, the maximum operating speed for that section is 320 kph. Whilst in testing, Maglev trains have breached 500 ( and even 600 kph) barrier, commercially they don't run as of now. (I don't think apart from Shanghai, Maglev runs anywhere and even that topped off at 431 kph).
Traditional bullet trains in Japan exhibited record speeds of ~450 kph in the past but of course, operationally, they aren't run that high.
I recently learned that there is only 66 kilometers of maglev tracks in use. Everyone is up in arms about maglev maglev, when we have classic bullet trains going well fast enough IMO.
I guess there is a reason why the french don't run their trains over some 360km/h even if they can. The cost is probably not worth shaving off 10 minutes of your 2h journey.
What you say is corroborated everywhere on the internet. But I have real trouble trying to square this information with my recollection. Hrmph. :/ Thanks for the correction though.
Funding is finite and so is labor and materials.
Richard Speed
Ah, yes, that byline sounds like a real person.
It's a pen name. His real name is Dick Velocity.
He's pretty prolific according to a quick search. Do you have a reason beyond his name to doubt his existence?
I guess the joke didn't land for various reasons. :)
But, and I am being completely serious, this being the Register, they definitely had a reason to give this assignment to this particular writer.
He was probably the fastest