2 cents on aviation and railroad

I’m a big fan of the train, because I’m convinced that it’s more ecological and economical than conventional motorized transport. It’s also the only one that isn’t getting the development it deserves. I’ve witnessed the situation in France, and a little in Germany, hence my comments.

Rail is in unfair competition with aviation. Aviation has too many advantages for the same journey.

Kerosene is tax-free, while train fares are taxed according to electricity consumption (what about the car?).

According to Le droit de péage, cette taxe qui fait exploser le prix du train en France, train tolls represent around 35% to 40% of the ticket price. Other countries subsidize this infrastructure, but France does not. The road system and airports are, however.

I’m sure I don’t have enough information to have an informed opinion, but I find the competition quite unfair. In contrast these thoughts are messy at the moment. The main issue is becoming ecology, which is essential in the long term. But the train takes precedence over other means of long-distance transport. So I ask myself: why aren’t there major investments in railways?

I’d really like to dig into this subject, because at the moment I’m finding aberrations. This state of affairs cannot be achieved in a matter of months. How can this situation be resolved? How can we have a pratical and accessible transport for all?

A starting point is the data published about it: https://ressources.data.sncf.com. Yay open data! They are categorized by

• passenger services
• rail network description
• stations
• reports
• metering and flows
• safety

This seems like a good place to start: for example, is there always so much investment per passenger over time? If so, this means that the more passengers there are, the more the network will grow. If not, investment is declining despite more users of this public service. There are already shared use cases: https://ressources.data.sncf.com/pages/cas-usages/

To be followed.