Passenger Trains > Emission Wednesday

France has banned all flights where the train is 2.5 hours or less.  Interesting concept and if it was put into place here is the US what air routes would be eliminated?  Don't cheat make sure there really is an air route between the two Amtrak points.  We know how impractical this would be to do in the US.because some of these routes are just a couple trains per day and most US citizens don't know Amtrak would really be an alternate.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65687665

Here are a few:  PHL to WAS / PHL to BAL / PHL to HAR / PHL to NWK / PHL to NYP / NYP to ALB / CHI to MKE / CHI to CHM /  OAK to SAC

What am I missing?  Hope everyone has an emission Wednesday!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/23 09:37 by amtrakbill.

The French have been attempting this for about ten years. It makes good political theater, but I would guess a majority of its citizens already do use the trains where practical, and the origin or destination is Paris.

The local flights are more akin to hub and spoke service here. By eliminating regional service between CDG and the smaller cities, this move will drive the connecting passengers, especially those originating on Transatlantic and Asian flights, to move their gateways to London, Amsterdam, Munich, Frankfurt or Zurich.

It's not particularly easy to use Paris as a transfer location for the French rail system because, like London, there are a number of stations and terminals that require some maneuvering to move east-west, north-south. etc.

Been there, done that, many times...

There's anther whole issue about Air France using Marseille as its African gateway as well... 
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/23 05:06 by RichM.

amtrakbill Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> France has banned all flights where the train is
> 2.5 hours or less.  Interesting concept and if it
> was put into place here is the US what air routes
> would be eliminated?  Don't cheat make sure there
> really is an air route between the two Amtrak
> points.  We know how impractical this would be to
> do in the US.because some of these routes are just
> a couple trains per day and most US citizens don't
> know Amtrak would really be an alternate.
>
> https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65687665
>
> Here are a few:  PHL to WAS / PHL to BAL / PHL to
> HAR / PHL to NWK / PHL to NYP / NYP to ALB / CHI
> to MKE / CHI to CHM /  OAK to SAC
>
> What am I missing?  Hope everyone has an emission
> Wednesday!


What are you missing? Just a few facts.  The flights are banned only if High Speed Rail can make the trip in 2.5 hours or less. This has only affected just three routes. Since even in France HSR does not run everywhere.