Queen Opens High Speed Rail Link - 14 years after the French....

Queen Opens High Speed Rail Link

snip

The French had their high-speed Channel Tunnel link ready in 1993 - a
year before the tunnel was officially opened - while the Belgians
completed their link in the late 1990s.

The UK, however, spent years dithering over the cost and route of its
link. It meant Eurostar trains could only reach their ultimate 186mph
speed in France and Belgium, while comparatively crawling through
south London and Kent.

snip

On Tue, 06 Nov 2007 13:12:26 -0800, Furze Platt
wrote:

Queen Opens High Speed Rail Link

snip

The French had their high-speed Channel Tunnel link ready in 1993 - a
year before the tunnel was officially opened - while the Belgians
completed their link in the late 1990s.

The UK, however, spent years dithering over the cost and route of its
link. It meant Eurostar trains could only reach their ultimate 186mph
speed in France and Belgium, while comparatively crawling through
south London and Kent.

Is the French Eurostar track from Paris to Lille different from
the TGV track? If not, France had it easy since Eurostar only
require trackage from Lille to Calais, which didn't involve
routing through the sort of major metropolitan area the Brit
version had to pass through.

I assume, also, that the Belgian track from Lille to Brussels is
both TGV and Eurostar

--
************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

On 6 Nov, 21:20, Hatunen wrote:
On Tue, 06 Nov 2007 13:12:26 -0800, Furze Platt

wrote:
Queen Opens High Speed Rail Link

snip

The French had their high-speed Channel Tunnel link ready in 1993 - a
year before the tunnel was officially opened - while the Belgians
completed their link in the late 1990s.

The UK, however, spent years dithering over the cost and route of its
link. It meant Eurostar trains could only reach their ultimate 186mph
speed in France and Belgium, while comparatively crawling through
south London and Kent.

Is the French Eurostar track from Paris to Lille different from
the TGV track? If not, France had it easy since Eurostar only
require trackage from Lille to Calais, which didn't involve
routing through the sort of major metropolitan area the Brit
version had to pass through.

I assume, also, that the Belgian track from Lille to Brussels is
both TGV and Eurostar

--
************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

I assume that the coming of the channel tunnel must of been a
surprise......or perhaps it just shows that they have their head up
their arse when it comes to transport ;-)

On Tue, 06 Nov 2007 13:48:25 -0800, Furze Platt
wrote:

On 6 Nov, 21:20, Hatunen wrote:
On Tue, 06 Nov 2007 13:12:26 -0800, Furze Platt

wrote:
Queen Opens High Speed Rail Link

snip

The French had their high-speed Channel Tunnel link ready in 1993 - a
year before the tunnel was officially opened - while the Belgians
completed their link in the late 1990s.

The UK, however, spent years dithering over the cost and route of its
link. It meant Eurostar trains could only reach their ultimate 186mph
speed in France and Belgium, while comparatively crawling through
south London and Kent.

Is the French Eurostar track from Paris to Lille different from
the TGV track? If not, France had it easy since Eurostar only
require trackage from Lille to Calais, which didn't involve
routing through the sort of major metropolitan area the Brit
version had to pass through.

I assume, also, that the Belgian track from Lille to Brussels is
both TGV and Eurostar

I assume that the coming of the channel tunnel must of been a
surprise......or perhaps it just shows that they have their head up
their arse when it comes to transport ;-)

"Arse"? You seem to be the Brit so you tell me who has their head
up their arse.

But I would still think the British had a considerably more
difficult job of decision making than the French, who already had
track for their TGV that could be used. Not to mention, of
course, that the UK does not have the same sort of authoritarian
government that the French do.

--
************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

Hatunen wrote:

[]
But I would still think the British had a considerably more
difficult job of decision making than the French, who already had
track for their TGV that could be used. Not to mention, of
course, that the UK does not have the same sort of authoritarian
government that the French do.

I won't get into the idiot OP's points here, but there has certainly
been criticism of the various UK governments lack of decision making on
this.

--
(*) ... of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
http://www.davidhorne.net - real address on website
"He can't be as stupid as he looks, but nevertheless he probably
is quite a stupid man." Richard Dawkins on Pres. Bush"

David Horne, _the_ chancellor (*) wrote:

Hatunen wrote:

[]
But I would still think the British had a considerably more
difficult job of decision making than the French, who already had
track for their TGV that could be used. Not to mention, of
course, that the UK does not have the same sort of authoritarian
government that the French do.

I won't get into the idiot OP's points here, but there has certainly
been criticism of the various UK governments lack of decision making on
this.

And I meant to add. _However_, while there can be legitimate complaints
made about the UK railways, they do have a high number of fast lines
between major population areas. Not high speed, in terms of over 150 mph
or whatever the definition is, but still very high. I think that only
Germany beats the UK in terms of average speed of the network. If I'm
wrong, no doubt I'll be corrected...

--
(*) ... of the royal duchy of city south and deansgate
http://www.davidhorne.net - real address on website
"He can't be as stupid as he looks, but nevertheless he probably
is quite a stupid man." Richard Dawkins on Pres. Bush"

Furze Platt wrote:

On 6 Nov, 21:20, Hatunen wrote:





On Tue, 06 Nov 2007 13:12:26 -0800, Furze Platt

wrote:
Queen Opens High Speed Rail Link

snip

The French had their high-speed Channel Tunnel link ready in 1993 - a
year before the tunnel was officially opened - while the Belgians
completed their link in the late 1990s.

The UK, however, spent years dithering over the cost and route of its
link. It meant Eurostar trains could only reach their ultimate 186mph
speed in France and Belgium, while comparatively crawling through
south London and Kent.

Is the French Eurostar track from Paris to Lille different from
the TGV track? If not, France had it easy since Eurostar only
require trackage from Lille to Calais, which didn't involve
routing through the sort of major metropolitan area the Brit
version had to pass through.

I assume, also, that the Belgian track from Lille to Brussels is
both TGV and Eurostar

--
************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

I assume that the coming of the channel tunnel must of been a
surprise......or perhaps it just shows that they have their head up
their arse when it comes to transport ;-)


"It only started to be dug in 1881, guv'nor..."


--
Best
Greg

Hatunen wrote:

On Tue, 06 Nov 2007 13:48:25 -0800, Furze Platt





wrote:
On 6 Nov, 21:20, Hatunen wrote:
On Tue, 06 Nov 2007 13:12:26 -0800, Furze Platt

wrote:
Queen Opens High Speed Rail Link

snip

The French had their high-speed Channel Tunnel link ready in 1993 - a
year before the tunnel was officially opened - while the Belgians
completed their link in the late 1990s.

The UK, however, spent years dithering over the cost and route of its
link. It meant Eurostar trains could only reach their ultimate 186mph
speed in France and Belgium, while comparatively crawling through
south London and Kent.

Is the French Eurostar track from Paris to Lille different from
the TGV track? If not, France had it easy since Eurostar only
require trackage from Lille to Calais, which didn't involve
routing through the sort of major metropolitan area the Brit
version had to pass through.

I assume, also, that the Belgian track from Lille to Brussels is
both TGV and Eurostar

I assume that the coming of the channel tunnel must of been a
surprise......or perhaps it just shows that they have their head up
their arse when it comes to transport ;-)

"Arse"? You seem to be the Brit so you tell me who has their head
up their arse.

But I would still think the British had a considerably more
difficult job of decision making than the French, who already had
track for their TGV that could be used. Not to mention, of
course, that the UK does not have the same sort of authoritarian
government that the French do.


The Brits were concerned about possible military uses of the
chunnel...


--
Best
Greg

Furze Platt wrote:
Queen Opens High Speed Rail Link

snip

The French had their high-speed Channel Tunnel link ready in 1993 - a
year before the tunnel was officially opened - while the Belgians
completed their link in the late 1990s.

The UK, however, spent years dithering over the cost and route of its
link. It meant Eurostar trains could only reach their ultimate 186mph
speed in France and Belgium, while comparatively crawling through
south London and Kent.

snip

Hi,

I'm just wondering when the Belgians and the Dutch will get the thalys
hs rail lines working north of Brussels.

On Tue, 06 Nov 2007 21:41:51 -0800, Gregory Morrow
wrote:

Hatunen wrote:

On Tue, 06 Nov 2007 13:48:25 -0800, Furze Platt

But I would still think the British had a considerably more
difficult job of decision making than the French, who already had
track for their TGV that could be used. Not to mention, of
course, that the UK does not have the same sort of authoritarian
government that the French do.

The Brits were concerned about possible military uses of the
chunnel...

This isn't about the tunnel per se, since it was built before the
UK finally found a route for the high speed connection to London.
Before that the impressively sleek Eurostar, which looks like
it's doing 150mph when it's standing still, had to creep along on
regular rails.

--
************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *