Recent content by Austriantrain

Plenty of examples of rail companies with (legal or de facto) monopolies offering a vastly better service. Look at Switzerland, the Benelux countries etc.

E* is majority-owned by SNCF. What else did you expect? Offer a terrible service, but hinder competition is their entire playbook.

Ah, but that is not inevitable, merely bad regulation (which admittedly is often the rule). Obviously unregulated competetion on a scarce resource (=the most attractive and therefore the most congested lines) that has largely been paid out of public funds is a bad idea. It doesn't mean that...

RENFE I can see, but why is Trenitalia in a bad state?

Being strongly opposed to cherry-picking in rail competition, I do see your point.* However, you might need to allow competitors in on the crown jewels if you want to entice them to run elsewhere too. Let's see how Velvet does; the demand is surely there, but they need to earn money. *And...

I absolutely don't deny that operating conditions in France are more difficult than elsewhere, but most of it is either a political choice (sky-high access charges) or an SNCF one (artificially restricting capacity by operating/ordering too few sets). The "single manufacturer" has been disproved...

It is. But Spain has enabled - real and fair - competition on the most important HSL, so they are in front of France here.

Well, it is a shambles now; hard to see how it could get worse (unlike the long-distance competition plans in Germany which likely *will* make things worse).

All of what you write is really an argument for why France is one of the prime countries in Europe that really, really need real competition.

… and hinder any attempt at competition… 8-)

You don't need the space to be there already to quadruple. You just need to spend more (either to tunnel or to do compulsory purchases). In any case, Ireland has the money, so it is a question of political will.

About once a month, there is also a steam-hauled train using a class Mh (later ÖBB 399, now back to Mh), built for the Mariazellerbahn before its early electrification.

Knowing Germany, there will likely be court proceedings now… I find it hard to see how on lines with an hourly base frequency, giving away 25-40% of paths away to a competitor with presumably separate ticketing will really improve provide overall consumer benefits. Yes, you will have a certain...

They and their competitors will, through user charges. Airports aren’t funded differently. It might be that the station operator doesn’t believe they can, but it is a bit self-defeating. If they don’t expand the station enough, not enough passengers will be able to travel. In any case, that...

As I wrote before: If the underground station is cheaper, go for it. :lol: