What About Regular Rail? Regular Rail Would...
...provide more benefits in: more coverage, less costs in maintenance (due to easier infrastructure to maintain) and cheaper parts replacement (due to less complicated, off-the-shelf parts availability) --savings that can be invested into even more coverage.
Seen we're headed to an even more energy-constrained future that will affect every other industry dependent on high energy throughput (ie high tech manufacturing as required by HSR), isn't obvious HSR is the same pipe dream as more airports?
Spain's HSR is not as rosy as it seems and as that part of Europe descends further into economic decline it will be obvious the caveat of HSR when funding doesn't buy the needed upkeep, replacement as cheaply as funding regular rail does.
First Monbiot, then Tom Whipple and now you Mr Nelder? What am I missing? What's causing this sudden Pollyannish bloom completely disregarding systems thinking and the reality of the long term energy constraints in the system?
