How can HSR in Europe be called successful?
No matter how many people ride them they cannot break even on revenue to operating costs.
It takes huge tax payer subsidies to keep them running.
Europe made rail successful after WW II because they did 2 things.
1. They implimented state of the art express trains, running up to 100 mph, that were affordable to operate. The trains not only paid for themselves, but made a small profit.
2. They did not make the massive investment in transcontinental highways the US did, so trains remained the best way to get between most cities.
HSR messed with that successful formula by providing trains that are 3 times as fast as the old express trains, but cost almost 10 times as much per mile to operate.
