Despite Spain's financial problems, the government still seem keen to press on with the high-speed network.
I don't have a view on that and the attached article is mainly concerned with Portugal's cancellation of a cross-border line! I will leave others to speculate on a Scotland/England version of same!! anyway. the interesting point is made mid-way through the article by an engineer that Spanish trains should be slowed from 350 to 200Km/Hr as the high speed is too expensive. Now the energy required for 350 must be higher, but I don't think I've seen such a view expressed by engineering professionals in this country!
Of course, it may well be one man's view, not shared by the profession...I still question, at the proposed 2 minutes headway on HS2, where are all (20,000-30,000 per hour) the passengers going to come from, and where the Hell are they all going?
HS1 has apparently still not achieved it's passenger expectations and as for freight!
However most NR re-openings have far exceeded expectations. Do you need a qualification to 'guess' at possible new line use, or is it really 'finger in the wind' stuff.
http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/03/26/inenglish/1332786230_883989.html
I don't have a view on that and the attached article is mainly concerned with Portugal's cancellation of a cross-border line! I will leave others to speculate on a Scotland/England version of same!! anyway. the interesting point is made mid-way through the article by an engineer that Spanish trains should be slowed from 350 to 200Km/Hr as the high speed is too expensive. Now the energy required for 350 must be higher, but I don't think I've seen such a view expressed by engineering professionals in this country!
Of course, it may well be one man's view, not shared by the profession...I still question, at the proposed 2 minutes headway on HS2, where are all (20,000-30,000 per hour) the passengers going to come from, and where the Hell are they all going?
HS1 has apparently still not achieved it's passenger expectations and as for freight!
However most NR re-openings have far exceeded expectations. Do you need a qualification to 'guess' at possible new line use, or is it really 'finger in the wind' stuff.
http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/03/26/inenglish/1332786230_883989.html