Thursday 21 May 2009

Train of the day



A Thalys high-speed train on its way from Paris to Brussels, a trip which now takes only 1 hour 20 minutes. I can remember when this journey took over 3 hours even on the Trans-Europe Express L'Etoile du Nord, which in any case only ran twice a day. Thalys runs half-hourly through much of the day, and has been so successful that Air France has given up bothering to fly between the two cities.

1 comment:

Jamie said...

Of course, in Britain, the major airlines wouldn't give up the route: they'd cut fairs to loss-leading rates and shower the trains with negative advertising and lobbying until the rail service folded.

It's called "capitalism", I'm told. And capitalism is like nuclear power: it can be used for both good and evil. Also, you wouldn't want to get any of it on you.