European Citizens Initiative: Connecting all European capitals and people through a high-speed train network (eci.ec.europa.eu)

submitted 1 year ago by fritz@feddit.de to c/europe@feddit.de

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If you are from the EU: Sign it it’s free. If it gets enough signatures the organizers get to meet with European Commission representatives and a public hearing in parliament. Credit to Adam Something on YouTube for posting about this.

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[-] druppel@feddit.nl 0 points 1 year ago

I don't agree with it. There are many capital cities that are in terrible locations for highspeed rail and are would be a diservice to the rest of the country.

Cities like Amsterdam, Berlin, and Viena are just the worst places to reach for most of their respective countries. Say you live in Munich and you want to travel to Amsterdam, you are still stuck on the slow train if you focus on a Berlin-Amsterdam route.

If high speed rail is supposed to be successful it should be about covering geographical distance fast. Or the car and planes are still going to be the prefered option.

[-] fritz@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago

Yeah that’s a fair point but most people in these countries still live in the capitols. Connecting Amsterdam and Berlin for example with HSR would allow millions to travel quickly. I get it we should focus first on getting the countries connected, but it can’t hurt to sign this.

[-] geissi@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago

most people in these countries still live in the capitols

Well for Berlin, the City proper has a population of 3.6 million (~ 4.2% of Germans) and the larger metropolitan area has about 6.1 m (~ 7.2%).

Contrast that to the Ruhr area that has a metropolitan area with 10.6m population (~ 12%).
Also outside those areas, western Germany is more densely populated that the east around Berlin.

[-] agrammatic@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

While I don't necessarily agree with this ECI, keep in mind that Germany's decentralisation is the exception in Europe, rather than the norm. In most other countries the population is concentrated in a few cities only.

Of course, why would you want to incentivize and reward that centralisation by making the capitals even more appealing by focusing HSR expansion there? That's another question.

this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2023

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