So many railway issues where we don’t have Europe-wide answers to questions of Europe-wide significance… here are a few
- what new lines do we need, beyond those already being planned or built?
- what cross border lines should be re-activated?
- what are the main gaps in TEN-T networks and what extra needs doing to fill them?
- where is electrification of cross border lines imperative?
- what active cross border lines don’t have passenger trains but should?
- at what borders are timetables ill coordinated?
- which railways don’t upload their data into UIC Merits so their trains don’t appear in timetable searches?
- what types of cross border operable passenger rolling stock are we missing, and how do we get it?
- to what extent are track access charges, station access charges, and path allocation actually a problem?
- why if the EIB has a green rail investment fund is it not being used?
- would cross border PSOs make sense?
- what changes to the language regime for train drivers make sense?
- would rules on re-selling second hand trains rather than scrapping trains make sense?
And sure I have some answers to many of these. But do policymakers? Do they even know these questions?
@clem @cweickhmann Oh no one has cared about Eurostar since about 2015. It's more important for Britain than for France or Belgium, but because it has Euro in its name the British government doesn't give a shit about it.
@jon @cweickhmann I meant about the airport-like features like going through immigration and waiting to board and such
@clem @cweickhmann Sure, that all pre-dates Brexit. But it is not even designed in an efficient manner.
@clem
My main beef is that what they've set up at Gare du Nord or London St Pancras is not just border control, it's this: https://help.eurostar.com/faq/be-en/question/What-security-checks-are-there-at-the-station
And the fact that there's a luggage allowance.
When you take the tunnel with the car train, they'll quickly look at your passport and let you drive through the tunnel with kilos and kilos of unchecked goods.
The latter is okay (maybe a bit on the unwary side) but the airport-like approach at Eurostar is just insane.
@jon
@cweickhmann @jon unless I didn't understand what you mean — isn't that related to the border between the UK and the Schengen area, even before Brexit ?