Why don't we have advanced trains like they do if France.?

Question

Have you seen the Film clip on you tube of the Train in France travelling at 574.8 km/h (357.2 mph) Amazing. Why have our British trains not advanced anymore since the H.S.T (class 43)Came out in 1976.

Answer 1

Gimbert seems to be on the money here.  The British started building railways first and made all the mistakes first.  They are still living with the consequences of those mistakes 175 years later - too many railways running in parallel, totally unplanned at the time, too many curves and now too much traffic on limited amounts of track.  

Original British railways had to buy land from landowners, that meant there were heavy constraints on where the track could be laid. France has never been quite so careful about the rights of private property so there was probably a fair bit of compulsory land purchase, meaning engineers could site track more or less where they thought it should go.  

France also has, in the main, longer distances than the British so there is a stronger incentive to run faster trains.  

But what limits the speed of trains is not so much the track as long as it is reasonable, it is the other traffic on the line.  You can't run express trains at 300kph if you have freight trains on the same track tootling along at 80kph.  

The Japanese bullet trains have sometimes been called shinkansen, which means new railway, and that is exactly what it was.  An entirely new track where only the bullet trains ran.

Answer 2

The french invested Billions in their train network while we invested billions in the millenium dome.

I wonder who came out best?

Bob your response was great, i'm amazed that you are sitting there seriously believing that the French and British are that much poorer than you!  In fact i think the French are generally wealthier than the americans or at least they have less people living in poverty.  Do your self a favour and actually do a bit of travelling with all this money you are sitiing on.

Answer 3

logic tells me tunnels landscape and room lets face it we live in history renovation not redesign

Answer 4

Because our Government will not spend any money on our rail transport system.  Roads get more financial investment because they don't strike.  The french government invested and built a fast rail network with new straightened track designed for fast speed.  Our government and previous governments view,  its good enough for the mugs to pay high priced train fares for a rail network upgraded on the cheap and fragmented with rail companies making huge profits, for poor services, .

Answer 5

The French seem to be able to do forward planning beter than the british crazy as it seems. This can be seen through history - when Cristopher Wren wanted to rebuild London after the great fire with grand boulevards such as the French were building at the time his plans were turned down even though there was a blank canvas to work with.

After WWII, much of the transport infrastructure in France (especially northern) was beyond econoical repair so throughout the 50's & 60's they built a new system virtually from scratch. This meant that modern speeds & travel patterns were taken into account & things like the size of tunnels could be increased across the network to allow for double decker trains & so forth.

In Britain, most of our railway network survived the war & although in a poor state, considering the lack of available funds & materials rebuilding in its entiity was out of the question.

Through the 60's 70's & 80's the car was seen as the way forward so the railway system never recieved large scale investment for total rebuilding as it was not seen as economical or needed. Hence we find ourselves with a railway system that is largely based on what was built over 150 years ago & is largely unsuitable for modern traffic levels, train speeds blah blah.

I think that explains it

Answer 6

maybe it rains more in some places than others

Answer 7

Bob you are an idiot. What does "Because the people of North America are predominately wealthy. As little as a $12,000 a year income puts you in the top 5% of the entire world when it comes to income." have to do with French trains being better than British ones? Absolutely **** all. Not only that but I think you will find that the top 6 richest countries in the world per capita gdp are Luxembourg, Norway, Switzerland, Ireland, Denmark and Iceland. The mighty usa lies 7th.  So it can't be because "They just don't have the money to build a highway system comporable to ours and if they did not enough people make enough money to own cars, not to mention put gas in them."

And no not all trains in 'Europe' are government owned, just look at Britain.

Yes you are very fortunate to grow up in a society where you are brainwashed from kindergarden and encouraged not to care about anything else but yourselves.

"When you said we I thought you ment us. From what I understand you are taxed pretty heavly, instead of building the trains, You've got a royal family to pamper" Yes we are taxed heavily, but we get free healthcare anywhere in Europe among other things unlike you do. And yes, the whole queen/royal family thing is getting old, but if she  costs taxpayers 67 pence each per year, and yet brings in millions of tourists, is it really that bad? At least we have a history.

Why do the French have better trains than us? Because us Brits are hopeless at getting anything useful done. Our current bus and train systems are c**p, you never know if it will be late, cancelled or on time. And as for building... just look at wembley or the millenium dome, clasic pieces of being on time and money wasted. We seriously need to get our acts together with public transport, and other things such as the internet. In france you can get 28 Mbit broadband... and whats the fastest in Britain? !!!

Answer 8

Because the french railway is supported by government funding.  The stupid british allowed the railway (and other publis services to be handed over to private enterprise) and money was siphoned off to private owners. Hence lack of investment, a chronic british disease.

You only have to look at french achievements, eg the bridge in the sky, a british design, to know they have more national pride than the brits.  Such a shame really!

Answer 9

because we get leaves and the wrong sort of snow on our lines....silly you

Answer 10

France has had higher taxes for years, from which the government got more money to spend in public projects. Decades of higher spending have created the difference.

The difference is also partly cultural, as the French government is more prone to big public projects compared to Britain were individual contributions and public-private partnerships are seen as the more cost-effective solutions and government cannot be seen as "too big".

Answer 11

Because the people of North America are predominately wealthy. As little as a $12,000 a year income puts you in the top 5% of the entire world when it comes to income.In Europe trains are important though owned by the government they provide an economical way of traveling. They just don't have the money to build a highway system comporable to ours and if they did not enough people make enough money to own cars, not to mention put gas in them. We are very fortunate people. Travel abroad for a while, you will really appreciate your country. I thank God every day for putting me in the US.

     When you said we I thought you ment us. From what I understand you are taxed pretty heavly, instead of building the trains, You've got a royal family to pamper. The closest thing we have to that is Paris Hilton

            tootels!

Answer 12

Yea that train is the Eurostar , lovely  train , the reason is because the frence intrest loads of $$$ into trains , where we dont.