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Comment by traceroute66 | Hacker News Reader

> I recently had to go to Edinburgh. It was £235 standard class to get a train that takes several hours.

UK rail is truly depressing.

In Japan you can take a Shinkanzen from Tokyo to Hokkaido, 4.5 hours, 800km (appx 500 miiles) for 20,000 Yen (£108) first class or 11,000 Yen (£60) standard class. And that is walk-up fare for "right now", you can use an app to get advanced fares.

And I can assure you those 4.5 hours will be insanely comfortable compared to the UK. And you can pick up some very tasty food at the station, unlike the UK where you can only buy garbage.

In the UK I agree, I'd fly from London to Edinburgh in preference to the ghastly train. Assuming the London train even leaves the station and is not delayed or cancelled, as usual.

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Unfortunately we have the oldest railway in the world in continuous use, running mostly at capacity, with draconian planning laws, ridiculous land costs, population density, and a stupid general public.

You'd be hard pressed to find any capital project that's been built in the UK that anyone regrets, and that includes the Millenium Dome. I'm old enough to remember opposition to HS1 ("No to route 2!"), and opposition to CrossRail.

No one would argue that any of those were a waste.

Yet we've cancelled parts of HS2.

With the absurd bidding process of:

Govt: we have a budget of £10bn for this section in the Cotswolds, how cheap can you do it?

Bidder, erm, £9.99bn ??

Govt: ok!

Bidder: kerching!

Trying to find the link, but Rob Holden, HS1 boss, stated that HS2 budgets were publicly disclosed and the above is pretty much the outcome of contract firms knowing how much the Govt is prepared to pay.

Had we pressed ahead with HS2 we might have gotten an HS3 and 4, but that's vanishingly unlikely now.

> Assuming the London train even leaves the station and is not delayed or cancelled, as usual.

Apparently German trains are far worse than London right now.

Writing from BER airport, just took a 1.5 hour train from Berlin to get a 2.5 hour airplane to Edinburgh.

I don't think the Millennium Dome was a success. They could have spent the money more wisely.

I'm always curious about these "we should obviously do it" comments - what if it cost £1tn? Obviously not then right?

Clearly there is a price point at which you should cancel it. What price would you say that is?

> ridiculous land costs, population density

I'm with you on most points, fair enough.

But don't quote "land costs", and especially please don't cite "population density" at me when comparing UK and Japan.

PSA: I took a long "first class" Shinkansen trip last year, and it was hideously uncomfortable. Swaying movement made me feel sick when I did anything, and the seat was curved in a way that made it impossible to relax as a 6' tall person.

My toddler went on a rampage the whole way, too, since it was an open cabin and not a private cabin

I've never taken the train in the UK, but had a much more comfortable ride in Italy a few years back

Agreed. Japan is exceptionally good I agree. Europe not so much. Germany's rail system is a shit show for example. I had to get a taxi to a car hire place a couple of times there.

Italian, Swiss and French rails are great. Spain is a bit behind but is closing up fast.

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