Time Savings
Time is our most precious possession. High-speed rail gives us the power to stop frittering it away in endless traffic jams and airport security lines.
Dramatically reducing trip times
High-speed rail offers direct links into central business districts and airports, little or no delays, speedy service, and fast boarding. Add this up and you get major time savings and convenience not possible on other forms of transportation. High-speed rail delivers people on time, every time.
Compared with driving, high-speed rail is a dramatic improvement. Paris to Lyon? Under 2 hours, compared to 5 hours driving. Madrid to Barcelona? Under 3 hours compared to over six hours by car. Rome to Milan? Under three hours compared to six hours driving. When California High-Speed Rail is complete, San Francisco to Los Angeles will take under three hours. Driving? Six to seven hours in "normal" traffic.
The driver of a car must focus their attention on the road . They can't work, type, sleep or safely text or use a laptop, The high-speed rail passenger has a completely different experience. They can work, eat, sleep, watch a movie, use wifi and do other things to relax.
With high-speed rail, more can be accomplished in a day, with more stops if necessary and quick return trips that eliminate the need for unwanted overnight stays. Travelers' activity radius is expanded, making additional day trips possible.
HSR eliminates much of the waiting and processing associated with flying. HSR generally has:
- No airport-style security queue
- No mandatory long check-in window
- Simpler boarding
- No lengthy taxiing to a runway
- Fewer restrictions on when you must arrive
1 hr 22 min
4 hr 20 min
89%
An airliner traveling from Brussels to Paris flies at 500 mph while the high-speed train travels at 186 mph. So the airplane arrives first, right? Wrong.
The train arrives first, in less than half the 4 hrs 25 min it takes to travel from city center to city center by air. That's because flying requires many steps before reaching your destination: getting to the airport; going through check-in and security; waiting to board; taxing on the runway; flying, landing, taxing, deplaning.
Traveling by high-speed train involves just a few steps - getting to the station, traveling to the destination, leaving the station and taking transportaton from the city center. This time advantage is why high-speed rail now has 89% of the market share of intercity trips between Paris and Brussels.
