Talk:Rail transport

Name

Just wondering if railway is a better title than 'railroad'. If the latter is just the U.S. equivalent of the former, fine; but when I think of 'railroad' what comes to mind is North American trains covering long distances, often carrying heavy freight, only occasional journeys (when I Amtraked and VIA-Railed, the train coming through seemed to be a major event, unlike in Europe) etc., while 'railway' to me is a broader term, encompassing pleasure rail trips as well as long-distance railroads. John Stephenson 04:34, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

The first sentence of this article seems to resolve the issue just fine. Russell D. Jones 00:28, 20 December 2011 (UTC)

High-speed rail?

The article has "For long-distance passenger transport, however, airlines have displaced rail travel in many areas." OK, but that is far from the whole story. Europe, Japan, Korea and China [1] all have substantial networks of high-speed trains. China are planning to extend their network South to Singapore and West to Moscow. Even the US is talking of building some such lines, albeit on a smaller scale and at lower speeds. Sandy Harris 05:59, 20 December 2011 (UTC)

I think it depends on how you define 'long-distance'. In parts of Europe and Japan, the reverse effect has been observed on high-speed lines between 250-400 km in length. In these cases, the railway has become competitive with air travel by means of a fast travel time and not having to check in at least one hour before the flight takes-off. As an example, travel between London and Paris (via the Channel Tunnel) is now mainly done by train. So I think it can be stated that for 'medium-distance' travel that high-speed rail has started to displace air travel as the primary mode. - Alan Horton 11:27, 22 January 2014 (UTC)

Yes, though I'd say up to 1000 km or a bit more. For example, I used to travel Fuzhou-Shanghai (1200 km?) fairly often, usually by rail. Another factor is that the rail stations are generally in or near downtown while airports are a lot further out, so going by rail saves time at both ends. Sandy Harris 13:50, 22 January 2014 (UTC)

These look reasonable statements to me. How about making changes along those lines then? (Incidentally, I am trying to put some information together on the Uganda Railway, which apparently is to be revived with Chinese investment, but I cannot find anything except Charles Miller's The Lunatic Express, which is amusing and apparently accurate, but inadequate for a comprehensive account.) --Martin Wyatt 22:45, 24 January 2014 (UTC)

'Rail transport' article?

Is it worth starting an article called rail transport, as on Wikipedia? Perhaps even moving this article there. I assume that with the current 'railroad' title, this article cannot cover monorails. John Stephenson 16:32, 23 January 2014 (UTC)