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I love that Latvia (with a pop. of 1.8 mil) is getting proper high speed rail before the UK (~70 mil people). Not sure if HS1 counts if it’s easier to exit the country to France than it is to get around the U.K. itself. #transit #transport #trains #europe #highspeedrail
@nr
Rail Baltica isn't exactly an internal Latvian line. And it'll be mixed use, with freight going at 120 km/h.
That said, HS2 taking forever. Took forever to get started, and all those cuts to the route are so stupid. The full thing would have delivered *capacity*.
@YimbyEarth it’s not an internal line but I am optimistic about the foundations that it’s setting in the region and its opportunity for expansion! Serving as a spine down the Baltic states I can imagine far more branches going to places like Liepāja & Klaipėda, think they have a larger chance of getting a rail connection if it also facilitates freight use.
@nr agreed!
And I do think these new connections will have added chance of happening from old lines needing to be replaced with standard gauge anyway to get anything near full use out of them in the future.
@nr
Oooo, beware: Whenever @jon mentions Rail Baltica he sounds as if it's a confused mess that won't go anywhere any time soon. Not sure why, but I trust him on railway messes, he's seen them all.
Maybe the Czech Republic will be a better example, they have cool plans.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_rail_in_the_Czech_Republic
@notsoloud @jon @mortenlarsen that’s valid! I’m just encouraged after seeing the developments in Riga and how far along both future stations have come along. (Central & RIX)
It’s a completely new direction of policy for these 3 states who historically have had their railways built to connect them to Russia rather than each other - there will be issues of course but at least It’s progress
@nr
Cool, send some pictures!
@jon @mortenlarsen
@notsoloud @jon @mortenlarsen whilst I didn’t take any pictures directly of the central stations you can see the concrete of the new station and the arches that’ll make up its roof!
@nr @notsoloud @mortenlarsen Weather wasn’t great when I was in central Riga in May. I’ll try to fly the drone there next week.
@nr @notsoloud @mortenlarsen they’ve now laid broad gauge track at Riga central. And might build only one spur to the airport. Not clever.
@jon
Wait, you mean there will only be broad gauge? And the new line will connect only to the airport?
@nr @mortenlarsen
@notsoloud @nr @mortenlarsen I don’t know what it means. They laid broad gauge tracks where they should have laid standard, in the station. Temporary? Permanent? No idea. But I’ll find out.
@notsoloud@expressional.social @jon@gruene.social @nr@mastodon.scot @mortenlarsen@mastodon.green Latvia and Riga stations in general are the most muddy parts of RailBaltica so far. Right now it seems like they are going to end up building stations, with a 1520mm connection in between, but without any standard gauge connection to them at the start. Seems like there's no money for both the stations and the standard gauge connection through Riga, and leaving half-built stations in the main city of the country is a really bad look.
@jon what, they built a brand new track that's supposed to connect the baltics with western europe ... with russian gauge?
@guenther @nr @notsoloud @mortenlarsen in the station yes. Hell knows what they’re up to. But I’ll work it out next week.
@notsoloud @nr @mortenlarsen Correct. Rail Baltica is a hell of a mess (even if the idea is good). I’m going back to Latvia next week to trace more of the future route.