Re: last boost.

[uilebheist@polyglot.city]

@feorag For some reason I read it as Gameinvadersfinanzierungsgesetzes.

[cstross@wandering.shop]

@_tillwe_ @feorag Thus ignoring the only sensible reason for going with maglev—sheer speed over long distance routes, competing with jet airliners—and ignoring that local transport needs to be cheap or free to get people out of their cars.

(Also, they don't seem to remember what happened to Transrapid. Oops.)

[_tillwe_@mastodon.social]

@cstross @feorag My guess: Friedrich Merz' frame of reference is 1998-2002, the year Merkel replaced him as chairperson of the CDU parliamentary party. Everything after this time is an error, to be ignored or corrected. (Or as one person in another thread on this asked: can I have back Grunge, too?).

[cstross@wandering.shop]

@_tillwe_ @feorag There *might* be something I don't know—the new Chinese rare earth magnets this century have revolutionized car drivetrains, so they might no longer need superconductors for schwebebahn (i.e. light rail) applications?—but I doubt it's anything as forward-thinking as that, coming from the CDU.

[hmwilker@social.tchncs.de]

@_tillwe_ @cstross @feorag That is Merz in a nutshell. I am, however, still flabbergasted every time another one of his ministers and coathangers falls into the same rut. Some of them are barely fourty or even younger.

[fazalmajid@social.vivaldi.net]

@feorag Considering the dire performance of Deutsche Bahn and the national embarrassment that is Stuttgart Hbf, approaching almost English levels of incompetence, they might want to start small. Dieselgate also showed how overrated German engineering is.

[jollyorc@social.5f9.de]

@cstross @tillwe@mastodon.social @feorag the same clown posse also wants nuclear power back, along with "high efficiency combustion engines" and "green gas" power plants.

All their ideas are from the 80ies at best.

[lizmat@mastodon.social]

@feorag

"Municipal Traffic Financing Act"

Not necessarily about Public Transport only, I'd say.

[farbel@mas.to]

@jollyorc @cstross @_tillwe_ @feorag In my ever so humble opinion, the problem with nuclear power is that we implemented it long before we figured out how to do it safely, cleanly, and with proper disposal/re-use of the waste. Then, because it was online and monetized, we never bothered to figure out those things.

[aslakr@mastodon.social]

@cstross @_tillwe_ @feorag I guess this is just a gadgetbahn where it's purpose is to stall invesment in trams and local trains?

[jsl@hachyderm.io]

@jollyorc @cstross @_tillwe_@mastodon.socia@feorag@wandering.shop I understand that people get Oh-New-Shiny fascination around new tech, but once you build it, it's often a lot less sparkly and exciting and needs to integrate into existing infrastructure. Thus, you end up with a single maglev train in Shanghai that could do 450 kph, but only does 300 in normal service and is surprisingly wobbly at speed. Hydrogen trains with reliability issues and hydrogen cars without infrastructure for a road trip.
The boring bit would be to invest into the build-out of cost-effective things, like solar and wind power; trams and commuter rail services. Not sexy-shiny but actually usable.

[smiteri@mstdn.ca]

@jollyorc @cstross @_tillwe_ @feorag Abandoning nuclear because you’d rather burn brown coal sure is a choice. But at least consumers pay through the nose.

[traumkaempfer@sueden.social]

@aslakr Yes, especially since it’s supposed to compete with existing public transport instead of extending it.

@cstross @_tillwe_ @feorag

[etchedpixels@mastodon.social]

@cstross @_tillwe_ @feorag speed has also stopped mattering as much as it's now almost entirely dominated by go to start of fast thing, check in, wait, and then get from end of fast thing to where you wanted to actually go. The faster you go the less effect it has on trip time
Secondly the work on the way or do stuff on the way mindset has grown with WiFi etc. Why rush from London to Glasgow if your boss is paying you to "work" on the train ?

[nicovel0@mastodon.social]

@etchedpixels @cstross @_tillwe_ @feorag or sleep on the train, I really hope we’re going to see a resurgence of sleeper trains.

[etchedpixels@mastodon.social]

@cstross @_tillwe_ @feorag there is a secondary aspect too - people hate changes. Each change is stress, chaos and physical disruption. Many people will already prioritise slower transport options without changes.

[mathew@universeodon.com]

@farbel @jollyorc @cstross @_tillwe_ @feorag Naah, the problem with nuclear power is it’s more expensive than literally any other source of power. It also takes a long time to build a reactor, which is an issue when climate change is a crisis *now*.

[farbel@mas.to]

@mathew @jollyorc @cstross @_tillwe_ @feorag I don't think our assessments are mutually exclusive. What you say is true because we rushed to use it. Much of that cost is trying to clean up after the lack of proper r&d prior to deployment.

[datenwolf@chaos.social]

@_tillwe_ @feorag @cstross

The Transrapid doesn't use superconducting magnets.

Trouble with the TR is, that it spreads the costs in the trackway, instead of concentrating them in the vehicles.

Maritime shipping is cheap because the oceans are for free. Railroad tracks are incredibly cheap, compared to roads, that's why even in car dependent USA an absolutely enormous amount of goods is transported by train.

[feorag@wandering.shop]

@Nicovel0 @etchedpixels @cstross @_tillwe_ It seems to be happening, very slowly (looks with interest at the new service between Paris and Berlin).