With an open market destined for Europe at the end of 1992 a plethora of new carriers will commence cross border services presently unavailable to them. However, the $A100bn plan to criss-cross Europe with high speed rail networks and increasing airways and airport congestion may well see their plans come to naught unless the air transport industry begins to find workable solutions to its most pressing problems. Pictured is an Air Europe Boeing 75 7, one charter carrier that is hoping for big things come 1992.

Very Fast Trains a Challenge to Aviation

Very Fast Train Concept Heralds Significant Implications for Air Transport

Propelled by significant advances in fast rail technology and an ever more congested domestic air transport system, the concept of very fast trains (VFTI is beginning to herald the coming of a new dawn for the railways as they begin to emerge as short haul aviation’s greatest potential competitor in the years to come.

From London to Seoul, to Miami to Melbourne, the VFT is emerging as a major competitor to aviation on routes out to 1,000kms. Europe is planning a vast network of VFTs in a20 year programme that will see more than $A100bn being invested in new high speed rail lines, rolling stock and terminals. Asia is also getting aboard the bandwagon with VFTs planned for Taiwan and Korea with of course the world’s first and best known system in Japan currently moving over 400,000 people daily aboard a fleet of 450 Shinkansen (Bullet Trains) travelling at over 240kph.

Across the Pacific in North America, high speed rail systems are being evaluated for linking LA with Las Vegas, Orlando with Miami and Houston with Fort Worth and Dallas. The shuttle corridor between Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington DC is also another candidate as is LA and San Francisco.

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