Given the volume of trucks driving everyday from southern Spain to northern Europe laden with vegetables, I've often wondered why there aren't a few high or at least higher speed trains every day from the south of Spain to northern Europe loaded with veg.
Then I remember that SNCF would need to be involved and it makes me sad.
@quixoticgeek The percentage of rail freight in Spain is dwindling. About 2% of land freight last I heard. It’s a terrible thing
@moof that's incredibly low. I'm guessing the break of gauge at the border is really not helping with the international freight side of things.
@quixoticgeek DB ran Spain-UK trains for Tesco as long ago as 2010, although not high speed. The gauge change at the Spanish border is a faff. They ramped up quite a lot post-Brexit to bypass import queues - I guess one train needs one set of paperwork, instead of one per wagon. No idea if they still run.
@quixoticgeek Spain's network is hardly world standard either XD
@kapellosaur it's the second largest high-speed network on the planet. When the signals are correctly setting the speed limit, and the rails aren't self destructing, the network works great. It's just the stupid renfe stuff on top and stupid national policies like the security scanners.
@quixoticgeek Those are a lot of provisos! But I take your point. Like how the French network would work better if you took SNCF out of the equation too
