HSR can't deliver miracles by itself, it needs to be part of a wider strategy to integrate regions, rather than just the areas surrounding stations. As it is, the SFO-LAX route apparently carried just 2.2mn people. Less than 11mn journeys were made on Metrolink.
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Originally Posted by sopas ej
My point of comparing Paris' Metro to LA's Metro Rail scale-wise was simply size. I've used Paris' Metro to go everywhere, and everyone, including myself, always says that Paris' Metro takes you everywhere you want to go in Paris---but apparently, when you compare LA and Paris on the same scale, "everywhere" in Paris is a small area.
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The Paris Metro operates across a small area, but Paris also has two additional high-capacity rail networks; the RER and Transilien which operate across a wider area. You’ve then got the TER network which sits below the Intercités and TGV networks.
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Originally Posted by Crawford
I'm talking the Continent, where train travel is dirt cheap. The UK has comparatively expensive train travel so the rider demographic might vary. Leisure travelers paying 30 EUR for an intercity train will not exactly be a posh demographic.
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Most people making long-distance rail journeys in the UK tend to book in advance, where fares are very cheap which gives a broad demographic base.
Keep in mind that the UK has had a deregulated coach market since the 1980’s (something France and Germany have only just got around to sorting out) and a far more aggressive low-cost carrier market, which forced the intercity rail operators to become leaner and smarter. Despite the absence of a HSR network, more people travel by intercity train in the UK ahead of Germany (ICE) or France (TGV and Intercités). Virgin Trains East Coast (the intercity operator out of London King’s Cross) carries more people than the entire Spanish AVE network.