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The Eurostar business model is interesting in that it competes with the airlines on a "hub to hub" basis. For example it competes with the likes of Air France and BA for the hub to hub passengers from say London to Paris or Brussels to London direct - in that the trains do not stop at intermediate stations (save Ashford or Ebbsfleet) and has new dedicated high speed lines. Eurostar rents the tracks and infrastructure from Network Rail in the UK and SNCF in France and on these "hub to hub" routes they do make money; IF you discount the massive investment that Transmache et al had the building of the tunnel.The business model runs into difficulties when you look at the ICE trains in Germany which try and be all things to everyone i.e. they try and operate a "point to point" service on their hi-speed ICE trains which are not that well built and run on predominately older tracks with many stops. They are having issues with this model in that advertising a hi-speed service is crippled by the constant stopping and the operating issues with track and the decrepit systems around, Mannheim, Frankfurt and Darmstadt for example and trains themselves, although the ICE3 are a lot better than the ICE2.Germany has relied on technology in their trains whereas the French have provided top notch infrastructure and IMHO the French have the best system although the trains are not as advanced as the Germans. In terms of the American sutuation they will have to structure their approach on how they percieve their model and how they view the airline model are they going point to point or hub to hub and are they willing to invest astronomical amounts on infrastructure? The airlines provide an interesting view which the railways need to look at.In any event the OP is about China and their "silk road" project which I think has nothing to do with making money for the trains or their routes but more about political influence and influencing markets in order to provide access for their goods to those markets easier and faster by "giving" countries along its route free infrastructure in exchange for access to its economic and political influence. I guess pretty much the same way as Russia tried to do with the gas pipelines into Europe.
The Eurostar business model is interesting in that it competes with the airlines on a "hub to hub" basis. For example it competes with the likes of Air France and BA for the hub to hub passengers from say London to Paris or Brussels to London direct - in that the trains do not stop at intermediate stations (save Ashford or Ebbsfleet) and has new dedicated high speed lines. Eurostar rents the tracks and infrastructure from Network Rail in the UK and SNCF in France and on these "hub to hub" routes they do make money; IF you discount the massive investment that Transmache et al had the building of the tunnel.
The business model runs into difficulties when you look at the ICE trains in Germany which try and be all things to everyone i.e. they try and operate a "point to point" service on their hi-speed ICE trains which are not that well built and run on predominately older tracks with many stops. They are having issues with this model in that advertising a hi-speed service is crippled by the constant stopping and the operating issues with track and the decrepit systems around, Mannheim, Frankfurt and Darmstadt for example and trains themselves, although the ICE3 are a lot better than the ICE2.
Germany has relied on technology in their trains whereas the French have provided top notch infrastructure and IMHO the French have the best system although the trains are not as advanced as the Germans. In terms of the American sutuation they will have to structure their approach on how they percieve their model and how they view the airline model are they going point to point or hub to hub and are they willing to invest astronomical amounts on infrastructure? The airlines provide an interesting view which the railways need to look at.
In any event the OP is about China and their "silk road" project which I think has nothing to do with making money for the trains or their routes but more about political influence and influencing markets in order to provide access for their goods to those markets easier and faster by "giving" countries along its route free infrastructure in exchange for access to its economic and political influence. I guess pretty much the same way as Russia tried to do with the gas pipelines into Europe.