Claim no. 1 is certainly not true in all cases. Where we lived from 2003 to
2007, the nearest public transport was a bus to Almere or Hilversum, the stop
was about 1 km away and it did not run on weekends.
The trains are OK, but not nearly as nice as the ones in Switzerland (although
the Dutch ones are cheaper).
The Dutch have organized things amazingly well considering that it is a small,
crowded country with LOTS of transit traffic on the motorways--for example, a
truck going from Spain or France to Scandinavia will inevitably pass through
the Netherlands.
The commercial developments are purposely kept outside the city centers. So,
for example, Amsterdam has retained its beautiful center, while all the big
office buildings etc. are out along the ring road, easily accessible either by
car or by train.
But again, there is no getting away from the fact that it is a country only
slightly bigger than New Jersey with twice the population. And the population
is very much concentrated in the Amsterdam-Utrecht-Den Haag-Rotterdam corridor.
Cheers,
Nathan
Nathan Wajsman
Alicante, Spain
http://www.frozenlight.eu
http://www.greatpix.eu
PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
Blog: http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/
YNWA
On Feb 1, 2013, at 11:21 PM, Bob Benson wrote:
> Hi, y'all.
>
>
>
> Interested in the train discussions. I've been traveling to Tilburg
> Netherlands to teach, now for 28 years. Usually 4 times a year or so.
>
> I have always been interested in the public transport system here.
> Terrific.
>
>
>
> When I've talked about this to Dutch folks, they remind me:
>
> 1. The claim is that no Dutch citizen is more than 100 meters from a
> transport stop (bus, et al.)
>
> 2. Financial terms are very good for students . like no charge. And
> you can be a student here for a looooooong time.
>
> 3. Trains (and busses and trams) run on time !
>
> 4. They do a very good job of integrating train and taxi service to
> final destination; buy a single ticket and get both.
>
> 5. But the train / transportation systems are in deep financial glue.
>
>
>
> They also say that the average queue length on the "interstates" at heavy
> times has gone from 100 KM cumulative for the country to now well more than
> 500KM. They've actually invested in more highway capacity as well.
>
> And . all the commercial development (which I've observed over the 28 years
> I've been coming here) is around highway intersections, not train stops.
>
> And . per capita car ownership is exploding.
>
>
>
> So what's going on? My own judgment: it's still a very tough sell to get
> folks out of their cars . even when the alternative is there and is running
> good as in Holland. So when I hear of multi-billion plans in the US (e.g.,
> the fast train in California) I, essentially, snort. If the Dutch can't do
> it successfully, if in the face of good public transport and in a high
> density country, they still want cars, then it's really problematic.
> Really problematic.
>
>
>
> Bob Benson
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
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