exactly my thoughts

I can accidentally wake up in Netherlands just by falling asleep on a local train.

The other day I asked for transit directions between Lisbon and somewhere near Mont-Saint-Michel and holy shit no wonder people fly everywhere and rent cars locally. Even inside France it kinda sucks, since they built the TGV as a star centred in Paris, so you always need to go through Paris if you’re travelling between two different places. The only viable option to leave Portugal by train was Vigo which turns into buses as soon as it reaches Vigo. Lisbon-Madrid is badly needed…

@TimWardCam Spain and Portugal use the Iberian gauge (not sure what the historical reasons are). However, the AVE (Spanish high speed network) was built using the standard gauge so the trains can continue to France without interruptions. The Portuguese high speed network will be built using the same standard gauge but of course we have been debating it for several decades instead of building it, per fine Portuguese tradition.

@TimWardCam Likely bollocks. Although I haven’t read it fully, the determination of the gauge was made in this 1844 doc, based on technical criteria (allows narrower curves which was handy given the local orography, faster trains and less wearing out). They recommend 6ft, which seems higher than the current Iberian gauge, but that can probably be explained by the feet as unit of measurement being shorter in Spain in 1844 than it is today in the imperial system. agrupament.cat/documents/Infor…

@TimWardCam According to what I’m seeing, a feet at that time in Spain would be approx 278.6mm, which results in 1671.6mm, very close to the original Spanish gauge (which was then slightly reduced to be compatible with the Portuguese one).