anarchocolate asked:

recently I saw someone explain that high speed trains are unecological, eg they require a lot of landscaping, digging tunnels and building bridges which takes a lot of concrete which is a pollutant

I don't really have the time or expertise to verify all that, so do you have some thoughts on that ?

They do require bridges and tunnels, but here’s the thing, HSR projects have the bridges specifically to interfere with nature as little as possible, animals can cross under a viaduct, they can’t cross an 8 lane freeway, additionally while the building of HSR can be intensive the final product is much better for the environment than a freeway, and has higher capacity on a smaller area. This is because Asphalt needs continuous replacing, creates heat islands, and cars emit massive amounts of pollution, all compared to faster electrified HSR. If you have any more questions feel free to ask them, this is just a quick summary of my thoughts