This thread seems to have uncovered a couple of anorak wearing trainspotters

Pal:

I assume you know that the success of the high speed route between Cologne and the Frankfurt airport station (when I rode it last year it took 57 minutes and that included the stop at Siegburg/Bonn) has been so successful that there really aren't many, if any, commercial flights left on the old Cologne-Franfurt air route.

Say what you will about taxpayers and pouring money into railroad infrastructure but as oil prices rise some of us here in the U.S. are even more disappointed at the lack of decent public transport than ever before.

Intrepid1: my sentiments exactly - i was just pushing flanneruk's buttons about his tax-drain comments about the Spanish rail. Airport and highways have always been highly subsidized and now they want to remove Amtrak's subsidy. Paris-Brussels flights are also dwindling as trains take 1.5 hours.