How could the EU do this??

"Scheming EU states" is a total flame bait headline. The UK is not part of the EU, so why should they be included in any of this? They should be HAPPY about the EU not "meddling" with their "freedom"!

Not only that, but there are also two arrows on this map going into the UK. It’s up to the UK to take care of how well these arrows connect to important locations within their borders. There really doesn’t appear to be an issue whatsoever.
- These arrows already exist! The France one is the English tunnel and the Ireland one is there because they need to make Ireland feel like one island. The uk dont have much control over how well they connect to their border. I think the uk would have benefited from this plan as they seem to be having problems with trains
- All I hear is that scheming EU is shooting two arrows at the UK.
- Not really, though? There are no development plans for the new railways in the UK and furthermore the entirety of the UK is greyed out but all the independent area of Ireland is part of the map.
I found the wikipedia article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-EuropeanTransportNetwork#Listoftransportnetworks
Apparently initial proposals for this pre-date brexit by 26 years.
This is a Daily Express article. Utter trash, right wing yellow journalism. Rabidly pro-brexit, endorsed Liz Truss for PM. You know, the weird cheese lady who was outlasted by a lettuce.
Obviously brexit isn't going so well and neither is the latest tory PM, so it's time for their daily article about how the foreigners done ruined Engerland.
- endorsed Liz Truss for PM
  Geezus...
- outlasted by a lettuce.
  American here. How much is that converted to Mooches?
If that idiotic and corrosive Brexit campaign had been defeated, the headline might be screaming how scheming EU nations drag the UK into their expensive transport plans.
Also the same mindless parrots on their tellys and newspapers would be mindlessly arguing the point, tossing out word salads, exactly as they would with the EU making their plans and keeping the UK out of them.
Meanwhile, non-voters who could have made a difference will be just as idiotic on polling day: "Politics is for wankers/both parties are the same. Shall we go for drinks?"
It's wild to me how America, UK, and Canada are dealing with these idiotic right wing extremists or fans. It did not go well in the states, is still not going well, but people in other countries are all agreeing that yeah now is the time to be loud, racist, shitholes who make life worse for everyone with their stupidity????? What the fuuuck
- Step 1) blame everyone else for everything that's wrong. Step 2) promise all the good things if only people vote for you. If they are actually gullible enough to do that we come to step 3) grab all the wealth you can and shift it to your cronies, smash anything too heavy to carry off and leave the opposition in a smouldering ruin that you can then again blame and berate the next government for.
- And you'd think at the latest when the Brexit happens and totally fucked up logistics, industry and the already ailing healthcare in the UK, the right-wing voters might have realized "Oh wait, maybe the people we've been voting for us have been lying and it was rather obvious with how they didn't want to be associated with the shit they made us vote for after it actually worked out and they won the vote". Nope. They're proud of it. All the mean mean evil EU now being mean to lil' ol' England out of pure spite. Aye.
  (to be fair we already did that a long time ago when we banished them to a damp, sad and depressing island in the north sea)
- All of Europe, and a bunch of other places, are swinging to the right. It's not an Anglosphere thing, you just read english-speaking news more.
  Funny enough, the UK is in the process of swinging back leftwards again at the moment. Roll on the 2024 general election.
- The Netherlands just voted in our own right-wing extremist, Geert Wilders. 😭
- You know how the right-wing nutjobs have been frothing about a "new world order" conspiracy theory for a long time now? You know, the one about a secretive multinational cabal plotting to take over the entire world?
  Yeah... it turns out even that was projection, too.
I'd welcome the EU meddling in my freedom; certainly would be better than the Tories
It's the Daily Express, an offshoot of the Daily Mail. They both have ridiculously anti EU slants and have had those for decades
- Every since the thought occurred to me I can't stop thinking about it. There is just this entire class of people out there who do no real work, are paid money to tell us how they should be running things, and whose only plan in running things is to take something that works and break it.
The UK doesn't need to be part of this really, there's one link to mainland Europe (the channel tunnel) and the rest should just be sensible UK road and rail network planning. NI and Ireland already have ways to cooperate when it comes to planning transport on the Ireland of Island.
I say "in theory" because our government just scrapped HS2 phase 2, so our rail network is going to continue to be shit for years.
- on the Ireland of Island
  Love this at what looks like 11pm on the day that's in it as I write at 4am.
  Love you, neighbour. Sorry about the HS2 bullshit. Shambles tbh.
- sensible UK road and rail network planning
  How many decades has it been since THAT last happened, though?
  I say "in theory" because our government just scrapped HS2 phase 2, so our rail network is going to continue to be shit for years.
  Oh. Same page, it would seem 😁

Those scheming betrayers also left Australia out of the transport plan for EU members.

How much lead paint do you need to eat to see the loaded language in these headlines and think "yeah - seems legit."

FORGET Australia 🦘.... They left out the Greatest Country in the Galaxy/Universe ; 'Merica!!!
Even left it out in the comments section... Unbelievable
SMH 😒🙄
That's Switzerland. (not a member of the EU)
Imagine speaking with such authority whilst simultaneously lacking such a basic understanding of Europe.
Which 70 cretins upvoted this arse water?
- So the EU isn't allowed to cooperate with a country (that's at least part of the single market and contiguous continent), because they saw no value in including Britain, and that was a scheming betrayal?
  What point are you failing to make here?

This is from the Daily Express, which is a paper that's full of these sort of ragebait, horseshit headlines.

Notably it was the first major paper to back Brexit. They should be delighted about this. Fucking mould-ridden wankstains.
Ragebait for tories, perhaps. I find it delicious
I honestly thought it was sarcasm.

Ohh no how can they not include me in their plan after i burn the bridges with them

Oh no, the consequences of my own actions!
Why won't the EU help me fix all these burnt bridges?

Wasn't the UK govt also complaining about their tax money going into funding EU projects like this?

No one said they didn't want these kind of projects. They just didn't want to have to pay for them.
- I lived in Britain during the Leave campaign and it was all about getting the benefits without the responsabilities or costs.
  In fact, the sequence of political events that lead to the Leave Referendum was Britain in the EU trying to have less and less obligations whilst keeping the benefits of Membership to the point that eventually, when the UK demanded "otherwise we have a Referedum on Leave" to not to have to abide by Freedom Of Movement into their country whilst keeping all the rest including Freedom Of Movement for Britons into other EU countries, the rest of the EU said "No!". After this, David Cammeron was under huge pressure to do the Referendum "to show the EU" and the rest is History.
  The La-La-Land fantasism of the Leave side was always unbelievable, with everything from genuine expections of, post leave, having "Same Rights as Members With No Obligations", to after Brexit "Other EU Nations will Follow Us Out".
  I would say that by this point it's clear that whatever Britain is "showing the EU" isn't quite what was in Leaver fantasies.

Now departing Fuck Around; next stop, Find Out!

Especially true since the article comes from a paper that backed Brexit.

Scheming EU to make an EU travel plan for countries that didnt voluntarily leave the EU to pursue some racist bullshit propaganda that even the people who started brexit, deep down, didnt want, and never thought would actually happen.

It's always weird to read stuff from the UK to do with brexit. That paper is clearly some right wing rag and the reality is that we are connected via the channel tunnel and all that this is doing is leaving us off the maps and probably the reasoble prices.

But people like to rile it up like we are missing out on some grand EU mega plan that is going to save the world. The EU has plenty of problems and is not some sort of nirvana. Would I rather be in the EU? Yes it is better to be part of something. However it is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination and to be honest day to day it makes little difference to me. People in the UK are not crying into their union jack hankies, we have bigger problems like a completely corrupt and incompetent ruling class.

A "completely corrupt and incompetent ruling class" who have much more power now, after lying to the public and getting Brexit voted in.
Why is it better to be part of something? I hear people say that all the time like it should be obvious, but the concept repulses me.
- Every time I hear about Brexit I'm reminded how 17 million people directly fucked up my ability to be part of something just to spite themselves. If you don't want to be part of something then just take yourself and leave, don't drag everyone else out too.
- "repulses"? That's some mighty strong feelings you have there
- Then why are you commenting by being a part of the largest network on earth?
- Practical outcome in the case of the EU?
  Relaxed borders / Easy International Travel
  Easy to go work in another country
  Same currency (for most of it)
  Probably more but that's what I can think of right now.

EUxit? Didn’t the EU exit from the UK a couple years ago?

Other way around
- Woooooshh
- Nope, it was EU sponsored campaign to remove UK. For obvious reasons
  Edit: not sure if I'm getting downvoted for a lame joke, someone taking it seriously or just brits

New maps for Ticket to Ride just dropped

I would unironically buy this if they really just dropped the lines from UK so it just appears on the board as a blank spot lmao
- Technically you would still be buying it out of irony but I get your meaning

The Trans-European Transport Project has been ongoing since the '90s.

And since I was curious, here are the new guidelines adopted last week. Nothing revolutionary but an evolution in the right direction. I do find it personally interesting that the TEN-T apparently did not previously formally take into account military mobility...

What's truly bullshit about this map is Hungary. To get anywhere, you have to go through Budapest and it's been like this since the last 150 years, when it comes to rail. Even though it has at least seven metropolitan areas outside of Pest county with population above 100k... NOPE! You have to go through two of the three major railway stations of Budapest.

What's worse is say you are a local to Hungary and you live east of the Danube. You want to visit Lake Balaton in the west. You have to take the train to Budapest. You then transfer by Metró to the other railway station. And then take another train to the lake. Three fares and two transfers, which might be fine as an individual but adds up in costs and stress if you are with family or have accessibility needs. And by accessibility needs I'm just talking about being elderly (who mostly travel free or at a very reduced rate) or a stroller.

Why is it set up that way?
- Everybody in Europe needs to go to spas in Budapest. It's medicinal. And required.
- Our capitol was always overprioritiezed because of some kind of elitism.
- I can only guess the reasons but I experienced this frustration when I needed to go from the very north to the very east of the country and still had to go through Budapest.

Are those tunnels to ireland?

Under the water?

Are people not sketched out by that? That sounds terrifying

The dotted lines are ferry routes.
- I don't see any dots motherf- zooms in ....oh.
- Good god thats so much better
- Ferries are pretty nice, we recently used them for a NL -> EN -> WA -> IE -> SCO -> NL trip and they were nice. Some of them had plenty of entertainment and felt quite nice, others a bit more run down but still fine. The best was taking the overnight ones, you sleep on board and disembark fresh and ready to go in the morning at your destination and costs less than having a separate hotel night.
The floating tunnels weren't working out so well
They're long range heavy impulse air routes using catapults...
Bridges, with a mid ocean interchange
The trains can fly... only to literally crash at the destination's train station. Somehow, everyone miraculously survives every single time.
That actually sounded way more terrorist than I wanted it to.
- Are You?
Look at the one to Cyprus

I see two arrows leading into the UK. One across the channel and the other into NI, FFS.

Don't like those arrows pointing at the UK, feels a bit Dad's Army.
Two too many, if you ask me. They wanted out, happy they are out. Maybe help Scotland separate and join the EU again, but that's where it ends.
- Why not liberate northern Ireland and reunite it with the rest
I think the bottom one, at least, already exists and is the channel tunnel the Eurostar uses

Pfft, they're lucky the French don't bomb their end of the chunnel.

Knowing the french they are just waiting for the UK to look at them wrong so they can do that. After a few weeks of rioting of course.
- Of course. The je ne sais quoi is rioting, always. As is the avec.

The channel tunnel exists so already a direct link and all the usage without having to pay for it? Abit of a win really

I never knew the leopards would eat my face!

There is this saying 'people are not islands' to mean people are interconnected with each other. The literal sense being applied by the last decade and by extension the last semicentennial is weird. The EU is a federation and any country can leave, but I still think Brexit was a mistake.

Ericandre.gif

Hey look! It's find out time! Can't wait for 2024 in the US!

Damn, they even included Ireland. Serves them right for wanting to mistreat the entire world.

Why would they not include Ireland?
- I just thought the wouldn't because of how much ocean there is between the two spots.

Why are there roads through Switzerland

Why not? Makes sense for quick connections from Germany to Italy
- Switzerland isn’t in the EU?
- Honestly we should just flatten Switzerland with nukes as its just a waste of space.
I have one word for you.
Schengen

Lmao

Should add a few more lines to Switzerland. We do play nice with EU.

I get it, and lol or whatever, but Ireland is getting two ferries(?) from entirety of the mainland, and the UK is still connected via the tunnel which looks to be a major link-hub for the new system. I guess if it weren’t for Brexit there might have been an Edinburgh-Amsterdam or -Brussels link, but it’s not like Aberdeen or New Castle was going to get any love.

I believe we have two ferries going from east Scotland to Amsterdam and Bruges (or somewhere nearby) starting shortly. We also have Fred Olsen cruises from Scottish ports now too.
Not defending brexit before I get pitchforked but we aren’t exactly cut off…

But Switzerland has line???

Switzerland participates in Schengen and the european free trade association while not being an EU member state. The UK doesn't do any of those things.
Switzerland is part of the single market, I'd guess they're paying the EU to be part of TEN-T. The UK is trying to have as little association with the EU as possible.
Seems to be transit only. Also Switzerland mostly plays by EU rules.

As a heathen Yank, I don't have an actual stake in the whole thing. However, I can't escape the following, as my considered opinion:

EU Proponent: "Hey, you know how it's really easy to govern, fund, and defend nations and empires?"

Skeptical European: "Ummm...are you joking?"

EU Proponent: "Well, some of us were thinking.: what if we carve out a nebulous, constantly shifting middle-ground between a single nation, a group of nations, and an empire. Ya know, some kind of cobbled-together, mutated entity, possessing some characteristics of all those things, but never truly being any of them. That might be EVEN EASIER to manage."

Skeptical European: "What the...what? Fucking WHAT?"

EU Proponent: "We figure the most important aspect would be a constant vagueness, regarding the enforcement of laws, standards, and regulations that all the nations in the semi-pseudo-super-nation group would have to follow."

Skeptical European: "Come again?"

EU Proponent: "Well, it's simple: maybe all the countries in the quasi-ultra-state would be bound to obey laws passed by the mega-parliament. But also, maybe they would still be sovereign states, and they wouldn't have to obey those laws. But, then again, maybe they ARE supposed to obey them, technically, but there isn't an effective method of enforcement. If everyone has to keep guessing, that will make sure everyone pays attention, and everything will go really smoothly."

Skeptical European: "Ohhhhhkay. But we'll still bully the shit out of Greece if they have financial problems, right?"

EU Proponent: "Oh, fuck yes. That's 90 percent of why we're even doing this."

Skeptical European: "Alright, I'm in."

I think people in this comment section seem to think people who voted to leave the EU are shaking their fists in rage, why would they be? The diagram also looks sus in terms of legality

The map shows the actual proposal, I don't know what possibly could look sus to you.
- I found the proposal - I thought the lines to Ireland were all proposed rail (despite encroaching the incorrect distance by sea) but its a rough diagram and those are water transport routes.
  Looms fine to me though, there's a path into Norway, and there's a path into the UK.
  What's the big deal?

Petty