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The New Austrian Railways' Intercity and Nightjet Sleeper Train Interior Design

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Re: The New Austrian Railways' Intercity and Nightjet Sleeper Train Interior Design

#101
post #31
post #2

Sleeper trains make so much sense for travel over land. They are often competitively priced with air travel, they pollute a lot less and the time saved can be huge when you consider that you spend time travelling when you would otherwise be asleep (although this is sometimes true for air travel, many/most people find it difficult to get quality sleep in economy class). The London - Edinburgh sleeper train (Caledonian…

Problem is they really don't quite make as much sense for city pairings that don't fall into the narrow window of roughly one night of travel time. This severely limits the amount of mainstream awareness sleeper trains can reach, so people who don't routinely travel such a route won't have them on their radar when they do.

Many sleeper trains stop at several places (just like a normal train does) until, say, 10pm. Then they travel for a long time overnight, and stop in several places in the morning.

You can see the Caledonian Sleeper timetable at [1], it's also reasonable to catch it at Watford. It then stops at both Edinburgh and Glasgow (they have split the train in two further south). You can see the Highland train stops at many towns and villages.

You do need to be a bit more alert if you're getting off the train before the terminus, but the attendant will almost always wake the passengers who are due to alight.

[1] https://www.seat61.com/CaledonianSleepers.htm

Re: The New Austrian Railways' Intercity and Nightjet Sleeper Train Interior Design

#102

I recently took a train from Seattle to Portland with my family. One difference compared to flying that it took me a while to realize was how amazingly quiet it is. On a plane, the engines are right there out on the wing screaming and conducting that sound directly into the airframe next to you. With a train, the engine is way up front, hundreds of yards a way, separated by several linkages. The end result is that a…

Love that route. Also, on a train the ride is so much smoother - no starts or stop or dealing with traffic.

The pricing is nuts, though. A one way train ticket for that route is $36. The same trip via car takes about the same amount of time and $20 in gas. The train is a nice luxury for one person, but for the whole family it becomes very expensive.

Passenger rail in the US is absurd.

Re: The New Austrian Railways' Intercity and Nightjet Sleeper Train Interior Design

#103
I wonder if digitally linked convoys of cars and vehicles could replicate the smoother and quieter experience of trains, even on busy highways? The idea would be to use several "buffer cars" in front of the convoy of passenger busses. The entire convoy would be inter-linked and centrally controlled, so the "buffer cars" could accordion closer together and farther apart, so the passenger busses could use lighter braking acceleration. Build the busses with lots of sound damping and actively damped suspensions, and the experience could come close to that of a train.

The buffer cars would take up some additional highway area, but the passenger density of the convoy as a whole could still exceed private passenger cars.

Re: The New Austrian Railways' Intercity and Nightjet Sleeper Train Interior Design

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The beds are surely at least 2m? What makes it uncomfortable for someone over 160?

Why are they 'surely' at least 2m? The beds on the Caledonian aren't that long. A standard (not King) bed is only 190 cm in most countries. You're not going to get a King-length bed on a train - that's not a reasonable expectation.

British trains are narrower than most in Continental Europe, the structure gauge (the width the train can be without crashing into tunnel walls, platforms and so on) is smaller.

For example, a fairly recent British coach is 2.73m wide, but a German ICE is 2.85m wide, and a Danish/Swedish passenger coach is 2.97m wide.

The difference is noticeable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structure_gauge

(Coach widths taken from searching " railway coach Wikipedia" and finding an infobox with the width.)

Re: The New Austrian Railways' Intercity and Nightjet Sleeper Train Interior Design

#105
2x2 facing seats in standard class? What an horrible idea - I have never understood why this was a standard in about every wagon since most of the time when you get this seat you get to share it with strangers, and lack leg space to feel comfortable.

Re: The New Austrian Railways' Intercity and Nightjet Sleeper Train Interior Design

#106

I recently took a train from Seattle to Portland with my family. One difference compared to flying that it took me a while to realize was how amazingly quiet it is. On a plane, the engines are right there out on the wing screaming and conducting that sound directly into the airframe next to you. With a train, the engine is way up front, hundreds of yards a way, separated by several linkages. The end result is that a…

Love that route. Also, on a train the ride is so much smoother - no starts or stop or dealing with traffic. The pricing is nuts, though. A one way train ticket for that route is $36. The same trip via car takes about the same amount of time and $20 in gas. The train is a nice luxury for one person, but for the whole family it becomes very expensive. Passenger rail in the US is absurd.

Unfortunately, compared to Finland at least, that pricing seems pretty normal, maybe even on the cheap side. (It's apparently a roughly 5.5 h drive?)

Long-distance rail travel seems to be fairly expensive. Is that kind of trip cheaper somewhere comparable?

Re: The New Austrian Railways' Intercity and Nightjet Sleeper Train Interior Design

#107
post #2

Sleeper trains make so much sense for travel over land. They are often competitively priced with air travel, they pollute a lot less and the time saved can be huge when you consider that you spend time travelling when you would otherwise be asleep (although this is sometimes true for air travel, many/most people find it difficult to get quality sleep in economy class). The London - Edinburgh sleeper train (Caledonian…

> They are often competitively priced with air travel

I traveled in sleeper trains in China, and while the experience was interesting, I can't really say it was comfortable or even pleasant. People would keep moving around at night, making noise, and the train would stop now and then and create noise on its own. It's slow and it only works if you are not too far from where you want to go anyway, unless you are ready to waste a long time to get there.

Re: The New Austrian Railways' Intercity and Nightjet Sleeper Train Interior Design

#108

2x2 facing seats in standard class? What an horrible idea - I have never understood why this was a standard in about every wagon since most of the time when you get this seat you get to share it with strangers, and lack leg space to feel comfortable.

It's good for groups and families. I'd expect not all seats are arranged that way.

Re: The New Austrian Railways' Intercity and Nightjet Sleeper Train Interior Design

#109
post #2

Sleeper trains make so much sense for travel over land. They are often competitively priced with air travel, they pollute a lot less and the time saved can be huge when you consider that you spend time travelling when you would otherwise be asleep (although this is sometimes true for air travel, many/most people find it difficult to get quality sleep in economy class). The London - Edinburgh sleeper train (Caledonian…

> They are often competitively priced with air travel,

Not in the US! I would love to travel by train whenever time permitted, but it is prohibitively expensive to travel by sleeper car.

Re: The New Austrian Railways' Intercity and Nightjet Sleeper Train Interior Design

#110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then problem of price still remains before wide popularity for sleepers or even just long daytrips. I'd love to use trains more often, but I'm not willing to pay through the nose. A trip in Central Europe I recently booked would've been over twice the price with a train, with maybe a couple of hours longer travel time when accounting for airport trips and waiting. Second class, just a daytime journey without sleeping…

The EU should force a carbon tax on plane fuel for intra-EU flights and subsidize rail with the money.

> The EU should force a carbon tax on plane fuel for intra-EU flights and subsidize rail with the money.

You are aware that most of Europe produces electricity by burning fossil fuel right? So by all logic we should apply a strict carbon tax on rail as well.

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