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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

#111

Post by mehrzad »

legitster wrote: post #102
munificent wrote: post #99

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.

It's this pricing model that makes west coast passenger rail so uncommon, none of my friends had heard of it until I looked it up (I live in LA).

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

#112

Post by ekianjo »

rebuilder wrote: post #108
ekianjo wrote: post #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.

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

It's not, but my point still stands: by far and large there are way too many seats in that configuration compared to the planned utility for it. You end up with regular passengers having to fit such seats and having a miserable experience. It never happens on a flight.

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

#114

Post by ixtli »

closeparen wrote: post #84
ixtli wrote: post #7

What I wouldn't give for even the slightest interested in the development of public transit infrastructure in the US :(

Amtrak runs extensive sleeper service around the US. I’ve taken San Francisco to Chicago - it’s quite nice, if you’re willing to burn some vacation days.

I am, and I plan to :)

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

#115

Post by ghaff »

legitster wrote: post #102
munificent wrote: post #99

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.

I guess I wouldn’t have thought that expensive for intercity travel. Certainly doesn’t strike me as such relative to shorter haul European trains I’ve taken.

And in the US, I’m a decent fraction of that ($13) just to take the commuter rail into the city one way.

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

#116

Post by ceejayoz »

legitster wrote: post #102
munificent wrote: post #99

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.

> 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.

Don't forget wear and tear on the car, though.

The IRS sets mileage at 58 cents/mile. That's $100 for Seattle to Portland.

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

#117

Post by jschwartzi »

undersuit wrote: post #47
CaptainZapp wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US I would take a sleeper train from Seattle to Chicago instead of a plane provided the sleeper train runs 180 mph on average. Not really doable for a lot of Austria and generally the Alpine regions. There are not many high speed tracks in Austria and Switzerland, the reason being that the countries are relatively small and that building high speed tracks through the alps is insanely expensive. Switzerland bui…

TBF the Rockies are no easy passage either. Amtrak runs on the Hi-Line year round, over 2200 miles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_Builder

This is a good 3-4 days of constant train travel to get to the destination. The thing I'm complaining about is that the plane is almost too fast for what I want to use it for, while the train is incredibly slow.

It would be cool if there were a way for me to leave Seattle on Sunday night and arrive in Chicago on Monday morning having gotten a full night of sleep.

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

#118

Post by improbable22 »

cylicbob wrote: post #96
alkonaut wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The saddest part of this statement is that the European rail system is MASSIVELY subsidized even at the price points that the person you responded to described as "paying out the nose", which of course is a somewhat subjective position for a European to say, because their already lower salaries are massively taxed and to pay for the subsidized rail systems the gleeful Americans can gush about being so cheap when they…

Indeed it's subsidised, IIRC "about half" is a decent ballpark figure. This is worth bearing in mind when people complain about Ryanair getting not-full-price landing spots, not paying road tax, or whatever.

Tourists pay 25% VAT on everything, so it's not like they pay no taxes. I think literally having to prove residence (or citizenship? or tax-residence?) sounds like the sort of bureaucratic hell I'd rather not encounter at the ticket machine. But note that some countries find a way, e.g. Switzerland has 50% discount cards which are far too expensive to make sense for tourists, but make it cheaper for locals.

City transport is a different game, and harder to calculate down to individual levels -- you need all those 10%-full 11pm trams so that people can get home, on some days.

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

#119

Post by hahamrfunnyguy »

JadeNB wrote: post #109
ganonm wrote: 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.

I traveled from NY to LA via train with one planned stop-over. We had coach seats which were a little less expensive than air travel, so it's not really worth doing unless you're in it for the experience of it.

It was an enjoyable experience tough, and we'd probably do it again on another route. While it would have been nicer to have a sleeper, the coach seats were pretty comfortable.

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

#120

Post by telesilla »

Freak_NL wrote: post #9
ganonm wrote: 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…

The Caledonian Express is definitely on my list of trains to travel by some day. Pretty soon (when the customs part is sorted out on the Amsterdam end) it will be possible to travel from Amsterdam to London directly on the Eurostar without transferring in Brussels, so that helps too for me as a Dutchman.

I took the train direct from London to Rotterdam a few days ago so I assume it goes straight to Amsterdam also. No customs required (unless brexit) and passport control was done at the point of departure.
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