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Austria rail operator OeBB unveils new night trains

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Re: Austria rail operator OeBB unveils new night trains

#11

Post by bertil »

phh wrote: post #10
xcdzvyn wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience was the same traveling Europe by rail. It's such a lovely idea, I just wish they were more financially competitive. Most trains did arrive a few hours late in the end. I remember on one train from Prague to Cologne, the train had to sit outside a station for multiple hours while two passengers argued outside(?) and the train staff waited for police at ~midnight.

> I just wish they were more financially competitive. I'm doing Paris Wien, and it was financially competitive to airplanes. 100€/person/way (ok cheapest seat rate, that's probably very uncomfortable... I'll see) I had 240€/person/2 way with airplanes. I just checked airplane prices again and that's still pretty much the same prices (a bit lower than train if you accept going to the FarAwayAirport, much higher if you…

I usually compare those to flights that arrive conveniently early for business travelers and cheaper, less business-friendly flights combined with a hotel night; night trains usually win when there’s a convenient option.

Re: Austria rail operator OeBB unveils new night trains

#12

Post by xcdzvyn »

phh wrote: post #10
xcdzvyn wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience was the same traveling Europe by rail. It's such a lovely idea, I just wish they were more financially competitive. Most trains did arrive a few hours late in the end. I remember on one train from Prague to Cologne, the train had to sit outside a station for multiple hours while two passengers argued outside(?) and the train staff waited for police at ~midnight.

> I just wish they were more financially competitive. I'm doing Paris Wien, and it was financially competitive to airplanes. 100€/person/way (ok cheapest seat rate, that's probably very uncomfortable... I'll see) I had 240€/person/2 way with airplanes. I just checked airplane prices again and that's still pretty much the same prices (a bit lower than train if you accept going to the FarAwayAirport, much higher if you…

Cattle class was decently comfortable on every train I was on, and combined with the far lower (almost pleasant) noise of trains vs. aircraft engines, it was a far nicer experience overall.

Though supposedly theft is a greater issue on night trains than flights, so I was apprehensive to sleep..

Re: Austria rail operator OeBB unveils new night trains

#13

Post by phh »

bertil wrote: post #3

The article gives very little detail about how the train is set up. There are some interesting ideas about how to preserve individual privacy within the same form factor. Those are probably better explained here: https://youtu.be/7pZkdvbgTnI?si=wmmffLYS_nhcnNQQ

Those mini-suite definitely look pretty cool. I'm usually not a fan of sleeping in the same place of strangers (even with friends it's hard), but those mini-cabines look great.

Re: Austria rail operator OeBB unveils new night trains

#14

Post by sschueller »

Don't take the ÖBB night-train from Zürich HB to Amsterdam and back. They sell you the premium package online with fancy pictures of their new trains but the train that shows up is an old 1970 rail car with both toilets locked (broken for weeks I found out), broken doors, broken heater, missing ladders, broken window blinds etc.

At this time if they can't even clean the toilets then it is not worth the steep price.

Here is a video of the squeaking noise we had all night (sounds like the rail car is about to break in half): https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GLNqpCfIawc

The toilets: https://imgur.com/gZqhDvz , even better was that the toilets in the other attached rail carriages had no toilet paper (Amsterdam -> Zürich)...

Additionally from Amsterdam to Zürich 3 people got robbed while still in the Netherlands. This train is reservation only, they could at least lock the doors or something to prevent criminals from boarding.

I would have been more comfortable with a seat in the 1st class SBB carriage that rides along than a private cabin and it would have cost a lot less.

Re: Austria rail operator OeBB unveils new night trains

#15

Post by politelemon »

sschueller wrote: post #14

Don't take the ÖBB night-train from Zürich HB to Amsterdam and back. They sell you the premium package online with fancy pictures of their new trains but the train that shows up is an old 1970 rail car with both toilets locked (broken for weeks I found out), broken doors, broken heater, missing ladders, broken window blinds etc. At this time if they can't even clean the toilets then it is not worth the steep price. H…

I'm not sure why your toilets link goes up a video of a cute cat sleeping. Not that I mind. Has it been taken down?

Re: Austria rail operator OeBB unveils new night trains

#16

Post by sschueller »

politelemon wrote: post #15
sschueller wrote: post #14

Don't take the ÖBB night-train from Zürich HB to Amsterdam and back. They sell you the premium package online with fancy pictures of their new trains but the train that shows up is an old 1970 rail car with both toilets locked (broken for weeks I found out), broken doors, broken heater, missing ladders, broken window blinds etc. At this time if they can't even clean the toilets then it is not worth the steep price. H…

I'm not sure why your toilets link goes up a video of a cute cat sleeping. Not that I mind. Has it been taken down?

I think I fixed it now, lol

Re: Austria rail operator OeBB unveils new night trains

#17

Post by andix »

The ÖBB night trains can be awesome, but the quality doesn't seem to be consistent enough yet. There were reports of over 10% of all night trains getting cancelled this summer and replaced with regular trains (with seats, no beds).

Some statistics (German, use translate in browser): https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000182197/sitzen-statt-...

Re: Austria rail operator OeBB unveils new night trains

#18

Post by untitaker_ »

sschueller wrote: post #14

Don't take the ÖBB night-train from Zürich HB to Amsterdam and back. They sell you the premium package online with fancy pictures of their new trains but the train that shows up is an old 1970 rail car with both toilets locked (broken for weeks I found out), broken doors, broken heater, missing ladders, broken window blinds etc. At this time if they can't even clean the toilets then it is not worth the steep price. H…

> Additionally from Amsterdam to Zürich 3 people got robbed while still in the Netherlands. This train is reservation only, they could at least lock the doors or something to prevent criminals from boarding.

compartments can be locked, locking up the entire train and having the entire boarding process be bottlenecked on ticket inspectors seems highly impractical

Re: Austria rail operator OeBB unveils new night trains

#19

Post by juujian »

sschueller wrote: post #14

Don't take the ÖBB night-train from Zürich HB to Amsterdam and back. They sell you the premium package online with fancy pictures of their new trains but the train that shows up is an old 1970 rail car with both toilets locked (broken for weeks I found out), broken doors, broken heater, missing ladders, broken window blinds etc. At this time if they can't even clean the toilets then it is not worth the steep price. H…

I cannot believe that I had a better experience taking the Amtrak in the US than you had with ÖBB :D

Re: Austria rail operator OeBB unveils new night trains

#20

Post by addicted »

PaulHoule wrote: post #9
xcdzvyn wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience was the same traveling Europe by rail. It's such a lovely idea, I just wish they were more financially competitive. Most trains did arrive a few hours late in the end. I remember on one train from Prague to Cologne, the train had to sit outside a station for multiple hours while two passengers argued outside(?) and the train staff waited for police at ~midnight.

I was living in Germany in 1999 and rode night trains all over Europe. Even then I was amazed at how much better the air travel experience was in Europe compared to the U.S. (much more competitive) and it seemed the Europeans I knew were more inclined to fly than I was, since taking the train is a novelty to an American. High-speed rail became dominant in the next decade and I think it was the cynical kind of of ‘com…

The EU is trying to do to rail travel what the U.S. (and the EU) did for plane travel by deregulating it, breaking down monopolies so the private sector could enter and drive down prices.

They passed a bunch of rules requiring the separation of the track ownership from the train ownership which means any private company can come in, lease some track time, lease some trains, and become a train operator overnight.

Similar rule changes have led to tremendous improvements in Italy for example, which had the unfortunate (?) side effect of bankrupting the national plane carrier Alitalia (not sure if it’s really unfortunate considering it was heavily subsidized by the govt, much like plane travel throughout the world, where govts inevitably subsidize plane travel by bailing out plane companies on a regular basis, and even the companies that don’t need bailing out benefit because they share costs with highly unprofitable companies essentially running on govt bailouts).

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