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The night train revolution has been hailed as an alternative to airplanes

cnn.com

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Re: The night train revolution has been hailed as an alternative to airplanes

#91

Post by IshKebab »

DrBazza wrote: post #36
traceroute66 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I recently had to go to Edinburgh. It was £235 standard class to get a train that takes several hours. UK rail is truly depressing. In Japan you can take a Shinkanzen from Tokyo to Hokkaido, 4.5 hours, 800km (appx 500 miiles) for 20,000 Yen (£108) first class or 11,000 Yen (£60) standard class. And that is walk-up fare for "right now", you can use an app to get advanced fares. And I can assure you those 4.5 hours w…

Unfortunately we have the oldest railway in the world in continuous use, running mostly at capacity, with draconian planning laws, ridiculous land costs, population density, and a stupid general public. You'd be hard pressed to find any capital project that's been built in the UK that anyone regrets, and that includes the Millenium Dome. I'm old enough to remember opposition to HS1 ("No to route 2!"), and opposition…

I don't think the Millennium Dome was a success. They could have spent the money more wisely.

I'm always curious about these "we should obviously do it" comments - what if it cost £1tn? Obviously not then right?

Clearly there is a price point at which you should cancel it. What price would you say that is?

Re: The night train revolution has been hailed as an alternative to airplanes

#92

Post by ddmf »

maweki wrote: post #15

Not a night train, but this summer we went on vacation to Scotland from Germany and took the Amsterdam-Newcastle overnight ferry instead of flying. One major issue is one of headspace, as you sacrifice a day of holiday for a day of travel. You have to feel on holiday right as you enter the train. If you're getting antsy for every hour not spend at your destination, you will never be happy with anything but flying. Bu…

Just before covid I'd planned to fly from Scotland to Italy to see where my grandma was from, and then get the train back to Amsterdam via Switzerland, Germany, Belgium stopping for some food and sightseeing on the way back.

Covid scuppered that, but it's something I'd love to do - even with my recurring dream of being awoken to pitchforks from the rest of the sleeping train thanks to my snoring!

Re: The night train revolution has been hailed as an alternative to airplanes

#93

Post by ddmf »

IshKebab wrote: post #90
euroderf wrote: post #67

Before the advent of teh interwebz, railing in Europe had a train-based accommodations hack. When trying to visit a number of cities in not many more days, you could take an overnight into City X, arriving in the morning, and leave that same night on another overnight to your next city. This had the distinct advantage that you didn't have to waste most of a morning trying to find a room - not in a hostel, not anywher…

The other big disadvantages are that you never get to shower and you have to wake up at like 6am every day.

Ach I'm almost 50 - my bladder wakes me at half 5 these days anyway :)

Re: The night train revolution has been hailed as an alternative to airplanes

#94

Post by traceroute66 »

DrBazza wrote: post #36
traceroute66 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I recently had to go to Edinburgh. It was £235 standard class to get a train that takes several hours. UK rail is truly depressing. In Japan you can take a Shinkanzen from Tokyo to Hokkaido, 4.5 hours, 800km (appx 500 miiles) for 20,000 Yen (£108) first class or 11,000 Yen (£60) standard class. And that is walk-up fare for "right now", you can use an app to get advanced fares. And I can assure you those 4.5 hours w…

Unfortunately we have the oldest railway in the world in continuous use, running mostly at capacity, with draconian planning laws, ridiculous land costs, population density, and a stupid general public. You'd be hard pressed to find any capital project that's been built in the UK that anyone regrets, and that includes the Millenium Dome. I'm old enough to remember opposition to HS1 ("No to route 2!"), and opposition…

> ridiculous land costs, population density

I'm with you on most points, fair enough.

But don't quote "land costs", and especially please don't cite "population density" at me when comparing UK and Japan.

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