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Where can you go in Europe by train in 8h?

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Re: Where can you go in Europe by train in 8h?

#61

Post by CalRobert »

mrweasel wrote: post #36
matwood wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if your train leaves at 0700 you can’t plan to get there at 06:59 True, but 6:50 is plenty early enough depending on if you know the station and the size. Getting to and from the stations are a wash because it's not like the airport drops you at the door either. Though, many EU cities have the train station near the city center which makes it easier for people to get to than the airport.

Unless you don't happen to live within the city center. Train stations frequently have zero long term parking, while airport frequently have cheap or even free long term parking. If you need to take the train where I live, then you're better of driving to the airport and park there. Then take a train or bus to the city center and the train station. I did like to take the train more often, but travel times are just to…

What airport in Europe has cheap or free long term parking?!??

Re: Where can you go in Europe by train in 8h?

#62

Post by 4ad »

MoreMoore wrote: post #18
atoav wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who often crosses the borders between Germany, Austria and Italy it is basically: 1. Enter my route at ÖBB (Austrians), DB (Germans) and Trenitalia (Italians) and see who is cheapest 2. Book one ticket for the whole trip

Whenever I checked, trains from north Germany to Austria and back were always significantly cheaper on the ÖBB site. It was bizarre.

It's just price differentiation in action. A Polish ticket for the same train can be a third of the price of an Austrian ticket. People are rightfully pissed when this happens to them online, yet they seem to accept it for trains. I don't understand it.

Re: Where can you go in Europe by train in 8h?

#64

Post by ben_w »

portaouflop wrote: post #41
jillesvangurp wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally happened to me yesterday on the way back to Berlin. I arrived 2 hours late. In fairness there was what was labelled "a personal accident" on the track, which is a euphemism for somebody jumping in front of a train. Which unfortunately happens and needs to be dealt with properly and is not really something anybody can do much about. But delays are fairly common on that particular route (Berlin-Amsterdam). Th…

Privatisation was a mistake - it’s only gone downhill since they are able to make profit and cut costs. We need to get essential services such as public transport back under state control or the quality will continue to deteriorate

Agreed.

Learn the lesson from the UK, who did privatisation first* and have witnessed things much worse than the current state of German trains (which are still *excellent* in comparison, and I say that as one who moved from the UK to Germany in 2018).

* or "harder", to the extent that German rail privatisation never went as far as in the UK. I understand there's a constitutional requirement here in Germany for government majority ownership of the rail system — I wish it were so in the UK

Re: Where can you go in Europe by train in 8h?

#65

Post by Svip »

Gare wrote: post #9
Svip wrote: post #3

Title shared on HN left me somewhat disappointed. The actual time appears to be "Where can you go by train in 8h?", though that's somewhat less clear. It only seems to include central stations of larger cities, though I was hoping for a list of shortest travel times between stations in Europe, as more of a thought/data experiment. Or put another way; which two train stations in Europe have the least distance between…

> I was hoping for a list of shortest travel times between stations in Europe, as more of a thought/data experiment. Or put another way; which two train stations in Europe have the least distance between them? You mean most distance you can travel in X hours?

When I posted, the title on HN was "Shortest distance between stations in Europe", so it had nothing to do with "X hours".

Re: Where can you go in Europe by train in 8h?

#66

Post by Svip »

jorams wrote: post #51
Svip wrote: post #3

Title shared on HN left me somewhat disappointed. The actual time appears to be "Where can you go by train in 8h?", though that's somewhat less clear. It only seems to include central stations of larger cities, though I was hoping for a list of shortest travel times between stations in Europe, as more of a thought/data experiment. Or put another way; which two train stations in Europe have the least distance between…

> I was hoping for a list of shortest travel times between stations in Europe, as more of a thought/data experiment. Or put another way; which two train stations in Europe have the least distance between them? That would not be very interesting. I live close to a train station that's less than 5 minutes (by train) away from the nearest other train station. The other train station is the city hub with many connections…

I assume if you only observe the data in isolation. But compiling that data would provide an image of where the density of stations are higher. Again, we can assume that's probably around the bigger cities, but until we actual lay out the data, we are just assuming. Maybe it'll prove the data right, but maybe it will reveal something we didn't expect. Testing the obvious sometimes lead to unobvious observations.

Re: Where can you go in Europe by train in 8h?

#67

Post by lysace »

numpad0 wrote: post #43
kgeist wrote: post #12

I don't understand how it works. First time clicking on Poland, it showed a kind of a heat map around some city. Then I click on another location and nothing happens. OK, there's a "back" button, I go back, click on the map again in a different place and... nothing happens. No heat map. At some point in frustration I accidentally move the mouse while clicking and the map rotates upside down. Don't know, is it me, my…

Focus moves after first click. Second click shows route from first click to second click. You have to clear both "where from" and "where to" box on left top to return to heatmap mode.

Yeah - this UX has the potential to be dramatically improved.

I also went through that investigational phase. Needing to do that is a very clear sign of a UX that's suboptimally designed, IMO.

Re: Where can you go in Europe by train in 8h?

#68

Post by FartyMcFarter »

macintux wrote: post #58
FartyMcFarter wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is only true in the simplest scenario of taking a train on a flexible ticket and without any transfers. As soon as you have transfers in the mix (as you often would if travelling longer distances) or stricter tickets, not making it to the train is usually a really bad option.

Can we at least agree that for better or worse, train stations are typically smaller, faster to navigate, and missing significant security bottlenecks that cause significant delays in accessing airplanes?

That's not what we were discussing, but sure I'd agree with that.

Re: Where can you go in Europe by train in 8h?

#69

Post by chupasaurus »

leobg wrote: post #52
lionkor wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My one and only 6 hour sleeper train was in Russia. It was cozy, amazing views at night, and they wake you when your destination is coming up. I think when you share anecdotes like yours, its good to share anecdotes like mine, to balance it out :)

Which route? Does it still exist?

6 hours is too short for any special trains (i.e. #001/2 is Moscow - St.Petersburg 8 hour night train) so you can expect that at any route, also attendants have to wake up passengers by a rule.

Added: GP is probably talking about a train that didn't cross a border.

Re: Where can you go in Europe by train in 8h?

#70

Post by sloowm »

bitschubser_ wrote: post #2

If you now could just book a train between these cities on a common european platform (or local transportation provider...)... one could dream... just booking a train and getting a quote crossing multiple borders (without interrail) is just a nightmare :(

You can thank all local train operators for this. They have been fighting a shared ticketing system tooth and nail at the European level and the weak politicians in Europe who don't push for a shared system.

There is a legislative proposal but that will take years and operators are going to try and get around it: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/legislative-train/spotlight-J...

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