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In Europe, trains are full, and more are on the way

nytimes.com

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Re: In Europe, trains are full, and more are on the way

#101

Post by yann63 »

k__ wrote: post #3

Trains are pretty awesome, especially in small Europe. Flying always comes with security hassle. A train is just: get in/get out. If Europe would just spent more money on infrastructure. We have trains in Germany that can do 350km/h but I've yet to ride one that goes faster than 200, probably because the rails aren't what they're used to be. Then we have the Germany Ticket. A 50€/month subscription to all regional tr…

> A train is just: get in/get out.

This is changing, at least in France. Enshittification of train travel has begun by SNCF/ouigo. I traveled last month, now (at least for some trains) you must have a ticket at your name to travel, you must register big suitcases. It is becoming less and less get in / get out, unfortunately :-(

Re: In Europe, trains are full, and more are on the way

#102

Post by Scoundreller »

abdullahkhalids wrote: post #54

I was in Toronto over the winter break, with many relatives and friends in the greater Toronto area. I took the GO Transit trains to travel between Union St in Toronto and nearby cities. I was quite impressed by the system. A simple Tap on/off with your credit card works for payments. Trains were on time within the minute, which was very comforting. The trains were clean and well maintained. I don't know about usage…

Was largely a commuter service. Unfortunate part was that it was built over existing freight rail so mainly suburban stations with big parking lots that can be out of the way (and have to side to let prioritized freight pass, but new tracks have largely eliminated that).

Pre-Covid, often at full capacity during morning/evening rushes and never “sold out”, you could always stand if you couldn’t get a seat. And flexible as no scheduled/reserved tickets.

Credit card tap on/off is very new (last 12 months maybe).

Nice that they have bathrooms on every car (looking at you Paris RER!!!).

Re: In Europe, trains are full, and more are on the way

#103

Post by conceptme »

deburo wrote: post #55
ericmay wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, it's misleading. The America is big argument fails to hold water once you actually take a look at a map. Take Columbus for example where we're within just a couple hours by train (could be less if we had any sort of seriousness about our country) away from: Chicago Detroit Cleveland Cincinnati Indianapolis Pittsburgh and maybe just a few hours away from other cities like Toronto, Buffalo, Louisville, and more.

There are other factors to trains not being viable in the states: cost to build. Every project they try, it’s almost always a financial disaster.

I think trains amd especially the rails mostly are funded through other ways (government/ taxes) something which americans are not too fond of.

Re: In Europe, trains are full, and more are on the way

#104

Post by amadeuspagel »

jhoechtl wrote: post #84
rchaves wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, the trains are not often late, this is just in Germany

Is there a pattern in Germany engineering? Airport Berlin, Stuttgart 21, constantly late running trains? Is Germany over-engineered and over-regulated, what's the issue?

Trains being late is simply an overrated problem. This is not something that DB should optimize for. It would be easy to make sure every train is punctual by running one Munich-Berlin-Hamburg train a day.

Trains are late because they run a demanding schedule, trying to serve every big city (this is not like France where everything is supposed to go through Paris, this is a country that unified late with many powerful regions who all want direct connections between them).

Re: In Europe, trains are full, and more are on the way

#105

Post by Wytwwww »

k__ wrote: post #3

Trains are pretty awesome, especially in small Europe. Flying always comes with security hassle. A train is just: get in/get out. If Europe would just spent more money on infrastructure. We have trains in Germany that can do 350km/h but I've yet to ride one that goes faster than 200, probably because the rails aren't what they're used to be. Then we have the Germany Ticket. A 50€/month subscription to all regional tr…

> If Europe could get on Japan's level, that would be a dream.

To be fair Germany could at least reach France's or Italy's level first.

Re: In Europe, trains are full, and more are on the way

#106

Post by chimeracoder »

Wytwwww wrote: post #105
k__ wrote: post #3

Trains are pretty awesome, especially in small Europe. Flying always comes with security hassle. A train is just: get in/get out. If Europe would just spent more money on infrastructure. We have trains in Germany that can do 350km/h but I've yet to ride one that goes faster than 200, probably because the rails aren't what they're used to be. Then we have the Germany Ticket. A 50€/month subscription to all regional tr…

> If Europe could get on Japan's level, that would be a dream. To be fair Germany could at least reach France's or Italy's level first.

> To be fair Germany could at least reach France's or Italy's level first.

I'm not sure Germany should be looking to Italy for advice on getting the trains to run on time.

Re: In Europe, trains are full, and more are on the way

#108

Post by jamil7 »

Nextgrid wrote: post #78
k__ wrote: post #3

Trains are pretty awesome, especially in small Europe. Flying always comes with security hassle. A train is just: get in/get out. If Europe would just spent more money on infrastructure. We have trains in Germany that can do 350km/h but I've yet to ride one that goes faster than 200, probably because the rails aren't what they're used to be. Then we have the Germany Ticket. A 50€/month subscription to all regional tr…

> Flying always comes with security hassle Unfortunately that is not the case, the security theater seems to be slowly contaminating rail too. The Barcelona->Paris connection has some bullshit security on the Barcelona side (luggage x-ray & plastic trays for laptops), and I think the Eurostar had some of this on the London side too.

I changed in Barcelona on my way to Madrid and went through this too, it seems like it's specific to Spain/Barcelona, at least for now.

Re: In Europe, trains are full, and more are on the way

#109

Post by rubymamis »

Wytwwww wrote: post #105
k__ wrote: post #3

Trains are pretty awesome, especially in small Europe. Flying always comes with security hassle. A train is just: get in/get out. If Europe would just spent more money on infrastructure. We have trains in Germany that can do 350km/h but I've yet to ride one that goes faster than 200, probably because the rails aren't what they're used to be. Then we have the Germany Ticket. A 50€/month subscription to all regional tr…

> If Europe could get on Japan's level, that would be a dream. To be fair Germany could at least reach France's or Italy's level first.

Trains in Italy and Spain were so much better than trains in Germany (I was a nomad in Europe for 1.5 years).

Re: In Europe, trains are full, and more are on the way

#110

Post by mondaymusings »

GrumpySloth wrote: post #26

> Amid concerns about climate change, demand for rail service is strong This attempt at spinning it as people being motivated to use trains out of concern for the climate is hilarious. Almost nobody thinks like that. Trains are just a hell of a lot more convenient than alternative modes of transport for long distance trips.

I have avoided flying and instead used trains for the last 10 years due to climate concerns. I know plenty of people who have made the same change in behaviour and my experience from the public debate in the nordic countries is that such a behaviour shift has grown more common among consumers in general. I found no study on consumer preferences on this topic that covers all of Europe but to get started here are two reports on single country surveys, in Portugal and Germany. https://www.eib.org/en/press/all/2021-389-91-of-portuguese-p... https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200128-why-germans-ar... Do you know of some survey evidence that points in the other direction?
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