In Europe, trains are full, and more are on the way • Hacker News Board

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

#111

Post by Wytwwww » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 9:46 PM UTC

muspimerol wrote: post #87

sophacles wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Boston to minneapolis could pass through: MA: Springfield NY: Albany, Buffalo,Rochester Oh: Sandusky, Cleavland, Toledo, IN: Fort wayne IL: Chicago, Rockford, WI: Madison, LaCrosse, Eu Claire, Milwaukee With some fairly minor deviations on the path. (Assuming a fairly straight path that stays in the US, going south of the lakes). Depending on your tolerance for minor deviations from the straightest possible path it c…

I don't know why we're still stuck on the Berlin Madrid topic, but I'll bite :-) I added up the population of all those cities: 6.13 million. The population of Berlin and Madrid alone is 6.86 million, and our theoretical journey would take us through several cities of 1m+ along the way: Cologne, Brussels, Paris... The dense parts of Europe have 500k+ cities basically overlapping. As someone who grew up in the Midwest…

> I added up the population of all those cities: 6.13 million.

Well just Boston (where it would presumably start) is over 4 million (and whole Massachusetts is almost as dense as Belgium). Minneapolis is another ~3 million. Chicago is over 8 million. I didn't even look up the other cities... yeah it's lower but really not as much as you're implying.

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

#112

Post by jamil7 » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 9:47 PM UTC

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?

It's just poorly governed at every level by geriatric politicians/managers and has an enormous older population keeping them there.

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

#113

Post by dist-epoch » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 9:48 PM UTC

In UK a train from London to Edinburgh (North of UK, Scotland) costs more than a plane.

I just don't understand how that makes any sense, how can a train be more expensive than a plane.

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

#114

Post by zirgs » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 9:50 PM UTC

enaaem wrote: post #15

eigenket wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my opinion the main "low hanging fruit" Europe has with trains are international birders, especially if they're trying to compete with flying. Trains in Poland work great, trains in Germany work pretty well but every train I've taken between Poland and Germany has been delayed. The standard thing is that while you're in Poland they claim the delay is because of previous delays in Germany and while you're in German…

Just built a separate international network, with its own separate system and tracks. The way Japan handles complexity is through redundancy. Japan runs both really old trains, hyper modern high speed rail and everything in between. Each system runs on separate tracks, are from different companies, and are not interconnected. This can be a lesson on how to run complex systems in general.

> Just built a separate international network, with its own separate system and tracks.

This is what Rail Baltica is going to be. The Baltics are using the Russian gauge, but RB will be using the standard gauge. And it won't be connected to the existing railway system. So if it all works out - we'll finally have a high-speed rail line from Tallinn to Warsaw,

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

#115

Post by ivan_gammel » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 9:51 PM UTC

WinstonSmith84 wrote: post #85

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…

Not sure whether you're sarcastic or doing some PRs but trains in Germany are from my experience definitely not awesome. Flying is usually much more reliable in Germany as long as it doesn't snow (but trains are stopped too when it snows anyway). Trains in Germany are: 1- constantly delayed (ironically I already missed my flight because of that) 2- very expensive (unless you've hours to waste on regional trains) 3- s…

4. German train can use a completely different route to destination, dropping all passengers who were going to an intermediate station somewhere early on the route (you figure out yourselves how to get home at this late hour). I was on board of ICE from Rostock to Berlin which was suddenly routed via Greifswald with arrival in Berlin delayed by 2 hours. There was some fire on the tracks between Oranienburg and Berlin.

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

#116

Post by bigfudge » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 9:54 PM UTC

ivan_gammel wrote: post #18

eigenket wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my opinion the main "low hanging fruit" Europe has with trains are international birders, especially if they're trying to compete with flying. Trains in Poland work great, trains in Germany work pretty well but every train I've taken between Poland and Germany has been delayed. The standard thing is that while you're in Poland they claim the delay is because of previous delays in Germany and while you're in German…

In December I could not even buy tickets online to a train from Berlin to Warsaw because DB website is terrible. Had to cancel my trip — this is really a shame, that EU cannot fix cross-border connectivity.

I think everyone complaining about DB should be forced to live in the UK for a short while first. My 15 yo daughter has just come back from her first trip to Koln to stay with friends. She was wide eyed with how well everything worked, and how nice the trains were. It was interesting to me to see that she saw it too and it’s not just jaded politics that makes me think the UK is going to the dogs.

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

#117

Post by boring-alterego » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 9:55 PM UTC

With that title I think of the episode of Futurama where the brains were making everyone stupid.

Their "Morbo and Linda" there was a train crash today, the governor lady said send in more trains.

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

#118

Post by bigfudge » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 9:56 PM UTC

bradley13 wrote: post #93

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…

German rail infrastructure is...in need of help. Here, in Switzerland, many trains come from Germany. Well, they did. They are so often late that some routes now stop at the border, so that the Swiss schedule isn't impacted by German problems. Germany is also years behind on putting cargo onto trains for transit through the Alps. Even Italy was faster.

This is true, but I have watched with amusement as a Swiss station master paced, tutted and finally started swearing under his breath as a train from Milan got later and later. It amazed me at the time he cared so much - it seemed personal. But I guess that’s why Swiss rail is so great - that and the funding.

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

#119

Post by donalhunt » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 9:57 PM UTC

eigenket wrote: post #6

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…

In my opinion the main "low hanging fruit" Europe has with trains are international birders, especially if they're trying to compete with flying. Trains in Poland work great, trains in Germany work pretty well but every train I've taken between Poland and Germany has been delayed. The standard thing is that while you're in Poland they claim the delay is because of previous delays in Germany and while you're in German…

Did Prague to Brussels in one day (~ 12 hours) in 2010 and everything just worked. One connection in Frankfurt airport (it has a train station) and it was cheaper than flying. Will need to check how I bought the ticket but do know it was bought as a single ticket.

Good thing I left early in the morning because the later trains to Germany all got stuck in heavy snow downfalls. \o/

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

#120

Post by wongarsu » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 9:57 PM UTC

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…

> small Europe

Europe the continent is 7% larger than the US. It's not that small. The population is just comparatively evenly spread out