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Night Train Map with all regularly served night train destinations in Europe

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Re: Night Train Map with all regularly served night train destinations in Europe

#121

Post by IIAOPSW »

asow92 wrote: post #120
IIAOPSW wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amtrak runs a whole 3 cross country services. Empire Builder (parallel Canada to Oregon), California Zephyr (Chicago to SF straightish line), Southeast Chief (LA through the Southern border states). These trains run through some of the most sparsely populated low demand regions to exist. Every state in the lower 48 except for Wyoming has at least one service passing through it. There's only so much Amtrak can do. At…

Let’s put it this way: I live in a small upstate NY city with roughly 100k people in its metropolitan area, but am still two hours driving distance from the closest Amtrak station. How much bigger should we get before we should expect a station in a state that’s better than most for rail service? We once had rail service here via the Erie Lackawanna Phoebe Snow, and those tracks were demolished decades ago.

Oh that one. IDK how far the plans extend, but I've heard the Lackawana cutoff is going to be revived. The ROW and bridges are still there. But you're right, there's a whole lot of things we had which were foolishly demolished, and New York state and city are no strangers to that fact. A solid half of transit proposals I see consist of reactivating some line that was already built 100 years ago and has laid dormant for 50.

Re: Night Train Map with all regularly served night train destinations in Europe

#122

Post by chrisandchris »

Gud wrote: post #111
chrisandchris wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a waste in all ways. A car gets you where you want at the time you want. Whereas a train gets you close to where you want to go at some time. So better depends on what's more important to you. If you take a look at ecology, sure, trains are far better than a 1 person in a car. If you look at flexibility, cars are far more better.

You can also rent a car at your destination, or take cab

I think that oversimplifies it a bit. I traveled to enough places in Europe where either there are no close renting stations or cabs are way to expensive. Think Switzerland.

Re: Night Train Map with all regularly served night train destinations in Europe

#123

Post by userulluipeste »

iShrimp wrote: post #46

Those sound good on paper but then reality hits you. Last summer we as a family decided to take a night train to reach our vacation destination. What should have been 6-7 hour car drive was ~12 hour train ride. Sleep was not great, getting to and out of train stations, herding two small kids etc so at the time we've reached our destination we were pretty tired. Much more tired if we just drove. The route back is wher…

With how things change in EU (i.e. combustion engine ban after 2035), driving for seven hours does not look to be an option for long. At some point the airliners may have to take more drastic emission curbing measures too, so in the long run, despite its inconveniences, the electrified rail may become the only real travel option for masses out there.

Re: Night Train Map with all regularly served night train destinations in Europe

#124

Post by arethuza »

angrais wrote: post #114
arethuza wrote: post #8

What is probably my favourite hotel/restaurant which is 15km up a single track road from the nearest village on the edge of the Moor of Rannoch is right next to where the wonderfully named Deerstalker train has a stop - so even though there are like 3 buildings in the middle of nowhere they have a direct train service from London: https://www.seat61.com/deerstalker.htm https://www.moorofrannoch.co.uk/

I suppose since there's only three buildings they can choose to charge whatever they want. I had a look on the hotels website and it was £700 per night. While I'm sure it's lovely, a room for the night is certainly not affordable for most of the UK population.

That's not correct - for an extremely good dinner, room and multi-course breakfast we've always been about £450 for two people - which includes the dinner at £85 pounds each (on the website), wine etc.

So its not really that expensive and actually quite good value compared to a lot of places - it is a treat after all, not somewhere you'd go every weekend.

NB I've no connection to the place other than really liking it.

Re: Night Train Map with all regularly served night train destinations in Europe

#125

Post by mns »

petschge wrote: post #37
mns wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. While it looks good on paper, booking some of these is quite a pain. I loved travelling by train as a kid, and would love to do it now, but when you compare the offers, it's quite bad. A flight is 1:15 between 2 places of interest for me. The train routes on this map exist (used it twice), but part of it is at night but only has normal compartments. Whole train journey is 15:34 (compared to 1:15 flight),…

Things could certainly be better, but it is a but disingenuous to give the pure flight time of 1:15, when we all know that flying has quite a bit of time requirements on both ends. Not enough to bring it to 15.5 hours, but still easily enough to triple the trip time.

Of course there is, it's just that when you look at the overall picture, it's faster and more convenient. Just to give an example, as this was my general setup and still is for quite some time. One flight is at 10 PM, you can still work the whole day, go leave for the airport at around 7-7:30 PM, at 1 AM I'm at my destination (with a +1 hour timezone change), so that is about 5 hours. But can still sleep afterwards and have a full day the second day.

By car you can leave at around 7 AM and best case scenario you drive 9 hours, worst case 12. Train you leave at around midnight and get there at 4 PM, but you can't actually sleep in the train as there are no sleeper carts. When it comes to cost, car is cheapest with plane and train around the same, depending when you buy the ticket. When it comes to setting everything up, car is basic, you just get in and drive, all vignettes online; plane buy ticket in one place, that is it, train a bit more complicated. I still hope we'll get better at this, because I don't believe that autonomous cars or self driving will solve anything and we should focus on trains when it comes to more environmentally friendly mass transportation.

Re: Night Train Map with all regularly served night train destinations in Europe

#126

Post by angrais »

arethuza wrote: post #124
angrais wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose since there's only three buildings they can choose to charge whatever they want. I had a look on the hotels website and it was £700 per night. While I'm sure it's lovely, a room for the night is certainly not affordable for most of the UK population.

That's not correct - for an extremely good dinner, room and multi-course breakfast we've always been about £450 for two people - which includes the dinner at £85 pounds each (on the website), wine etc. So its not really that expensive and actually quite good value compared to a lot of places - it is a treat after all, not somewhere you'd go every weekend. NB I've no connection to the place other than really liking it…

You're right, sorry. I'd two days selected rather than one. £450 is still quite a lot, but like you say, manageable as a one-off event and certainly seems worth it from how you've described it.

>> NB I've no connection to the place other than really liking it

Understand. How you described it made me consider a visit. Great venue and location.

Re: Night Train Map with all regularly served night train destinations in Europe

#127

Post by throwaway29495 »

frosted-flakes wrote: post #119
throwaway29495 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't match my experience. Flights within the EU - especially if I travel with a carry-on only - are quick and frictionless. I arrive at the airport 30 minutes before departure. I check in using a mobile app. Automatized gate with facial recognition tech takes my ID and boarding pass QR code - there are so many gates there's never a queue. The worst part of the ordeal - the security check of baggage - takes 5-…

Don't forget that trains take you right to the city centre, but airports are outside of the city.

Where I live it's 20 minutes trip from the city centre. So yep, you're right - adds some time. But not enough to add up to 3x travel time, by far.

This is usually more of a concern for people traveling with lowcost airlines - these cheap out and arrive at another town's airport in many cases. National airlines like Lufthansa will take you much nearer your actual destination.

Re: Night Train Map with all regularly served night train destinations in Europe

#128

Post by throwaway29495 »

userulluipeste wrote: post #123
iShrimp wrote: post #46

Those sound good on paper but then reality hits you. Last summer we as a family decided to take a night train to reach our vacation destination. What should have been 6-7 hour car drive was ~12 hour train ride. Sleep was not great, getting to and out of train stations, herding two small kids etc so at the time we've reached our destination we were pretty tired. Much more tired if we just drove. The route back is wher…

With how things change in EU (i.e. combustion engine ban after 2035), driving for seven hours does not look to be an option for long. At some point the airliners may have to take more drastic emission curbing measures too, so in the long run, despite its inconveniences, the electrified rail may become the only real travel option for masses out there.

It's a ban of sale of new vehicles, not usage nor second-hand sale. If the economics of BEVs don't significantly change we're going to be using ICE vehicles at least 15-20 years after the ban (this is normal age of vehicles here - I myself drive a 19 years old car).

Re: Night Train Map with all regularly served night train destinations in Europe

#129

Post by twic »

bogomipz wrote: post #116
twic wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went from London to Barcelona and back by train. On the way down, a sleeper from Paris to somewhere like Perpignan, then a morning express from Perpignan to Barcelona, and on the way back, daytime TGV from Barcelona to Paris. The return leg was far better. Getting the sleeper train means hanging around in some dingy third-rate terminal waiting for it to leave. I didn't really sleep on the train, because even though…

I'm curious what was the price for London to Barcelona and what was time on the TGV return leg?

I can't remember the price i'm afraid, and i think the return leg was six hours from Barcelona to Paris. I then spent an evening and a night in Paris before going back to London, because why wouldn't you?

Re: Night Train Map with all regularly served night train destinations in Europe

#130

Post by asow92 »

IIAOPSW wrote: post #121
asow92 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let’s put it this way: I live in a small upstate NY city with roughly 100k people in its metropolitan area, but am still two hours driving distance from the closest Amtrak station. How much bigger should we get before we should expect a station in a state that’s better than most for rail service? We once had rail service here via the Erie Lackawanna Phoebe Snow, and those tracks were demolished decades ago.

Oh that one. IDK how far the plans extend, but I've heard the Lackawana cutoff is going to be revived. The ROW and bridges are still there. But you're right, there's a whole lot of things we had which were foolishly demolished, and New York state and city are no strangers to that fact. A solid half of transit proposals I see consist of reactivating some line that was already built 100 years ago and has laid dormant f…

It's terribly sad, and yes I'm excited about the ongoing work to connect Scranton. Lots of people commute daily via bus between Scranton and NYC and I feel for them.

I've heard mixed quotes from people who've talked in person with Schumer on whether this will eventually connect Binghamton, Elmira, Corning, or the rest of the Southern Tier and eventually to Buffalo. Some say he said they're talking about it and others have said he said there's no chance.

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