Earlier quoted context omitted.
That Venice train is great. Living near Paris, we can do a weekend in Venice with two full days on the ground but only one night in a hotel (which is handy since rooms start at around $400/night there.) It’s a shame that they killed off the dozen other night train destinations from here over the years. If Sweden and Norway open up as possibilities, I’ll be dragging the family up there the first sunny weekend.
Sorry which train is that from Paris to Venice? How long does it take?
Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains
161–170 of 274 posts
Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honestly if the unfair competition from budget airlines doesn't stop I don't see overnight trains coming back in any significant way any time soon. Edit: If you're wondering what I find unfair about it, I'm mainly concerned about the lack of taxes on kerosine.
What makes it unfair? Just curious. Is it subsidized in some fashion that trains are not?
In most EU states, there are VAT exemptions for the fuel used in domestic and intra-EU flights, while no similar exemptions exist for the fuel used in trains (and cars). Likewise, there exist VAT exemptions for plane tickets.
At least in Portugal, querosene is also exempt from the ISP (tax on the petroleum products). VAT and ISP make up more than half of the retail price of diesel and is almost 2/3 of the price of gasoline. Interestingly, the VAT rate of 23% is applied to the price with ISP included. So you effectively pay a tax on the tax. Finally, there's the fact that we're emitting free 2009/29/EC directive carbon allowances for aviation.
Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interestingly enough in Europe there are places [1] where you can take a train which goes on a ferry, so you can take the ferry while you take the train [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vogelfluglinie
I've taken this train from Hamburg to Coppenhagen. It's fascinating to watch the train be put on the ferry and then you got a nice ferry ride and can marvel at the size of the wind farms off the coast. I would highly recommend it if you have the time.
I have done this exact journey about a decade ago. It was a really good experience - made all the more memorable as I was not expecting the train to roll on to the ferry! The daytime ferry transit provided good views and I second the recommendation to try it.
Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains
#164Excited about this idea. I wanted to do an overnight train in a Europe trip I did last year, but the timing and quality never quite worked out. A lot of the time, trains between cities in western Europe are annoyingly long for a day trip, but slightly _too short_ for overnight trips - almost like an NYC->London red-eye, where you arrive just after you fall asleep. The couple of overnight trains I saw that seemed like…
>Western Europe Try Middle Europe. Take a train from Prague to Vienna to Zurich and on to Paris .. or Berlin, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, I mean if you plan things properly, its a very, very comfortable way to ride around see Europe properly: slow enough to grok the landscape.
I've done Krakow to Prague and Prague to Zurich and both of those were fantastic experiences. I've also done Verona to Paris which I would rate less highly - the Thello is significantly more expensive for a less comfortable train, additionally we were stopped and all passengers checked on the French border, which hadn't happened entering either the Czech Republic or Switzerland.
Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
I took this ride once but didn't actually know that was how it worked. I woke up in an empty car clearly in some kind of enclosure. It wasn't until leaving the car and going up a set of stairs that I realized my train was on a boat. Until then, I wasn't so sure I wasn't in a rail yard or sci-fi movie.
I'm actually surprised they let you stay on the train. Both times I've taken that route they seemed pretty diligent about making sure everybody was off the train. I assume this is for safety reasons -- down in a darkened train on the lowest deck would be the last place I'd want to be if the ferry had any difficulties. I really liked the ferry experience. The ferry part is only about 40 minutes, but it's just enough t…
I don't know, but perhaps I just overslept everyone else clearing out, but not long enough for staff to come by. It was pretty weird!
Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains
#166Come to think of it, this could take off in the US too. I wouldn't mind taking a sleeper (to and from) between SF and Seattle. 807mi at 100mph = 8 hours and change. Pretty nice.
Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains
#167So back in Russia a trip from my home town to Moscow on a plane takes about 6 hours in total. - get to the airport about 1 hour in advance - about 1.5 hour drive - The flight with all the procedures takes about 2 hours - All the exit procedures can take up to 0.5 hours easily if no longer - Wait for a train and ride to the city on the train - about 1 hour. - Once in the city get on subway and ride to destination - us…
it would be fun to take a trans-siberian rail ... except it takes like what ...7 days? eats up vacation time pretty quickly.
Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains
#168This is smart because it uses electricity during the lowest demand period of the energy load profile. If your country or one of its neighbours has high base load power generation like France does, it makes a lot of sense to run electric trains during the night because they'll use electricity which is otherwise sold at a discount or redirected to pumped hydroelectric storage or other storage options if they exist.
Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
I took this ride once but didn't actually know that was how it worked. I woke up in an empty car clearly in some kind of enclosure. It wasn't until leaving the car and going up a set of stairs that I realized my train was on a boat. Until then, I wasn't so sure I wasn't in a rail yard or sci-fi movie.
I'm actually surprised they let you stay on the train. Both times I've taken that route they seemed pretty diligent about making sure everybody was off the train. I assume this is for safety reasons -- down in a darkened train on the lowest deck would be the last place I'd want to be if the ferry had any difficulties. I really liked the ferry experience. The ferry part is only about 40 minutes, but it's just enough t…
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Re: Sweden Wants to Revive Europe’s Overnight Trains
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
You write "_ferry_" like it's something weird, but it's a completely normal transport option for a huge number of Europeans -- usually for longer journeys, but sometimes to cover a short distance in 20-30 minutes. There are many ferry connections across the Irish, North, Baltic and Mediterranean seas. Ignoring the price, I'd choose an overnight ferry over an overnight train. The worst room on a ferry is probably as l…
I have been on a few overnight trains here in Sweden and they have all been quite old, noisy and shaky ones. This initiative might give enough incentives for companies to invest in better overnight trains, but so far what we are being promised are more lines rather than better experience. In contrast, overnight ferry has been mostly a delight. The room are smaller than hotel but much better than train, they don't sha…
There are in the Mediterranean. For instance between Morocco and Algeria it's one of the two options to cross the border, because the land border is closed (due to territorial disputes).