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

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

#191

Post by bluGill »

Freak_NL wrote: post #25
erk__ wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is daily trains between all the countries you named (at least those that share a border) most of them are no different than any other border crossing with exception of the trains going to and from England as you have to go through security for that one. I don't remember ever having a bad experience crossing a border when I was on InterRail some years back.

Really. Crossing borders within the Schengen-zone is trivial and goes unnoticed for most travellers. You can even cross multiple borders in your sleep on the night trains.

The problems crossing the border in Europe have nothing to do with the physical crossing. the Schengen zone is nice for that, but only solves one problem.

Often there is no border crossing at all where there should be one. Often nobody knows how to sell you a ticket for a trip that should be possible (or they will only do it with stupid restrictions). If you can find a train it may be a slow speed train despite this being trips where high speed is most useful. The trains may not be on time and you miss a connection.

there is a lot to improve about trains in Europe.

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

#192

Post by octacat »

snthd wrote: post #70
ivan_gammel wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You can buy from Polish Railways too. https://www.seat61.com/trains-and-routes/berlin-to-warsaw-by... The EU seemed (2021) to be working on it https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/qanda_...

Oh, login here specially to reply. Not really, pkp site is an old slow garbage with bugs, it makes everyone cry. So, you can buy, just do not expect it would be a good experience buying.

Apparently, railway companies cannot make sites.

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

#193

Post by octacat »

eigenket wrote: post #128
ivan_gammel wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried Omio and one more, but this specific direction was not available there via train. DB website was simply showing an error at the last step. A month later, by the moment error was gone all tickets appeared sold.

If you run into the problem again try the website of the Polish trains pkp.pl. You'll probably have to Google translate some stuff but it works well.

There is an english version. But pkp site loves to give you errors and timeouts too.

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

#194

Post by barrkel »

dieortin wrote: post #159
TacticalCoder wrote: post #140

I have amazing memories, as a kid, of going on vacation with my parents, from Belgium to the french riviera... We'd load our car , a Lada (the Lada Riva, an horrible car btw), on the train and then, in the same train, we'd go to the passenger car. The trip was about 1100 km / 685 miles. The train would drive over night and we'd eat and sleep in the train and then arrived near destination next morning, we'd hop into o…

I think we’re better off not carrying a 2ton machine with us on trains. Just renting a car on your destination sounds way more efficient

Luggage isn't more convenient on trains, and car rental often isn't super convenient either, if you need e.g. a 10 minute walk through city streets with all your bags to get to some multi-story car park.

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

#195

Post by awiesenhofer »

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…

So every time you say Europe you just mean Germany, right?

Cause European trains are for the most part just fine, its only german trains that very famously suck. So no need to extrapolate here.

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

#196

Post by awiesenhofer »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #140

I have amazing memories, as a kid, of going on vacation with my parents, from Belgium to the french riviera... We'd load our car , a Lada (the Lada Riva, an horrible car btw), on the train and then, in the same train, we'd go to the passenger car. The trip was about 1100 km / 685 miles. The train would drive over night and we'd eat and sleep in the train and then arrived near destination next morning, we'd hop into o…

Those still exist in Austria! As you write, great for travelling with the whole family. There are regular services in the summer time between ie. Vienna/Innsbruck and Livorno, Vienna and Split and others (Hamburg iirc). Also some all year round connections between Vienna and Bregenz/Zurich.

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

#197

Post by somewhereoutth »

testrun wrote: post #187
maxwell22 wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tax payers. In Germany, airplane fuel is not taxed. See this Greenpeace study (in German) about how much cheaper flying is than train rides and why: https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/regional/nordrheinwestfalen... .

Not taxed does not mean it is subsidized. Subsidy is when money is paid by the government to the airlines.

Tax on fuel reflects the externalities to the whole of society, and arguably it is not high enough.

So exempting tax (equivalently not charging for externalities) is indeed a subsidy, a transfer of wealth from government (and so society) to the airline operators.

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

#198

Post by awiesenhofer »

bratwurst3000 wrote: post #65

Traintraveling in Europe is amazing. Mainly Germany is the problem. And noone knows why. Maybe it’s because the have the longest distance to travel and share the same network with the short travel trains. Btw short train travel in Germany is mostly on point. And the problem with the delay is mostly along the rhine river . There is an excellent talks about German train delay from Daniel Krisel on the ccc

> And noone knows why

Everyone knows why! Its called "Schuldenbremse". (And Schroeders liberalisation, and 16 years of CDU surely didnt help either)

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

#199

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#200

Post by [deleted] »

maxwell22 wrote: post #180
foofie wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> German trains wishing to enter Switzerland need to wait at the border so the DB’s, err, _erratic_ scheduling doesn’t perturb the much more rigorous Swiss system. I'm rather skeptic of this take. Railway operators provide services by reserving track sections and train stations in specific time windows which take into account travel speed and scheduling. Rail track capacity is typically reserved for periods of over a…

70% of German trains that arrive at their destination are “delayed” (30 min or more). A train that never arrives is not counted as delayed. About 30% of German trains do not arrive at their destination. In Switzerland, the stats are single low percentage digits. After multiple ultimatums, Switzerland stopped allowing German trains into Switzerland. The most popular connection between Switzerland and Germany (Zurich-M…

[deleted]
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