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

#51

Post by hannob » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 8:28 PM UTC

erk__ wrote: post #22

bluGill wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe mostly speaks a different language in every country, so the actual scale of Europe isn't the whole continent (or whole EU), but a single country. Sure you can travel to other countries, but there is a language barrier (though English is common enough to get by most places). Note that GP was talking about Germany with seeming no awareness that the situation is different in Switzerland, France, England and Spain…

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.

I don't have experience with InterRail, but the bad experience often starts with buying a ticket.

The amount of "we cannot sell you that ticket, we can't even tell you the price" I have gotten when checking international connections is wild. It is slowly improving (I just checked a particularly absurd example where Deutsche Bahn was unable to sell a ticket to switzerland through if it wasn't bought a long time in advance - seems at least they fixed that), but still... it's absurd if your train trip starts with "figure out how to get a ticket, because the train company won't tell you."

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

#52

Post by wdb » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 8:29 PM UTC

Just wished it didn't cost £140 to get from London to Edinburgh (4.5 hour train ride). It's stupidly expensive you can fly there for a lot less

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

#53

Post by cassepipe » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 8:29 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…

Personally my main gripe is not so much the speed as going to higher speed is probably less efficient hence more expensive.

My main gripe is the price (I am poor by european standards). For example going from Paris to Napoli only by train is currently above 300 euros whereas you can find a flight for 40 euros. I am ready to pay around 100 euros for that. Recently there was sleeper car train from Paris to Milano which was affordable but the company did not last alas. I am personally ready to pay more in order to avoid a flight, I don't even care about the time it takes, I like being on trains. Sleeper cars are even better. The only thing is the price.

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

#54

Post by abdullahkhalids » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 8:30 PM UTC

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 during normal days, but it's likely used quite a lot. Might be used a lot more if the trains were a bit faster.

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

#55

Post by deburo » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 8:31 PM UTC

ericmay wrote: post #41

scott_w wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The EU has an average density of 112 people per square km compared to 36 in the USA. Isn't that a misleading statistic, though? It's not like the USA is an evenly spread wasteland in comparison to Continental Europe. It's more like pockets of high population density throughout, which trains can handle perfectly well. Russia and Ukraine are similar in that they're pockets of cities separated by miles of steppe. Both…

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.

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

#56

Post by thrance » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 8:32 PM UTC

bluGill wrote: post #17

kibwen wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> especially in small Europe What's small about the scale of Europe in this context? Even taking the extremely conservative measurement of Madrid to Berlin, that's 1200 miles/2000 km, which is comparable to the entire length of the Japanese isles, or the distance from Beijing to the South China Sea, or the distance from Boston to Minneapolis and/or Miami. Speaking as an American, I'd be over the moon if our passenger…

Europe mostly speaks a different language in every country, so the actual scale of Europe isn't the whole continent (or whole EU), but a single country. Sure you can travel to other countries, but there is a language barrier (though English is common enough to get by most places). Note that GP was talking about Germany with seeming no awareness that the situation is different in Switzerland, France, England and Spain…

I had zero trouble visiting my german friends by train last november, departing from Paris. I didn't even have to leave my seat. I have no idea what you are trying to say.

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

#57

Post by pvg » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 8:32 PM UTC

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.

Please don't pick the most provocative thing in an article or post to complain about in the thread. Find something interesting to respond to instead.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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

#58

Post by GrumpySloth » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 8:33 PM UTC

ikesau wrote: post #46

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.

The article is citing Alberto Mazzola, the executive director of the CER. He says that reduced emissions and price are driving the rise in demand. Clearly he's not impartial here, but I'd trust him to be forthright about these reasons.

I can see reduced prices driving the demand. I doubt about the reduced emissions part. Why should I believe that that’s what’s driving people?

To me it just sounds like a marketing spin. Don’t get me wrong: it’s cool that people are choosing a cleaner means of transport, but I doubt this is the reason.

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

#59

Post by umpalumpaaa » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 8:34 PM UTC

bluGill wrote: post #17

kibwen wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> especially in small Europe What's small about the scale of Europe in this context? Even taking the extremely conservative measurement of Madrid to Berlin, that's 1200 miles/2000 km, which is comparable to the entire length of the Japanese isles, or the distance from Beijing to the South China Sea, or the distance from Boston to Minneapolis and/or Miami. Speaking as an American, I'd be over the moon if our passenger…

Europe mostly speaks a different language in every country, so the actual scale of Europe isn't the whole continent (or whole EU), but a single country. Sure you can travel to other countries, but there is a language barrier (though English is common enough to get by most places). Note that GP was talking about Germany with seeming no awareness that the situation is different in Switzerland, France, England and Spain…

This is not really true. There are high speed trains operated by Italy that start in the center of Germany (Frankfurt) and end in Milano – crossing Switzerland. There are also trains that start in Germany end end in south France (Mannheim - Marseille). Super easy to purchase tickets.

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

#60

Post by ivan_gammel » Fri, Jan 05, 2024, 8:35 PM UTC

bondant wrote: post #33

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.

Couldn't you book with another ticket seller? Like trainline.eu?

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.