To neighboring countries yes, if there is a good connection. If there is a night train even further. However, the price should not be much higher than a flight and I want to change train as little as possible. Buying tickets should not be too complicated either. Unfortunately, taking an airplane is often easier in my experience. We need a true high-speed railway network across Europe. Something like the Shinkanzen.
I’m currently waiting for a train to go two countries over for a weekend, so… yes?
update: am on the train
I took a trip from the Netherlands to Romania, and amazingly only had a single transfer.
At least, that was the plan, but then a train went missing on the way there and we had an additional transfer. Pretty stressful. Way home was super smooth though.
The one thing I don’t get the EU doesn’t bring down the hammer on is getting directions and buying tickets. Feels like that should be a relatively easy fix, forcing all European rail companies to align from the top down. But I’m probably unaware of something that makes that harder than it seems.
Pretty much all train companies are vast old overcomolicated state-run monoliths that are very used to everyone working around them in their own country. Such organisations suddenly having to work together with others as equals requires a culture shift. Not to mention the technical challenges, the IT systems - if they even have any, or any from this century - are typically vastly different. They’d have to invest massively in modernisation and standardisation before they can even think of integration. This requires a multi-year effort and a lot of investment, which many states are not ready to make.
Sauce: the Swiss state-run train company SBB/CFF/FFS is and has been working hard to integrate the systems of just our neighbours, and it has been … interesting.
Oh yes, I’m not doubting it would be a multi-year effort, it’s more that I’m not aware of any such effort being in progress. Like, couldn’t the EU at least have set a goal of interoperability in
xyears?
As a French living in Germany, I often take the train to visit some friends/family. I would say it’s working well from Frankfurt to Lyon or Frankfurt to Paris and not too expensive if you have a Bahncard and you can plan your trip in advance. But IMO, it the least we should expect from 2 neighboring countries.
I’m very excited to see the resurgence of night trains though, I love this mean of transport in particular!
I am fighting the train travel jihad, I take the train even if it’s more expensive and takes way longer.
There are dozens of us! Dozens!!!
An elegant form of tavel, for a more civilized time.
I know flights are usually cheaper (unfortunately, when you look at the CO2 emissions), but I like to take the train from time to time. Last time I did Barcelona - Madrid in high-speed-train, that was quite nice.
Sweden is so bloody long. I’ve gone to Norway and Denmark by train. Denmark by train was roughly the same time as flying, including transfer etc. Too far for any other country really
The trick is to catch a sleeper train. Have a full day of work/leisure, board the train, sleep, and wake up at your destination in the morning.
The Stockholm-Copenhagen journey is short enough that they park the train somewhere in the middle of southern Sweden for an hour or two to make the timing more convenient.
Yeah, did that to Norway. Denmark was like six hours, with one switch in Lund.
Please avoid trains in Greece. Last year about 60 people were killed (most I think were uni students), because we don’t have almost any safety mechanisms… There were two trains, one with passengers who took the last train and one on the opposite direction on the same track for ~10 ehole minutes before the collided…
The other train seems to had been carring illegal flammable oil or sonething that caused an explosion upon collision.
The goverment tried to cover up everything once it happened (they even poured cement on the collision point and removed debris “to clean the space”, thus removing evidence), there were some (unifished) joke trials that lead almost nowhere (there might still be investigations) and most importantly, the people working on the trains say that there have been nearly zero improvements to the system. And they blamed it ~all on the single guy who managed the tracks/routes of the trains.
Another symptom of capitalism (the company which operates the trains is private for some years)…
Check this wikipedia article if you want to learn more https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempi_train_crash (or search somewhere else).
It’s sad because trains ~should be the future means of transportation, along with trams (only the capital city has tram I think)…
PS. On the other hand, I dont know how much less safe our trains are compared to boeing planes, hmm.
So you’re saying the train company needs to be nationalised and the capitalist pigs running it into the ground while extracting profits for themselves tried & jailed?
Because that’s what I am saying.
The governments need to be tried too (especially the current one, those people should probably be jailed for many many things they’ve done), but there are laws protecting them…
As I’m living in the north of Germany I could probably easily go to Denmark and Sweden, haven’t tried that yet though. Been to Prague by train once, which was okay, as there was a direct connection by EC.
Actually I’m planning to go to Austria this summer, so I’ve recently looked it up. Plane tickets are more then twice as expensive compared to train for my route. The train takes 11-12 hours (depending on connection) though, which is absolute max for me. So yeah, wouldn’t go further than that. (Still looked up a connection to Croatia, that would’ve been an absolute pain in the a** by train…)
The Swedish sleeper trains between Berlin/Hamburg and Stockholm are pretty convenient, and I can highly recommend them. Apparently there’s one (run by Snälltåget) between Stockholm and Dresden now as well. When the Fehmarn tunnel opens in a few years, the trip will become a few hours shorter, hopefully opening up new routes.
It is just too expensive compare to plane and that’s a shame. I’ve seen it is cheaper for scotisch and Londoners to meet in Spain than to take train.
If you fly, we all pay more.
I did an interrail journey some years ago, so yeah I guess! (800 euro at the time for 15 days of unlimited train everywhere in Europe but the country you start at, it was a cool trip).
I have done Berlin-Paris multiple times. My partner has traveled from Berlin to Manchester with a stop over in London. Berlin-Copenhagen as well. We like traveling by train
Just got back from a two week train trip across Europe. Overall, found it very easy and accessible to move around.
Here’s the general itinerary:
- London to Brussels
- Brussels to Prague (night train)
- Prague to Vienna
- Vienna to Zurich (night train)
- Zurich to Bern
- Bern to Lyon
- Lyon to Nîmes
- Nîmes to Barcelona
The only train problem on the trip was our night train to Prague. The carriage was 28-30° C and very uncomfortable. Especially for a 16 hour trip.
The inconsistency of scheduling, signage and trip information was a challenge. Especially when you add in the language barriers.
My ranking of the train systems:
- Switzerland (obviously)
- Austria
- France
- Spain
- Czechia
I wanted to downvote you for not stopping in Geneva but then you rated SBB/CFF at the obvious number one.
But more seriously, for your next trip you should try the Italian high speed lines (Trenitalia Frecciarossa or Italo AGV). They are amazing and probably the best high speed network and trains on the continent.
Did change trains in Geneva. So I was there for 14 minutes 🙂
Visited Geneva for a longer time in 2018.
I wanted to get into Italy but it didn’t quite work for our schedule. Hopefully next time
happy Swiss noises
Yes I just did, but the line I used isn’t on your picture. I used the ÖBB Nightjet from Zürich over Innsbruck and Wien to Budapest.
The train left at 20:40 and arrived at 08:00 the next day. Was pretty chill. Though I wish there was more modern rolling stock for nighttains.
I did and will continue to do so… But I think I am still in a minority here. Most people probably just get on a plane. At least if they are going further than a neighbouring country.