My experience riding trains in Europe as a European is that everything is great when you're traveling domestically (bar the usual complaints from any commuter that exist but differ between any mode of transport) but once you take a train that crosses a border things really fall apart. Especially when it's not some commuter line.
That's one thing I wish the EU really did better - do more to integrate and de-federate the rail systems. There should be no major difference riding the rails in any state. Of course, this is a lofty goal since even within countries usually commuter transport is run by local companies and not even nationally interoperable.
I love the experience of travelling in Europe by train, but it certainly is cumbersome and expensive.
I took a car train from Hamburg to Vienna last year. Drive the car into the train, and get a sleeping coach for the 14 hour journey - as comfortable a journey I could ask for. Except it cost about €1000 if I remember correctly for my family. I still preferred it because it negated the need to rent a car in Austria, and also saved in baggage costs on a flight. However, if trains could be scaled up, the costs would come down and become competitive even for people who aren’t needing those perks like baggage and car transport.
The train (and tracks) are not as compatible across Europe as I thought. You can travel from Denmark to Austria by train, but be ready to change from Danish train to German, to Austrian train because of different track or signaling systems. Now, the anxiety is on the passenger to not miss a connection at each of those countries (sometimes at the middle of the night).
If EU regulated the train system as a continent, and brought in a whole “European rail system” and not just a ticketing system that works with individual country systems, that would be the beginning of rail as a great transport option. I still have hopes that it’d happen. I just wish it will happen sooner and in my life time.
I moved from western Europe to eastern Europe and public transport by train is absolutely horrible. I still hope that one day I can catch a train that arrives on schedule. We're not talking a couple of minutes delay, we're talking multiple hours. Even when the train finally departs, it'll pick up delay along the way due to poorly maintained tracks and bad scheduling. All of this turns 6 hour trips into 10 hour trips.
I am well aware that this is anecdotal. But from my point of view, not all rails are fast and well-maintained in Europe. Based on my personal experience, that statement applies to western Europe.
Isn't some of this due to different use cases? The need for the German government to have a train from Berlin to Bremen makes sense in a way that probably doesn't matter if you're not living in Germany, but having a train that connects on the various borders in a compatible way is harder to fund and requires all the other countries to generally agree to do it at the same time.
The likely outcome of a whole-EU train system is something like the US system where Amtrak generally hits the major population centers, but leaves a ton of the US behind because when you talk about Federal priorities, a train from Denver to Dallas isn't a huge priority compared to LA to SF or Boston to NYC. Obviously the EU system would fare better because it's starting from a better base, but it's emblematic of the tradeoff between bottom-up and top-down planning and investment for something like this.
That looks awesome. I always feel bad for the US that it doesn't have a decent use of the rail network for such a beautiful country.
Hands down one of the best things you can do as a young European is get an Interail/Eurorail Pass. Wake up with your friends in a hostel in Berlin? How about looking on a map and deciding going to Prague that day? Easy.
We did about 15 countries in five/six weeks the first time and it gave such a great feeling of being a European, of the benefits of EU membership and getting to explore the culture, history, partying etc of the place. For very cheap. The train is so nice to chill out compared to a car and to see things you wouldn't see by flying. Plus you find yourself going to places you wouldn't do otherwise as you can just jump off somewhere along the way and maybe stay there for a few hours or days.
It's so awesome that the EU is bringing in a discounted/free pass for young citizens soon. It's by far the best way for people to really appreciate some of its best benefits as you sit chatting to people doing the same thing from half a dozen other countries over a beer on a train adventure somewhere.
Europe's train network is often excellent within a country, but lacking when it comes to crossing country borders. That's starting to be addressed now, but it will take some time for the effects to be seen.
What isn't awesome is cross-border trains, it's always ad-hoc. I think there should be some grand unifying vision of complete cross-border (at least Schengen) connections. Possibly a new EU institution, whatever, because often it looks like every train company is playing in its own playground and cross-border connections are at best an afterthought.
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 trains (not the fast ones). Which removes the hassle of dealing with local subway and bus companies.
But the trains are often late, which sucks, especially if you want to ride in the evening.
If Europe could get on Japan's level, that would be a dream.
I really wish the train network was working better Europe-wide. Maybe there should be a EU train company that integrates the national ones. The network should be able to substitute as many flights as possible.
Right now, even buying tickets or just getting information can be hard, and let's not start with all the local discount cards that you need to use to make it worthwhile.
This is the baffling side of the EU to all outsiders/newcomers. When I first moved here, that was my first thought as well. There is just so much in common, why repeat everything everywhere instead of single effort with branches everywhere?! (police force, consular services, Identity services, and pretty much any Government paperwork one can think of, transportation services etc). However, the population is very localised and divided. The French do it their way, Italians another way, the Germans on their own way etc. It is hard to find gain common ground beyond what EU already represents(which is very good IMO). I do wish doing things at EU level becomes the norm, and individualities slowly disappear.
Imagine a single European rail service (not Euro rail where you can buy a single ticket that will make you take Dutch train, and then connect on a German train, and then on an Austrian train, and if you miss a connection, good luck figuring out your replacement..)
But wait. If you plan to travel a LOT with a train within Europe, and you are a European resident, check out the Interrail passes.
For non-residents, check out Eurail instead.
I've no experience with Eurail but Interrail worked fine back in the days and saved a lot of money, too. As horribly cliché as it may sound, it truly was a great eye-opening experience which made me appreciate Europe (culture, people, cuisine, geography, history, and so on) more than I did before.
The whole "Eurorail" "pissing match" between jurisdictions/countries, where you have to confirm/book everything, sometimes manually, ostensibly because of "interoperability" issues ...
... is sad.-
It would be a gamechanger for Europe, were it to function in a frictionless, integrated, simple way.-
More trains are great, but whai really needed is a unified, EU-wide booking system.
Currently, each operator has their own site, with its own pricing structure and sometimes its own loyalty bonuses. Cross-border trains sometimes have dramatically different prices when you buy tickets in the origin vs destination country.
But worst of all, you often can't buy one ticket for complex routes across Europe, as you can with flights. Instead, you're forced to piece it together yourself from individual tickets. The problem with this is that since you haven't bought a ticket from anyone for the entire route, it's your own responsibility if a train is delayed and you miss your connection. Until we fix this, trains will never be a viable option for many trips.
I would love to use trains more in Europe, but their prices cannot compete with cheap flight providers at all, 30ish EUR flights pretty much from any country to any country in Europe are hard to beat
That's one thing I wish the EU really did better - do more to integrate and de-federate the rail systems. There should be no major difference riding the rails in any state. Of course, this is a lofty goal since even within countries usually commuter transport is run by local companies and not even nationally interoperable.
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