4 ms·

I used one, once. Ride took roughly 10 hours. 6 seats cabine, with people leaving and boarding a couple of times. Never again. Love the concept. But execution

by kharak 6y ago

I used one, once. Ride took roughly 10 hours. 6 seats cabine, with people leaving and boarding a couple of times. Never again. Love the concept. But execution needs to be premium (cabine / bed for myself, pleasent looking interior) and cheaper than alternatives. Otherwise plane or car are the superior options. Really hoping this will work out well.

iso1210 6y ago
You bought the cheapest ticket going - a 6 berth couchette. You could have instead chosen a 4 berth, or a 1-2-3 private cabin. Paris to Venice for example (pre covid), prices in the 6 berth couchette were €29, a 1 berth sleeper €170.
- kharak 6y ago
  Exactly, for 170€, I could simply fly.
  - iso1210 6y ago
    Fly the night before, then another €150 for a hotel room. Or you fly in the morning, early taxi (€30? €50?) to the airport, queues at the airport, then the transfer at the far end. And of course someone else is subsidising your €170 flight via the externalities of air travel.
z2 6y ago
Indeed. > You need special rolling stock, they only make one journey per day, and can't carry intermediate passengers -- nobody would board at 2 a.m." This was not the case on almost every overnight train I've taken (not in Europe). With non-private cabins (or worse, standard seats), there's nothing as dreadful as the sound of people boarding or leaving every hour through the entire night. I've most reliably slept on trains where the journey is usually short, say four hours, yet the night itinerary is stretched to 7 or 8 hours. That's usually a sign the train will stop before the destination and wait until the next morning before pulling in.
- freeflight 6y ago
  > there's nothing as dreadful as the sound of people boarding or leaving every hour through the entire night. That really depends on the individual. Personally I really like that kind of background noise when trying to sleep. I will usually listen to music with headphones and what gets trough is dampened so much that it nearly qualifies as "ambient" music. But I've spend quite some time as a kid in overnight trains travelling between West-East Germany and Yugoslavia, and even more time in my teens travelling by train across central Europe. I kind of like the whole experience even without a private cabin. A bit like a travelling hotel with changing sights. I can take along a couple of books and whatever food and drink I like, without having to worry about weird security rules. In contrast to that long-distance air travel evokes only negative associations for me: Dry circulated air, pressure on the ears, cramped seats, the feeling of being stuck in a completely sealed metal tube, the "streamy" noise coming from the engines is really annoying compared to the rhythm of the sounds a train makes. When walking around on a plane there is nothing really to see because you can only walk between rows of seats with very small windows, which makes me feel weirdly guilty. While on a train I can walk the full distance back and forth, taking in some of the sights trough the much larger windows. It's also considered much more normal than pacing between the seating aisles of a plane.
  - blt 6y ago
    The dry air in airplanes is not circulated. The cabin is pressurized with air from the compressor stage of the jet engine. Pressure is regulated by letting some air out of the cabin. It feels stale because the rate of air replacement is not fast enough. I agree with all your other dislikes of air travel though :) I wish we had more high-speed rail in the USA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabin_pressurization#Mechanics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabin_pressurization#Mechanics
- elric 6y ago
  It takes some getting used to. I used to make frequent trips by overnight coach between the north of England and Belgium. The coach would make several stops throughout the night, people would come and go, there was a pesky check at the UK/France border, etc. It was a dreadful experience (sleep wise) the first couple of times. But after a while I got used to it and just slept through the whole thing. Even managed the pesky border check while half asleep.

by kharak 6y ago

iso1210 6y ago

You bought the cheapest ticket going - a 6 berth couchette. You could have instead chosen a 4 berth, or a 1-2-3 private cabin. Paris to Venice for example (pre covid), prices in the 6 berth couchette were €29, a 1 berth sleeper €170.

kharak 6y ago
Exactly, for 170€, I could simply fly.
- iso1210 6y ago
  Fly the night before, then another €150 for a hotel room. Or you fly in the morning, early taxi (€30? €50?) to the airport, queues at the airport, then the transfer at the far end. And of course someone else is subsidising your €170 flight via the externalities of air travel.

z2 6y ago

Indeed. > You need special rolling stock, they only make one journey per day, and can't carry intermediate passengers -- nobody would board at 2 a.m." This was not the case on almost every overnight train I've taken (not in Europe). With non-private cabins (or worse, standard seats), there's nothing as dreadful as the sound of people boarding or leaving every hour through the entire night. I've most reliably slept on trains where the journey is usually short, say four hours, yet the night itinerary is stretched to 7 or 8 hours. That's usually a sign the train will stop before the destination and wait until the next morning before pulling in.

freeflight 6y ago
> there's nothing as dreadful as the sound of people boarding or leaving every hour through the entire night. That really depends on the individual. Personally I really like that kind of background noise when trying to sleep. I will usually listen to music with headphones and what gets trough is dampened so much that it nearly qualifies as "ambient" music. But I've spend quite some time as a kid in overnight trains travelling between West-East Germany and Yugoslavia, and even more time in my teens travelling by train across central Europe. I kind of like the whole experience even without a private cabin. A bit like a travelling hotel with changing sights. I can take along a couple of books and whatever food and drink I like, without having to worry about weird security rules. In contrast to that long-distance air travel evokes only negative associations for me: Dry circulated air, pressure on the ears, cramped seats, the feeling of being stuck in a completely sealed metal tube, the "streamy" noise coming from the engines is really annoying compared to the rhythm of the sounds a train makes. When walking around on a plane there is nothing really to see because you can only walk between rows of seats with very small windows, which makes me feel weirdly guilty. While on a train I can walk the full distance back and forth, taking in some of the sights trough the much larger windows. It's also considered much more normal than pacing between the seating aisles of a plane.
- blt 6y ago
  The dry air in airplanes is not circulated. The cabin is pressurized with air from the compressor stage of the jet engine. Pressure is regulated by letting some air out of the cabin. It feels stale because the rate of air replacement is not fast enough. I agree with all your other dislikes of air travel though :) I wish we had more high-speed rail in the USA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabin_pressurization#Mechanics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabin_pressurization#Mechanics
elric 6y ago
It takes some getting used to. I used to make frequent trips by overnight coach between the north of England and Belgium. The coach would make several stops throughout the night, people would come and go, there was a pesky check at the UK/France border, etc. It was a dreadful experience (sleep wise) the first couple of times. But after a while I got used to it and just slept through the whole thing. Even managed the pesky border check while half asleep.