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As an American who doesn't drive, the experience of trains in the EU compared to the US is just delightful. Yes, there are super cheap flights and I used them o

As an American who doesn't drive, the experience of trains in the EU compared to the US is just delightful. Yes, there are super cheap flights and I used them often for longer haul trips but the trains were always amazing- I've done trips including Mariupol to Lviv, Budapest to Berlin, and Berlin to Munich and always had a great experience. The Romania-Chisinau line is quite old but part of its charm. I see a lot of people talking about the expense compared to the cheap flights- those are solid and I've used them a lot but after you factor in the waiting time at airports, the unexpected fees in case your bag is a kilo too heavy, the uber to and from a far away airport, etc. it's really not that much of a difference. There is no comparison to trains in the U.S. (e.g. I took one for 3 days from DC to LA; while I enjoyed it, it was a slough with no real food facilities for the passengers not in sleeper cars, old chairs, etc.). I hope there will be more investment, especially in the Baltics.

hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago
I remember going to Crimea one summer some 20 years ago, it took almost 40 hours but boy it was something I'll never forget! Especially the babushkas with local produce, pelmeni and so on at every stop so you could buy them (so cheaply) just grabbing them from their hands through the window. Delicious food, great views and an excellent company. On the other side of the equations are superfast trains like the TGV, this one is expensive but in my humble opinion it is faster than plane on routes like Paris-Lyon and I'll take train over plane on any day at distances shorter than 500-700km.
- atlasunshrugged 5y ago
  Ah that sounds amazing! On the trains in Ukraine they did still have the babushkas hawking produce and fish at the stops and I have had some lovely conversations on these trains but I would have loved to go to Crimea. A Siberian railway trip is still on the bucket list but I will wait until things are less contentious and so I'm not putting dollars into the hands of the Putin regime.
PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
Sadly, anyone noticeably younger than me missed the chance to ride the Hellas Express (Dortmund to Athens). 3 days, 2 nights. Rode it twice. Then Yugoslavia came apart, war broke out, and the Hellas Express was no more.
- atlasunshrugged 5y ago
  That would have been incredible. I had actually started one journey in Athens and did the usual beach thing on an island before flying to Hungary to begin a train trip up to Germany (where I was starting a new job some days later). I would certainly have taken a train if I could. I had a chance to spend a few days in Albania and Serbia just before the pandemic and was very pleasantly surprised as to the countries. I don't know why but Albania I had a picture in my head as a very Soviet brutal country stuck in the mid 1900's but I think I saw far more prosperity in Tirana than say in Skopje.
pilsetnieks 5y ago
> I hope there will be more investment, especially in the Baltics. There is an ongoing development, Rail Baltica, European gauge, being built to join Helsinki through the Baltic states, to Poland, which will link up with Germany. The end date has slipped (it was supposed to be in 2024, now it's pushed to 2026) but construction is already ongoing, and it looks quite promising.
- atlasunshrugged 5y ago
  Yes, I was thinking specifically about this. I was working for the Estonian gov a while back and thought it would be great for this to be pushed forward; unfortunately the mistiming probably would have killed that new mall that was built around one of the stations if covid didn't. But maybe they'll get that and the tunnel to Helsinki done at the same time :)
vecinu 5y ago
> The Romania-Chisinau line is quite old but part of its charm. As a tourist when you have all the time in the world, I would agree it's part of the charm. When the development of your economy depends on such a neglected and terrible line, it's an unbelievable nightmare for people living in either country (Personal anecdotes support this).
- atlasunshrugged 5y ago
  Yeah I can imagine if you were a business traveler this would be a nightmare
afiori 5y ago
trains are weird because most European countries they are sorta nice but carry some kind of sizeable cruft. be if general disrepair or weird privatization incentives

hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago

I remember going to Crimea one summer some 20 years ago, it took almost 40 hours but boy it was something I'll never forget! Especially the babushkas with local produce, pelmeni and so on at every stop so you could buy them (so cheaply) just grabbing them from their hands through the window. Delicious food, great views and an excellent company. On the other side of the equations are superfast trains like the TGV, this one is expensive but in my humble opinion it is faster than plane on routes like Paris-Lyon and I'll take train over plane on any day at distances shorter than 500-700km.

atlasunshrugged 5y ago
Ah that sounds amazing! On the trains in Ukraine they did still have the babushkas hawking produce and fish at the stops and I have had some lovely conversations on these trains but I would have loved to go to Crimea. A Siberian railway trip is still on the bucket list but I will wait until things are less contentious and so I'm not putting dollars into the hands of the Putin regime.

PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago

Sadly, anyone noticeably younger than me missed the chance to ride the Hellas Express (Dortmund to Athens). 3 days, 2 nights. Rode it twice. Then Yugoslavia came apart, war broke out, and the Hellas Express was no more.

atlasunshrugged 5y ago
That would have been incredible. I had actually started one journey in Athens and did the usual beach thing on an island before flying to Hungary to begin a train trip up to Germany (where I was starting a new job some days later). I would certainly have taken a train if I could. I had a chance to spend a few days in Albania and Serbia just before the pandemic and was very pleasantly surprised as to the countries. I don't know why but Albania I had a picture in my head as a very Soviet brutal country stuck in the mid 1900's but I think I saw far more prosperity in Tirana than say in Skopje.

pilsetnieks 5y ago

> I hope there will be more investment, especially in the Baltics. There is an ongoing development, Rail Baltica, European gauge, being built to join Helsinki through the Baltic states, to Poland, which will link up with Germany. The end date has slipped (it was supposed to be in 2024, now it's pushed to 2026) but construction is already ongoing, and it looks quite promising.

atlasunshrugged 5y ago
Yes, I was thinking specifically about this. I was working for the Estonian gov a while back and thought it would be great for this to be pushed forward; unfortunately the mistiming probably would have killed that new mall that was built around one of the stations if covid didn't. But maybe they'll get that and the tunnel to Helsinki done at the same time :)

vecinu 5y ago

> The Romania-Chisinau line is quite old but part of its charm. As a tourist when you have all the time in the world, I would agree it's part of the charm. When the development of your economy depends on such a neglected and terrible line, it's an unbelievable nightmare for people living in either country (Personal anecdotes support this).

atlasunshrugged 5y ago
Yeah I can imagine if you were a business traveler this would be a nightmare

afiori 5y ago

trains are weird because most European countries they are sorta nice but carry some kind of sizeable cruft. be if general disrepair or weird privatization incentives