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Initiative to connect all European capitals through a high-speed train network
- pestatije 3y agoEU initiative...i guess they mean all EU capitals...i wish they would stop appropriating the whole continent for themselves
- bojan 3y agoIt says explicitly "all European capitals". London for example is already connected.
- malermeister 3y agoThe EU also funds tons of projects outside its own borders.
- malermeister 3y agoMore 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.
- Symbiote 3y agohttps://www.raileurope.com/ https://www.raileurope.com/ might provide some of this. (I haven't really needed it myself, the longest journeys I've made have only covered two countries at most.)
- 908B64B197 3y ago> EU-wide booking system. Maybe they can achieve what we had in America back in the 60's with SABRE [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabre_Corporation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabre_Corporation
- malermeister 3y agoSo there's actually Amadeus, which is the biggest provider in that category worldwide, based out of Madrid: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amadeus_CRS https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amadeus_CRS However, train travel isn't really properly integrated as far as I can tell.
- madcaptenor 3y agoI feel like this would be a lot better with a map of the proposed network, and some statistics on how much faster it would make common journeys.
- bobthepanda 3y agoIt looks like a petition to figure it out, not a plan
- TacticalCoder 3y agoHere's the explanation with a map (couldn't resist): https://youtu.be/Yyj5cv5FPWA https://youtu.be/Yyj5cv5FPWA
- bettercallsalad 3y agoI have travelled through Europe quite extensively. IMO cheap flights like Ryanair and Wizz beat train hands down - pricewise especially if you are carrying light luggage and also because most airports are now connected from city center by train in Europe (something which is a huge issue in US making you rely on your own transport or taxi.)
- TacticalCoder 3y ago> I have travelled through Europe quite extensively. IMO cheap flights like Ryanair and Wizz beat train hands down Europe is fighting hard short haul flights, many of which are now just plain down illegal. Several countries, including France, have already banned short haul flights of less than 2h30. I see this "high speed trains" push as related to the attack by the EU on short haul flights. So no matter if we find that cheap flights do beat trains hands down or not, in a near future there may not be any choice: and the choice seems like it's going to be train.
- switch007 3y ago> Europe is fighting hard short haul flights, many of which are now just plain down illegal “Many” is a complete misrepresentation. Three routes within France and 2 within Austria. This is an absolutely minuscule percentage of EU flights. (Austria’s latest “ban” of Vienna-Salzburg was part of a bailout deal so probably was to do with cost cutting too.)
- mariusor 3y agoI recently flew for 2 hours between two capitals in Europe. I had a one hour train ride to get to the departure airport, one hour train ride from the destination to my accommodation. I had to be at the airport one and a half hours before the flight departure, because I had to go through all the demeaning practices that make a flight "safe". At the destination the airline lost my luggage so it was another 2 hours to submit a claim. Tell me how riding a sleeping train for 10 hours is worse than that. Even though my example is a little exaggerated for drama purposes, I still would prefer a night train to the 5-6 hour middle of the day disruption and stress that flying is. I'm pretty sure that there are many like me.
- veave 3y agoInteresting how we are going backwards, from planes to trains.
- sempron64 3y agoIt’s not backwards, high speed rail was invented in the 60s with the shinkansen, about the same time as the modern airliner.
- pornel 3y agoBack to the old days of having quick boarding without a crotch scan, having plenty of legroom, normal-size restrooms, and a restaurant car. And you travel from city center to city center, rather than middle-of-nowheres named after a city.
- veave 3y agoCrotch scan doesn't happen in the EU, and the rest doesn't matter if you can get there much faster. >And you travel from city center to city center, rather than middle-of-nowheres named after a city. When you land you can rent a car... when you arrive on a train you are forced to either pay for a taxi or take pub... pu... public transportation
- Tade0 3y agoI for one appreciate bar cars. Also it's not always much faster. Italy's high speed network eventually won with their national airline. And no wonder - a trip going halfway across the peninsula takes roughly as much time, but is generally more pleasant.
- ThePowerOfFuet 3y agoPublic transportation in most Western European capital cities is excellent. Do you think the Barcelona metro is only for plebs who are below you in the pecking order?
- emptysongglass 3y agoIn my experience across the US and the EU, most of the time they're late so there's a lot of idle waiting.
- deepthunder 3y agoHigh Speed Rail is expensive. Wouldn't be better to put the money towards Regional local services instead?
- stuaxo 3y agoBy building dedicated lines you free up space on regional lines.
- kyriakos 3y agoValetta and Nicosia will be fun to connect
- hulitu 3y agoThey connected Paris with London, so it is not impossible.
- goodbyesf 3y agoWouldn't it be better to connect major european economic and cultural centers? Also, I doubt they are going to connect to dublin or reykjavik. So not all.
- bojan 3y agoIn most countries of Europe, the capitals _are_ major economic and cultural centers of their respective countries. Actually I can't really think of a country where that's not the case - only countries with a very strong second city.
- landemva 3y agoBern Switzerland comes to mind.
- madcaptenor 3y agoArguably Germany and Italy are exceptions. At the very least only including Berlin and Rome in this system would be an oversight.
- im3w1l 3y agoAnyone ran the numbers? How much does this cost compared to planes running on synthetic fuel from solar energy?
- based2 3y agohttps://transport.ec.europa.eu/transport-themes/infrastructure-and-investment/trans-european-transport-network-ten-t_en https://transport.ec.europa.eu/transport-themes/infrastructu... https://ec.europa.eu/transport/infrastructure/tentec/tentec-portal/map/maps.html https://ec.europa.eu/transport/infrastructure/tentec/tentec-... https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Transport_statistics_at_regional_level https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php...
- rurban 3y agoThough the next German government will kill it.