6 ms·

Transfers... You're already in the airport, getting to the railway station will take time.

lxgr 3y ago
Many airports in Europe already have high-speed connections and reasonably short walking times to the gate, but the real issue is liability for missed connections: In Germany, Lufthansa and German railways have had a cooperation called "Rail & Fly" for many years now, and they even assign IATA "flight" numbers to some trains and (I believe) allow checking baggage through in some instances. But last time I used it, the ticketing conditions said that it was my responsibility to take an early-enough train and allow for three hours of buffer, or I'd risk having to pay for a lost connection out of pocket. That's compared to connections of as little as 45 minutes when changing planes in the same terminal. Airlines are incentivized to make that connection if at all possible, since they have to pay a compensation for any delays of more than three hours in the EU, including delays for missed connections.
- The_Colonel 3y ago
  I mostly fly from Vienna, Prague and Budapest and none of them have fast rail connection. I think this is a hard problem, since the rail lines naturally converge in the city, at the airport you'll get one rail line at best and quite likely need to change in the city again.
  - lxgr 3y ago
    Vienna airport is definitely serviced by Railjet trains (Austrian railways' high-speed product) stopping directly at the airport railway station. The same is true for Frankfurt am Main (one of the largest airports in Europe, serviced by ICE trains from all over Germany). The point here is to replace a shuttle flight from a hub to a satellite airport of an airline/alliance, and for that to make sense, there needs to be both high-speed rail infrastructure from a given city to such a hub airport, and a train station at the hub airport.
    - The_Colonel 3y ago
      > Vienna airport is definitely serviced by Railjet trains (Austrian railways' high-speed product) stopping directly at the airport railway station. Which provide connection to only a handful of Austrian towns / cities. For everything else (esp. international trains), you need to change at the Hauptbahnhof.

lxgr 3y ago

Many airports in Europe already have high-speed connections and reasonably short walking times to the gate, but the real issue is liability for missed connections: In Germany, Lufthansa and German railways have had a cooperation called "Rail & Fly" for many years now, and they even assign IATA "flight" numbers to some trains and (I believe) allow checking baggage through in some instances. But last time I used it, the ticketing conditions said that it was my responsibility to take an early-enough train and allow for three hours of buffer, or I'd risk having to pay for a lost connection out of pocket. That's compared to connections of as little as 45 minutes when changing planes in the same terminal. Airlines are incentivized to make that connection if at all possible, since they have to pay a compensation for any delays of more than three hours in the EU, including delays for missed connections.

The_Colonel 3y ago
I mostly fly from Vienna, Prague and Budapest and none of them have fast rail connection. I think this is a hard problem, since the rail lines naturally converge in the city, at the airport you'll get one rail line at best and quite likely need to change in the city again.
- lxgr 3y ago
  Vienna airport is definitely serviced by Railjet trains (Austrian railways' high-speed product) stopping directly at the airport railway station. The same is true for Frankfurt am Main (one of the largest airports in Europe, serviced by ICE trains from all over Germany). The point here is to replace a shuttle flight from a hub to a satellite airport of an airline/alliance, and for that to make sense, there needs to be both high-speed rail infrastructure from a given city to such a hub airport, and a train station at the hub airport.
  - The_Colonel 3y ago
    > Vienna airport is definitely serviced by Railjet trains (Austrian railways' high-speed product) stopping directly at the airport railway station. Which provide connection to only a handful of Austrian towns / cities. For everything else (esp. international trains), you need to change at the Hauptbahnhof.