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Title shared on HN left me somewhat disappointed. The actual time appears to be "Where can you go by train in 8h?", though that's somewhat less clear. It only
by Svip 2y ago
Title shared on HN left me somewhat disappointed. The actual time appears to be "Where can you go by train in 8h?", though that's somewhat less clear. It only seems to include central stations of larger cities, though I was hoping for a list of shortest travel times between stations in Europe, as more of a thought/data experiment. Or put another way; which two train stations in Europe have the least distance between them?
Anyway, the shared feature is neat, but seems to be somewhat iffy once you get out of the bigger cities. If a route has 2 or more connections, it seems to struggle to show them. While true to its message, I still feel the restriction of 8 hours misses sleeper trains, where travel time is less essential compared to daytime trains.
It's cute for discoverability, but for a specific train search, I would definitely defer to bahn.de, which basically includes all train stations in Europe.
- withinboredom 2y agoMy one and only sleeper train experience involved being woken up at 3am by police with guns to check passports. Never again.
- casenmgreen 2y agoWhich route was this?
- lionkor 2y agoMy one and only 6 hour sleeper train was in Russia. It was cozy, amazing views at night, and they wake you when your destination is coming up. I think when you share anecdotes like yours, its good to share anecdotes like mine, to balance it out :)
- leobg 2y agoWhich route? Does it still exist?
- chupasaurus 2y ago6 hours is too short for any special trains (i.e. #001/2 is Moscow - St.Petersburg 8 hour night train) so you can expect that at any route, also attendants have to wake up passengers by a rule. Added: GP is probably talking about a train that didn't cross a border.
- lionkor 2y agoI believe it was Krasnodar to Sochi, along the sea, so you'd wake up and look out and see nothing but ocean on one side. This was like two years ago or so, so still exists probably
- TypingOutBugs 2y agoI just took a sleeper train last night from Helsinki to the arctic circle and they had non-reclining seats with no light dimming. Got around an hours nap between 6am and 7am this morning. Took around 14 hours to go 1000km. Very much regret not paying for a proper cabin…
- Freak_NL 2y agoYeah, that's sleeper train travel 101. Either be young and not too tall and on a budget, or pay for a private cabin.
- CalRobert 2y agoTo counter that, the best sleeper train I ever took was from Beijing to Shanghai, and it felt like I'd travelled to the future (this was in 2008). Second best might be Portland, OR to Sacramento, though I might have liked it if had been more like travelling to the past (I miss proper dining cars). European ones have been cheap, cheerful, and uncomfortable, but this was 15 years ago for trips like Florence to Prague, IIRC.
- TypingOutBugs 2y agoThe Zephyr route from San Francisco to Chicago still has a proper dining cart, viewing cart, and is 52 hours long. Surprisingly comfortable and the only way you can access the Ruby Canyon in Colorado outside of a kayak.
- Gare 2y ago> I was hoping for a list of shortest travel times between stations in Europe, as more of a thought/data experiment. Or put another way; which two train stations in Europe have the least distance between them? You mean most distance you can travel in X hours?
- Svip 2y agoWhen I posted, the title on HN was "Shortest distance between stations in Europe", so it had nothing to do with "X hours".
- jorams 2y ago> I was hoping for a list of shortest travel times between stations in Europe, as more of a thought/data experiment. Or put another way; which two train stations in Europe have the least distance between them? That would not be very interesting. I live close to a train station that's less than 5 minutes (by train) away from the nearest other train station. The other train station is the city hub with many connections to other cities. There is nothing interesting about this connection, it simply replaces a 20 minute bike or bus ride. There are many such connections.
- Svip 2y agoI assume if you only observe the data in isolation. But compiling that data would provide an image of where the density of stations are higher. Again, we can assume that's probably around the bigger cities, but until we actual lay out the data, we are just assuming. Maybe it'll prove the data right, but maybe it will reveal something we didn't expect. Testing the obvious sometimes lead to unobvious observations.