Has anyone here travelled by rail in Europe and/or on the British Isles[?] How was your experience & how would you compare it to passenger service here in North America[?]
I do not ride A/trak but I have ridden in the overnite sleeper from Sr. Petersburg to Moscow Russia & it was comfortable. I also rode from St. Petersburg to Helsinki & that to was also very comforable both on the Russia & Finnish side. [:D]
I have travelled by rail extensively in the U.K., Europe and in the U.S.
Amtrak’s Acela trains (between DC and Boston) compare favourably with the speed, frequency, punctuality, comfort, standard of services and safety record of British and European Intercity trains.
Amtrak’s Silver Service overnight trains (NY to Miami) are a pleasure (compared to flying or driving) but fall way short of European standards for overnight sleeping car trains. The same applies to Amtrak’s other long distance trains.
The main difference between European and U.S. intercity travel, is that it is possible to travel by rail frequently, quickly and conveniently between all principle (say pop. 50,000) European cities. Whereas that is only possible on the N.E. Corridor (Richmond VA to Boston) in the U.S.
The big difference is frequency of service which obviously improves connection times when one has to switch trains. This is true even in countries lower populations densities such as Spain and Scandanavia. This is probably the first thing that needs to be done to attract more ridership on trains. With poor frequency and very poor connections a short journey becomes a long journey in North America. After the frequency is increased then it is time to increase the speed so that trip times decrease that much more. With increased frequency it may even be possible to have dedicated passenger rail service in several corridors in the US and Canada. I doubt that there is any service in Europe that only operates 3 times per week which several Amtrak and Via Rail services do.
Check the Briti***hread for opinions on travel on British railways. Never bad but vary from mediocre to excellent. Europe is good to excellent,in general.
In terms of reliability, I think the Swiss mainline rail system has to be the best in the world. The coordinated schedule for mainline and local trains repeating throughout the day is superb.
Ive riddin the TGV
and lemme tell ya
tehe!
and the HST in england was very fun to
Even at its worst, train travel in Europe and Britain is better than the equivalent in North America. They just wouldn’t understand “three times a week”.
However, I haven’t found anyone less co-operative than the French station staff.
Ahh…The French National State Rairoad, the SNCF…The only thing that pretty works there is bullet trains…All the remaining is a mess, it’s completely loosing the freight market, and every year it costs the taxpayers something like 70 M USD, among other to allow trains engineers to retire at 50 after having worked only 28 hours or so a week…And they must hold the world’s absolute record of strikes…[:(!]
But it may change shortly as the SNCF, since an European Community regulation, begins to lose its monopoly, first with what remains with the freight on the french network, and soon followed with passengers by 2010.
So I hope the future will look brighter, like UK railroads that have been regaining freight market since privatization.
Dominique
Doesn’t Europe include the Brits? I travelled both in @1965-6, Cheap, fast , on time, clean, frequent trains, helpful staff, nice people, great scenery,( I can go on—) it seems every small village had train service, and that eurail pass $60.00 anywhere in Europe anytime for a year, (I spent 8 days cruising around trying to save money on hotel rooms), Mind you I also remember as a child how great train service was in North America, it was a dream for a 12 year old to travel across Canada by myself, And we let the Railways get away from their obligations to the public to provide rail travel for all the free land they received, we deserve what we now have for allowing this to happen.
I’ve traveled by rail extensively in mainland Europe and some in Britain, almost entirely for business reasons. The value I’ve received is consistently outstanding in ride quality, equipment, onboard service, food, frequency, timeliness, and personal service, regardless of whether it was first class, regional, commuter, or subway. Little things like big windows without the heavy tint; nice seats (as opposed to the poor seats on Acela); armrests that work; better air-conditioning; all add up. I can’t think of a single thing I don’t like about rail passenger travel in Europe, nor a single bad experience. Yes, it can be a bit annoying buying a ticket in France, but no more so than dealing with an airline. One thing that’s dismaying is the heavily defaced windows on commuter trains in Germany and France, and the tagging of lineside structures and even rolling stock that is pervasive in Western Europe, so much so that it appears the German and French governments and property owners have completely given up trying to stop it. By comparison U.S. metro systems are vastly less overrun with this poison.
I don’t know what kind of conclusions are worth drawing from the comparison, however. Europe is different than the U.S., with different geography, culture, political systems, values, and goals. Amtrak does what the U.S. public asks of it quite well; it’s just that we ask things of it that don’t have much to do with delivering good passenger travel! The European experience doesn’t translate to the U.S. without modification, or vice versa, and expecting one to be the other is naive. The only key thing I would point out is that passenger and freight services do not coexist well, and while Europe has a wonderful passenger system, its rail freight system
It’s a bit like kumquats and pomegranates. Europe is a passenger dominated network with little freight. Here, it’s the freight trains that are delayed and treated like second class traffic. In North America the situation is completely reversed where you have freight dominated railroads that delay the passenger trains and treat them like scum. So you can’t really compare
You’re totally true! And that’s why I have very few interrest in the european way of railroading!
Dominique
In general passenger rail service is better on the Continent than in Great Britain in recent years, although it may have improved somewhat in Great Britain in the last few years
To generalize. Trains in Europe generally run on time or pretty close to it.the trains are fast, they are clean, and the personnel very friendly and helpful. Many countries have truly high speed trains fast express trains (Eurocity or Intercity trains) regional express trains and local trains. Note; Eurocity and Intercity
Trains are limited stop express trains. Eurocity trains are international trains in that they run between cities in several European countries while Interdcity trains are the same as Eurocity trains except that they only run in their own country The Eurocity and the Intercity trains carry first class and second class coaches and dining cars. They also have refreshment trolley service in addition to the dining cars, andwe have used both services. We found the food was very good in a German dining car on a trip from Cologne to Hamburg.
Seat reservations are mandatory on the high speed trains such as the TGV’s in France and the ICE Trains in Germany, and you have to pay a supplement to ride them. You also pay a surcharge to ride the Eurocity and the Intercity trains, but reservations are strongly advised on the Eurocity and the Intercity trains.
No discussion of trains in Europe would be complete without mentoning the Eurostar trains which run between London and either Paris or Brussels.The Eurostar service went on stream in 1994, and it replaced the coordinated train-ship-train service to travel between England and the Continent. It is certainly a more convenient and reliable way to travel between England and the Continent.
Railpasses are one of the best ways to get around Europe, and the “graddaddy” of all rail passes is the Eurailpass which is honored in many countries on the Continent, and in Ireland, but not in Great Britain. However, Great Britain, as well a