this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2023
433 points (97.0% liked)
Europe
8484 readers
2 users here now
News/Interesting Stories/Beautiful Pictures from Europe πͺπΊ
(Current banner: Thunder mountain, Germany, π©πͺ ) Feel free to post submissions for banner pictures
Rules
(This list is obviously incomplete, but it will get expanded when necessary)
- Be nice to each other (e.g. No direct insults against each other);
- No racism, antisemitism, dehumanisation of minorities or glorification of National Socialism allowed;
- No posts linking to mis-information funded by foreign states or billionaires.
Also check out !yurop@lemm.ee
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I don't think train can compete with a long distance means of transportation that is
1- equally or less time consuming.
2- works very similarly across countries.
3- only needs infrastructure at the start and end stops instead of for the whole journey.
What we need is to figure out a way to use less polluting, carbon neutral or non-polluting fuel for airplanes, and less of it with more efficient designs.
That's true. Trains can compete mid-range, or should be able to compete. With better infrastructure and organization (high speed rail, coordinated timetables, unified booking, ...), this range can be extended. There will always be a certain distance after which planes are the better choice.
But we still should invest to push this point further into the distance, to make planes as obsolete as possible. Trains should be the cheapest option between short distance (bus) and long distance (plane). If they are not, we are doing something wrong in creating incentives.
Note as well a German company recently brought back the sleeper carriages. When the travel happens overnight while Iβm asleep, I tend not to care how long it takes.
Nothing is better than being able to board the train with free luggage allowance and without all the TSA lines, harassment, confiscations, etc. No wasting of my awake time (unlike air travel). Then waking up at the destination is effectively like zero time wasted.
who? flixbus?
Not Flixbus. It seemed to be a new small startup company who is just dedicated to sleeper trains.. I donβt recall the details but it recently got a spotlight.
At 1st I was baffled by your suggestion that Flixbus would be even a candidate, but then recalled that they operate trains too in some regions.
I think it might be this one https://www.europeansleeper.eu
they are also part of eurail, nice!
yeah they do rail too (only as a brand/front) for a company called locomore and seem to be ever expanding since they won the bus wars in the 2010s