In my near future I see multiple one hour flights around the UK, France, Spain and Portugal.
This is because the rail service, while the track exists, is not fit for purpose.
Dear Europe, stop fucking about with fascism and sort the bloody trains out. euronews.com/green/2024/07/02/…
Lack of direct trains in Europe is pushing people to take flights, campaigners say
Greenpeace is calling for more investment in European railways to create more direct train routes and encourage people to fly less.Ian Smith (Euronews.com)
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Allen but one of the good ones
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Rachel Greenham
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Sarah Brown
in reply to Rachel Greenham • •FeralRobots
in reply to Rachel Greenham • • •I mean if stuff actually works, then what have you got to blame on dirty foreigners?!
FeralRobots
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Sarah Brown
in reply to FeralRobots • •FeralRobots
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •have they always been that way, & just had better PR in the past?
(My token experience is that at least British rail service has gone downhill in recent years. We were in England/Scotland for our honeymoon c2007, then again for a conference in 2019, & took a train north from London both times (Edinburgh in '07, York in '09, so same line). In just those 12 years, the experience degraded really strikingly.)
Sarah Brown
in reply to FeralRobots • •@FeralRobots I think it’s that the comparison people often make is with North America, which is the lowest of low bars.
The comparison they should make is China.
Oliver Blanthorn
in reply to FeralRobots • • •@FeralRobots imo interrail/eurail are pretty fantastic for exploring Europe.
A couple of weeks ago I needed to get to Vienna from Nice, so I took some trains down to the Cinque Terre, explored those for the day and then took a night train from La Spezia to Vienna. I could have flown direct with WizzAir instead and it would have been quicker, a lot simpler and a little cheaper, but much less memorable.
Richard Gadsden
in reply to FeralRobots • • •Sarah Brown
Unknown parent • •Sarah Brown
in reply to Sarah Brown • •Here’s what I would regard as a minimum viable standard to even start to be some sort of competitor for air travel: low season, if I can travel from Faro to London, including a sleeper berth, for 150 euros, and buy the ticket on Trainline dot com in 10 minutes.
It doesn’t even start to come close, and is never projected to.
Sarah Brown
in reply to Sarah Brown • •Sarah Brown
in reply to Sarah Brown • •And here’s how the experience by rail currently starts:
From Faro: take a bus to Seville. Book a hotel.
Faro is connected to the European rail network, but there are no tickets available to any other country.
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Ian Douglas Scott
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Adam Jacobs 🇺🇦
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Sasha
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Sarah Brown
in reply to Sasha • •like this
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Anders Norén
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •On the other hand: while direct trains can be nice, it's often just as good to have frequent trains with timed connections. gruene.social/@jon/11271632597…
Jon Worth
2024-07-02 10:04:01
Richard Gadsden
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Richard Gadsden
Unknown parent • • •