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Why are flights cheaper than trains in Europe? (www.euronews.com)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/europe@feddit.de
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[–] 10 points 3 years ago (2 children)

I wouldn't say madness. But it is certainly very unfair to the rail industry. They should both be exempt or neither.

I know a lot of people are big fans of trains, but I'm not taking a train from Madrid to Copenhagen for business. It's not gonna happen. Madrid->Paris maybe. They're opening a new line that'll cover the distance in 5 hours.

But within countries trains are absolutely the way to go. At least here in Spain Even if you are on the train longer than the plane, there is no security-state bullshit to deal with at the stations and the experience is much nicer.

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  • [–] 8 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    And you don’t have to show up to the train station that long before your scheduled departure compared to flights. Train stations are also centrally located for most people compared to airports. My thinking has been that if it’s around 5-7 hrs by train, the flight will be faster but the time you spend waiting for the flight makes the time you spend pretty much equal out.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago

    I agree! The time it takes to go from my home to the airport, then going through check in, security check, etc, is around the same as just doing the whole thing by train. And I can take a longer nap on the train, always a plus.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Cries in German's Deutsche Bahn.

    I take the long distance train a lot, over 20 times a year a lot. These are informed tears.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (2 children)

    Alright from where to where is this train you so frequently take?

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Lol Im on a train in Germany rn. Its packed full and delayed 20 minutes. Thats nothing new here. Its more common to have delays and why to packed trains here

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 child)

    Oh, excuse me. I thought you were being sarcastic! I apologize. I'm oo used to online political fights. 😅

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    Yeah, the Deutsche Bahn was half privatized and because they had to chase profits, the Deutsche Bahn AG started investing in DB Schenker (a logistics outfit) along with many-a foreign companies, instead of maintaining and building more railways, as well as buying new wagons.

    Now we have the fucked up situation where the Deutsche Bahn manages the railway, so other train companies (Thalys, Flixtrain, TGV, etc) have to rent the (publically financed) rails, while being treated like stepchildren in such situations when a Deutsche Bahn trains (that are not well maintained) needs a platform for longer than planned because of some emergency (but there's an emergency every day). And it's not like these trains could use other routes, because the routes aren't maintained. The Deutsche Bahn is practically a monopoly as a company, while enjoying state funding. The last slap in the face was when the Swiss state train company (SBB) bans German trains from entering Switzerland, because they always cause delays on the Swiss side. Trivia: a train counts as late after a 3-minute delay in Switzerland, 6-minute in Germany. SO HOW EMBARASSING IS THIS?? The Swiss told us that we're too friggin unpünktlicht!!

    The Deutsche Bahn now (with some political pressure, but not too much) announced they're going to build more routes and buy more trains, and all in all, WE WILL FINALLY BE ON TIME... in 2070. 2070!!!! I'm not going to still be working in 2070!

    This turned into a rant, sorry. TL;DR, the Deutsche Bahn is in a sad, sad state.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    Hahaha. Don't worry I appreciate it. That is very funny about Switzerland!

    Here in Spain they are finally opening high-speed rail to some northern cities along the Atlantic coast. However, because the line had to cross the Cantabrian Mountains, they needed to construct a tunnel, one of thr largest in the world in fact. This was supposed to be finished in 2002, but because this is Spain it is finally opening 21 years later in 2023 😂

    In Madrid our commuter trains are horrible. But that's just because of the current conservative government. They cut back on the number of trains per hour and then claim public transport doesn't work and that it needs to be privatized. Horrible.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago

    The germans are fucking up everything train related (maybe slightly exaggerated. But only slightly). The whole Brenner project involving this huge tunnel and involving Italy, Austria and Germany. Italy and Austria are nearly finished on their side and Germany hasn't even started construction yet (at least in the bigger sense of the project).

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    At least Germans are very good with statistics. You don't have to speak German to understand these graphics. The graphic at the end of this page shows the decline of the railway system (in km) https://www.forschungsinformationssystem.de/servlet/is/350049/ The graphic on this page shows the growth of highway (our famous Autobahn) https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/2972/umfrage/entwicklung-der-gesamtlaenge-des-autobahnnetzes/

    If only the budget could have been swapped. Or, if only the DB wasn't run like a for-profit company.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago)

    Ich spreche ein bisschen. Ich kann es lesen aber langsam und mit einem Wörterbuch. 😅

    The kilometers have been on a long decline. That is sad. You are the wealthiest country in Europe. There is more than enough resources to make an excellent rail system.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago

    Yes. No one else can really compete with DB on German rail because DB discriminates. This is extremely embarrassing considering that many other EU countries like Italy, France, and Spain does not have this problem. DB Netz need to be properly split from DB. The current situation is super shit.

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