Europe wants you to travel by train. But why is it so complex and expensive?

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20241101-why-is-european-train-travel-so-expensive

by Alexander_Selkirk

37 comments

  1. I’ll take the train travel every time, rather than cars. I may sound old fashioned but by train you get to meet people , and experience life.

  2. Cause of a retarded web of private/public companies with massive lack of standardization.

  3. because trains are complex and thousands of kilometers of copper and iron are expensive?

  4. Different countries, different rail companies, different electrification, different signalling systems.

  5. Because for some reason we don’t properly tax air travel

  6. Machines and infrastructure are complex and expensive

    More groundbreaking news at 10

  8. Now try travelling by rail across the UK! That’s complex and expensive!

  9. Why can’t I travel the way I want? Our politicians tell us we should move in a way or another. I find that dictatorial. They must grant us enough trains to cover demand and enough roads to cover demand, instead of lecturing people and limiting our freedom

  10. 1) It’s not subsidized enough.

    2) Countries refuse to tie their railway networks in a unified one.

    Summary, we need an EU monopoly/oligopoly, not national monopolies with conflicting interests with their neighbouring countries, and we need massive financing at European level.

  11. Because airplanes do not need rails, and highways and their maintenance costs are shared by hundreds of millions of cars/owners and financed by their taxes.

    Trains instead require a dedicated infrastructure and are only used by a handful of vehicles, most of the time operated by a monopoly.

  13. Why not a pan-European (or at least pan-EU) rail transit agency?

  14. Laughs in UK. (I’m really crying inside we’re fleeced)

  16. >Europe want to travel by train

    That’s an exaggeration. Europe wants to travel fast and cheep. Trains are neither of these.

  17. If you post an article with a question in the title, Redditors will think you’re asking them the question

  18. I think around a week ago in Poland they removed the direct route from Hrubieszów to Wrocław, now the train ends the route in Kraków.

    The Lubelskie and Silesian provinces are already very poorly connected when it comes to trains.

    I wonder why more people don’t use them lol.

  19. How do I get from Ireland to continental Europe by train ? 🤪

  20. One problem I see, is that many railways switched to use multiple units, rather than traditional locomotive+cars layout. When you have locomotives+cars, you can just switch the locomotive when voltage changes. Also, you can have cars with different destinations traveling some parts of the route in one train, which further reduces cost. 20-30 years ago there were many trains operating that way, because even when there aren’t enough people to fill the entire train on some routes, there may be enough people to fill one car, that simply switches between trains.
    But someone decided that EMUs are more modern looking.

  21. Maybe Europe wants it, but Germany doesn’t want to. Today my wife went from Berlin to Bochum by train, and it took only 7 hours. For 440 KM.

  22. I’ve had international flights that were cheaper than a 100km train drive in Western Europe, so…

  23. I traveled to Europe last year and mostly used the trains. It was really amazing to be able to go almost anywhere in Europe so easily. Since the tracks are already laid out might as well use them but I did think it was very expensive.

    Even with rail pass I was paying for a lot of reservations and seat assignments which ended up costing a fortune I can’t imagine if I paid for each ride separately. Transfers were often difficult because of the time schedule and how big the stations are. Some stations required you to reserve your seat in advance at the teller which didn’t speak English.

    I think the EU needs to nationalize these trains again and keep them under one company but still my complains are not that serious compared to Americans Amtrak. We have the worst train service in the world and costs are much higher and service less reliable. I hope we can be as good as Europe.

  24. Jon Worth has an amazing blog about so many of these issues. He really delves into the nitty gritty of, for example, issues with cross-national ticketing systems. [https://jonworth.eu/](https://jonworth.eu/)

  25. It’s a 1.5 hour train journey from my town to London. It’s cheaper to fly to Belgium from the local airport, have lunch, fly to back to London, get a bus into the city and have dinner than it is to get a direct train.

  26. In Germany for instance the bad idea. You will late to your work every second day.

  27. Sad irony if conscientious consumers who wish to use more sustainable modes of travel face higher prices and complicated logistics. It’s not dissimilar to the slowdowns of EV markets in North America.

  28. Isn’t there a directive from the commission to fix this and create a unified system?

  30. If I have to choose between 45 min or 5 hours at a similar price which one you think I’m going for?

  31. The lack of gazoline tax in kerosine.

    If we tax aviation fuel like gas we would have a lot better trains.

  32. Because there is no tax on kerosene… It’s fucking wild how subsidized air travel is

  33. It’s shit. I worked for railroad companies. They’re still in the stone age mentally and technologically.

  34. My problem, pick pockets, lack of police, lack of storage for luggage that is safe. Lack of help with stairs. The list goes on. I prefer the airplane.

  35. Deutsche Bahn is so insanely bad and sooo expensive. Blame it on lobbyism and bad politics.

  37. Trains are bad and slow. Planes and cars are much better

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