International rail travel in Europe is a mess because almost every country has different electrification necessitating changing locomotives or intercompatible trains, cross-border services are an afterthought for national railways companies which we are 'fixing' by throwing private rail services on top, creating a mess that makes you dependent on middlemen railway planners.

International rail journeys often require many transfers, often long ones too, which increases the chance of one of the intermediate trains being delayed or cancelled and ruining your schedule.

Sleeper trains like Nightjet exist now, but you have to book weeks or even months in advance to find a seat.

And all of this while often being multiple times more expensive than flying. A summer holiday by train is a splurge.

[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 5 points 1 week ago

Sleeper trains like Nightjet exist now, but you have to book weeks or even months in advance to find a seat.

This seems like a really obvious demand signal for expanding the availability of this kind of service =\

[–] sgtlion@hexbear.net 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I'm unsure what your experience is, but mine is in complete contradiction to this. I've taken direct trains from one end of Europe to the other. I don't know what your second map represents, but it's not direct train lines.

I've personally taken direct trains from London to Germany (some of those trains go on past Germany) and London to Italy. How they handle the electrification etc I don't know, but I've never noticed an issue or had to transfer between internationals.

Most of my train rides have been cheaper or similar price to flying once you factor in local train travel too, and exceedingly nicer and easier. You very rarely even notice crossing the borders, which is a fun aspect.

[–] AstroStelar@hexbear.net 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Admittedly, I have little experience to go off of, so I may be comparing it more to typical commuter rail than I should. My only real experience is travelling from my hometown in the Netherlands to Hamburg for a school field trip. I had the typical Deutsche Bahn experience of train delays (usually less than 30 minutes at least) and on the way there one train just wasn't running, so I had to take a detour and technically board the InterCity Express at the wrong station.

I also almost got stranded in the countryside at night because the last train of the day was bit by bit delayed by over an hour and I was panicking that it would be cancelled.