If you're one of those people whining at me "I'm not going to sit 4 hours on a train, I'll fly 1 hour instead", then listen up
A worked example, for Berlin-München
From where I used to live at Yorckstrasse, Berlin, to when my old friend @ronpatz used to work at Uni München
🧵
Buses have been eliminated here - these are just train/S-Bahn/U-Bahn options
My fastest connection is 4 hours 35 mins
3 hours 56 mins of that is on one direct train, that has wifi and a restaurant on board
If I don't manage to get one of the extra fast "Sprinter" ICEs, I have a regular ICE that makes more stops at other times of the day, and at least 1 train per hour - trip time is slightly longer 4 hours 55 mins, of which 4 hours 23 is in the ICE
What about flying?
I'd have to get from Yorckstrasse to Berlin-Brandenburg Airport first - takes between 44 and 49 mins, depending on the exact route
Then add on 60 mins check in time (yes it's 40 mins, but I am not going to cut it that tight!)
Then a flight time of 1 hour 10 mins
So 2 hours 54 mins so far
I am then going to need 15 mins to get out of the airport and to the airport station, and then 45 mins in the S-Bahn into the city
That gives me a total time of 3 hours 54 minutes *if everything joins up perfectly*
Of that 1 hour 10 minutes I am going to be sat in the plane, and could work
In other words: my total trip time is 41 mins quicker if I go by plane, but I can use more than 3 hours of the time productively if I take the train, versus 1 hour productively if I fly
In that situation taking the train rather than the plane makes sense
Now if I did this comparison for a longer route - Hamburg-München for example - it does not make sense
There the train is 6 hours, rather than the 4 from Berlin. And the flight no longer. Most people would struggle to make the case
/ends
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This morning I’m one of the first new regional trains Maubeuge 🇫🇷 - Charleroi Central 🇧🇪 #CrossBorderRail
It was a bit of a #fail at the station. I needed a ticket to Erquelinnes, the first station in Belgium. But prior to today trains from Maubeuge didn’t stop there!
Ticket machine ⛔️
Ask at the ticket office. “Le train ne s’arrête pas à Erquelinnes!” I politely told the SNCF employee that yes, it did stop at Erquelinnes. I explained the situation to the SNCB train manager and he laughed, confirmed it did stop there, and I bought the ticket online!
Delays in my favour. Maybe? S-Bahn to FFM Flughafen. Get a late running ICE to Köln Messe/Deutz there. Then try to blag my way onto a Thalys Köln Hbf to Bruxelles? It’s a long shot but it might work…
ICE 612 Frankfurt Flughafen to Köln Messe/Deutz.
This is why accurate live running data in apps matters. Were this not running 10 min late I’d not have caught it… but live data allowed me to plan a connection that’d otherwise not work
Already on the 2nd train of the day: TGV Montbard - Paris. All being well I’ll be in Denmark tonight… but that feels a long way off just now! #EGPCongress#crossborderrail
Across Paris RER Gare de Lyon to Gare du Nord, walk to Gare de l’Est (faster than changing into a Métro to Est) and it’s onto the TGV to Mannheim. So far so good, but I banked on this bit working 🙂 #EGPCongress#CrossBorderRail
Franco-German train service. Very French prices! And no, it’s too early (and expensive) for #beerontrains 😉
Jeez. It could take until 2025 until TGVs are approved for the line.
And the whole effing point of Stuttgart21 - of which this line is a part - was to create a Paris-München high speed corridor!
Really, how can everyone mess up *so badly*?
And to those going “yeah but there are few TGVs anyway” true, but so it goes on and on. International services are the lowest priority - even when *they were the stated rationale for building the line*