Thread by @jonworth

So @VCDeV @BastianKettner have brought out their "VCD Bahntest 2021/22"

It's a hefty piece of work, looking at 6 international rail connections to/from Germany

The whole PDF is here:
vcd.org/fileadmin/user…

#VCDBahntest

Quick 🧵

The document highlights very well the many headaches a passenger encounters when booking cross border rail in Europe - no through tickets, inconsistent timetables etc. - anyone who follows my rail tweets will know these problems very well #EUYearOfRail

The Bahntest then takes 6 example routes:
Hamburg - Stockholm
Berlin - Amsterdam
Berlin - Gdańsk
Frankfurt - Marseille
München - Roma
München - Budapest
and examines them in detail...

But the problem then is that the test sort of falls between two stools - is it a sort of advocacy of what railways ought to do better? Or a kind of guide as to find your way around the problems? Or both? Or neither?

For example some of the headaches - like inconsistent booking horizons in Poland, or booking routes *through* Austria from ÖBB (even if not starting or ending there) don't get a mention.

DB's International-Bahn portal that *sometimes* gives solid outcomes for France does not get a mention. Snälltåget is only mentioned for Stockholm as a tangent. That some French trains are missing from timetables is also omitted.

I also don't understand the focus on Trainline while Omio is ignored.

So while I welcome the #VCDbahntest looking at EU-wide rail, I am at the same time left a little confused. Both advocacy and advice needs to be a little more specific I think.

/ends