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Comment by baby | Hacker News Reader

Even if the train adds a few hours, I'll choose that option over flying any time. With a train you just go to the train station, board and sit in your comfortable chair with a nice desk to work on. Everything is stable, and so quiet you can even sleep. If you take a plane it's just maximum stress and discomfort. Waiting in line to check in, waiting in line to go through the security gates, waiting in line to board, waiting for the plane to take off, waiting for the plane to dock, waiting for luggage, etc.

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spot on.

I am from Italy that geographically is not very easy to connect to the rest of Europe because of the Alps.

Still, below a thousand kms train beats flight 100% of the time!

I travel a lot throughput Europe to meet my special other who travels a lot due to her job.

I used to fly to meet her but , pandemic aside, I discovered that traveling by train was a much better option, mainly because you're on the ground and everything works almost like you're not moving at all.

internet connection is hit and miss of course, but compared to the very tight seats on a plane with no internet at all, it seems like a moving office.

Truth is I rarely work on a train, I mainly read, but having the option and the opportunity to book a solitary seat it's such a luxury that I gladly pay the extra money.

Other benefits include: no baggage limit, no early show up routine for no reason, no security or "show your face" checks, no packed up load-in load-out lines, being able to walk away if you need to (a phone call, for example) or because you simply need to stretch a little bit, but my favourite one is night trains where you book a bunk bed, sleep and wake up at the destination. A friend of mine calls it teleportation, you are not traveling between two places, you are waking up in a new place, far from the starting point, without even noticing it.

Trains are a great way to move, especially now that they are so fast.

They aren't cheap in general, that's true, but it's worth it, especially if you compare train fares with low cost offers that are undoubtedly cheaper, but don't even include a real baggage or the option to chose your seat for free (had to pay 6 euros for a seat just two days ago flying from Barcelona)

> compared to the very tight seats on a plane with no internet at all

I can't remember the last airliner that I was on that didn't have WiFi. Is WiFi uncommon in Europe?

I think it’s starting to become a thing, but even in the US the last time I tried it just wasn’t working.

I haven't had Wifi in any of my flights between Thailand and Amsterdam (KLM). Maybe I've always had older planes on this route or something. I haven't flown between any other 2 destinations for the last couple of years.

It really depends on the airline, but it's fairly common to put newer aircraft with WiFi on more business-heavy routes, and put the older aircraft on more tourist-heavy routes where passengers are more cost conscious and probably won't pay for the WiFi or other amenities either.

Is WiFi uncommon in Europe?

It's pretty rare, and when they do have it it is incredibly expensive, limited or both. On trains they basically always have it and it's free.

(with the caveat that it's been 2+ years since I was on a plane so I don't know how things have changed)

Also worth noting that cell phones work normally on trains, what with them being on the ground, so you're not even at the mercy of the operator - you can just use your normal service.

Yes it's because there's no pan-european ground network yet so airlines are limited to expensive and slow satellite internet.

However this is coming soon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Aviation_Network

There is one aspect where flying beats trains: checking luggage. If you have big suitcases it's a PITA to get them on and off the train. And changing trains means taking the bags with you, unlike flights where bags are (usually) transferred.

I had that issue last time and I used a service to send my luggage to the destination. They came to pick it up at my place and delivered it to my other place.

I disagree; taking whatever bags you like and having access to them through the whole journey is much, much nicer than having to hand them over and hope they arrive in the right place, and potentially paying extra or even having to book ahead if you've got anything other than a standard suitcase.

Well, that’s European airlines which have the worst customer service. In most of the rest of the world luggage is never a problem.

What? In the US you have to pay for your checkin luggage.

Not typically for international flights, and even for some US domestic carriers. Same goes for most of the rest of the world (e.g. Asia) which is what I was actually thinking about. Brazil has free luggage mandated in law.

Even when you do have to pay in the US it is typically very generous. Larger size and weight allowance, and you won’t get dinged for being even a few kilos over. And the bottom tier of frequent flyer programs (which is usually trivial to get and keep) waives all these fees anyway. I can’t remember the last time I paid for luggage allowance outside of a trip to or through Europe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

(It's a song called United Breaks Guitars that you may remember from over a decade ago).

Specially love those tourist traps, who "loose" your bags so they can sell you cloths and "find" it, upon your return trip.

You were the local shopping stimulus all along.

I wish that service was more widespread. The Swiss SBB will pick up your luggage at your door before your trip and deliver it at your destinations door afterwards. For a few of course, but still.

Wish there was a hack for this.. like selling them to yourselves with same day delivery on amazon.

That is the dream, the reality given the way DB allows for overcrowded ICE trains, is fighting to get the booked place, not being able to move anywhere, noise depends pretty much the neighbours, and if it eventually becomes easy enough to manage to go to the wagon bar, it is a matter of luck if they are there at all.

> Everything is stable, and so quiet you can even sleep

That depend on the quality of the rail and train. I have had nice experience in Germany, but here in Sweden it is the opposite. The side-to-side movement triggers motion sickness that is only compare to really rough ocean trips, and while the noise is lower than on a plane it is also less regular and higher pitch so it can be quite hard to ignore.

The problems stems from rails and trains here being 30-50 years old and long history of poor maintenance. To make matters worse, almost no lines has redundant tracks so if there is a problem (which there often is because to the issue of maintenance), the train get replace with busses. Night trains in particular tend to have a rather terrible experience with trains that are by now around 50-70 years old. Because of the motion sickness, the handful times I tried it has resulted in me basically being sick for a full day afterward. This doesn't occur if I take a plane or drive.

For all those saying that there are no security checks on trains: perhaps you have never been on the Spanish Alta Velocidad from Zaragossa to Barcelona. When I took that some years ago my luggage had to go through an X-ray machine and I had to go through a metal detector.

I don't know if they still do that but it is certainly something that could be instituted if governments wanted it.

I had to go through security and customs getting onto the Eurostar in London, but that makes sense considering they weren't part of Schengen.

There is of course some history and justification for that.

2004 Madrid Train Bombings:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Madrid_train_bombings

If you don't have luggage. Modern trains have cutted costs with luggage space.

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