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Comment by mrweasel | Hacker News Reader

Unless you don't happen to live within the city center. Train stations frequently have zero long term parking, while airport frequently have cheap or even free long term parking. If you need to take the train where I live, then you're better of driving to the airport and park there. Then take a train or bus to the city center and the train station.

I did like to take the train more often, but travel times are just to slow. I'd need to set aside one day to just leave the country, then maybe I can get another train somewhere in Germany and then I can get pretty much anywhere in Northern Europe in a reasonable time. It's just that train travel in Denmark absolutely suck and is fairly pointless and you almost never travel more than 80-90kph.

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Sounds like you're living in an area where the parking at the airport is subsidized because other transportation options are suboptimal, likely because the airport is prioritized. I lived in many places in the EU and North America, and nowhere airport parking was cheap. Unless going for a day or two, it's cheaper to take a taxi both ways.

What airport in Europe has cheap or free long term parking?!??

Aalborg in Denmark used to be free, but is now ~24 USD for 8 days, $3 per started 24 hours. Parking by the train station is at least $30+ per day.

Billund is $45 for a week and Copenhagen is $70 for a week. That covers the three busiest Danish airports. Parking is cheap, especially compared to the time save by taking the plane.

I get its different from country to country and I guess I'm just really annoyed with the continued insisting that trains are better than planes, when there's almost no benefit to trains in my country. They are practically pointless, out matched by busses, planes and cars, unless you just happen to have a usage pattern that fit exactly with the layout and timetables.

Schiphol Amsterdam is € 124 for to weeks (€ 8,26 per day). Not cheap, but for many people cheaper than taking a taxi.

I wonder how many people taxi to the airport? I take the train, but I admit I live near a train line with good service to Schiphol.

I'm not sure what the situation is in Denmark and guess you live in a less populated area. But if you travel by train you would ideally take public transport to the main hub. A decent network would connect you to a fairly big hub within 45 minutes. If you really live in the outskirts there should be some sort of hub where you can go by car.

In Denmark specifically the border policy causes some slowdown. Other than that it probably has the same issue as the Netherlands where the trains that go across the border are infrequent and don't connect to major hubs. This creates a lot of friction in the entire network which makes the entire proposition fall apart. If you have to cross more than one border you really get into some hellish territory, speaking from experience.

> airport frequently have cheap or even free long term parking

Airport parking in Europe is pretty expensive. It could quite possibly be more than the flights for all passengers combined. A week at Brandenburg is about €150 Euros and at Heathrow is roughly the same (and needs a shuttle bus to the terminal, or it is over £250 plus for the short stay).

That is, however, still likely cheaper than a train to the airport in the UK and substantially less likely to have a cancellation cause you to miss a flight.

That's within the range for major airports in thee US as well. Whether I drive in (rarely) or get a private car, it's not hard to spend as much on going to and from the airport as it is for the flight. There are more budget options but they're not great for me.

> Unless you don't happen to live within the city center. Train stations frequently have zero long term parking, while airport frequently have cheap or even free long term parking. If you need to take the train where I live, then you're better of driving to the airport and park there. Then take a train or bus to the city center and the train station.

If you'd have to pay for long-term parking, why not instead pay for a taxi or Uber to the train station?

Most transit systems tend to optimize getting to the city center. Getting to the airport is usually harder.

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