TravelBanter - View Single Post

**Loco2** · #6 February 29th, 2012, 02:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Erilar

Loco2 wrote:
What are the things which affect people's decision to travel by plane or
train or car when going on holiday? I love trains, and avoid short-haul
flights in favour of the train. I'm curious why more people don't go by
train for trips around Europe? Is it mainly price or time are there
other reasons too?

I don't know about others, but when I'm once in Europe, I prefer trains. I
can sightsee without worrying about traffic and parking, which would be a
major problem, since I travel alone. I find flying incredibly boring as
well as confining, and the preliminaries are even more boring and extremely
irritating as well. Unfortunately, I have to fly TO Europe, as trains
don't run across the ocean.

Trains in the US just don't run many places and can be hours late besides
because the cargo trains own the tracks. There are also few of them away
from the coast, and they don't always have handy bus stations or even taxi
service at ecery station.

--
Erilar, biblioholic medievalist with iPad

Thanks for your thoughtful replies (from a first time poster!)

It makes for interesting reading. From a European's perspective, the US has a long way to come on the train front, Europe on the whole runs a pretty fast, reliable and not too expensive system, although calling it a system makes it sound integrated which it isn't when you compare it with budget airlines and the ease with which you can compare prices on flights.

So my follow up question would be what do you think needs to happen to get more bums on train seats and for those who take the train (in Europe, but also elsewhere) what kind of resources do you use to plan your journey?

Thanks!