How Europe's Replacing Planes With Trains
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- Опубликовано: 24 янв 2023
- How Europe Plans To Replace Planes With Trains
Europe is building a huge high speed rail network connecting almost the entire continent. If successful, plane usage will drop by insane levels. This is how they plan to do it.
Can't wait to go on a train trip through Austria-Hungary 0:39
Paris to Moscow in three countries
Pinning this cause I have no idea how I didn't notice
Me omw to head thru breslau hbf to königsberg hbf with an STADTVERBINDUNGSEXPRESSZUG using the brand new Siemens KAISER WILHELM model
What do you mean? There are already currently dozens of cross-border trains between Austria and Hungary per day - and not just on the Vienna-Budapest service. I've travelled by train between the two countries countless times.
@@majy1735 Look at the map at the given time. The Empire Austria-Hungary does no longer exist
2:40 Why is the Estonian flag in Poland, the Latvian flag in Lithuania and the Lithuanian flag in Latvia?
glad to not be the only one noticing XD
Because the intention was probably not to geographically mark the countries with the corresponding flags but to mark the train line with the flags. You have probably misinterpreted that.
@@vomm no. In cartography, when you create a detailed map overlay (not a simplified diagram), the intention is to display information as accurately as possible within reasonable limits. He failed at that by placing all the countries incorrectly, as well as showing the wrong route: the Rail Baltica corridor won't go through Vilnius, it will go through Kaunas instead on a straight N-S line from Riga to Warsaw.
Let's say that the creator got the wrong info and displayed it in a wrong way, simple as that. My advice is that he should improve his map making skills if he wants to be taken seriously.
@@osasunaitor It is not cartography, it is a line schema projected over a geographical map. His intention was obviously to mark the line with the flags of the countries it connects, not to map the countries. This is the information the map want to provide. Your national pride and know-it-all attitude can't change that purpose. Objectively, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. It is important to understand what a map is saying in order to read it correctly.
It's not the 1st time I see someone mess these flags up.
Imagine a Europe with Shinkansen class rail across the whole continent. What a beautiful future that would be
And overnight high speed trains!
@@prunomars1410 actually, overnight doesn't necessarily need to be high speed. In 10-12 hrs (most of the time sleeping) you can cover a large distance.
Actually, almost all night trains (that don't need high-speed infrastructure) have been cancelled. And construction of high-speed lines is extremely slow and expensive.
@@MrAllprog exactly, on some directions it's better to have a slower train so that the passengers have a full night of sleep
@@LeonidAndronov the ÖBB has taken over many and is expanding. The ordered dozens of new train sets, the first of which has arrived and is being tested at the moment. They are expanding again.
So happy that Bratislava got included in 3 main European routes. It is so important for Slovakia
Absolutely. I thought to myself, “good job Slovakian foreign policy makers”. It would be so easy for that route to end at Vienna, and noone would doubt it for a second, but they managed to get it extended to Bratislava.
@@alikahraman5884 Exactly, that was the original plan, iirc it was only 1 route going through Bratislava initially, luckily we managed to get the other 2 as well as we are very close to Vienna and it isn't that hard to extend the line to here, plus the line got another capital city. Very happy.
@@misopasko2614 on the other hand, imagine this: it would take approximately 6 hours from Paris to Bratislava with high speed train and then, if you travel further, let's say to Košice, it will take another 6 hours lol 😂 and I didn't include the high possibility of your train to set on fire somewhere near Poprad 😂
@@AdamBurianek92 No one travels further, let's be real, only people from Kosice travel back home
I visited Bratislava for a small college project once and had to fly to vienna and go by bus from there as it was the fastest route by a long shot.
Really nice to see Slowakia get more attention, especially in suchs an environmentally and accessible way. The city was beautiful.
That Berlin-Munich railway is actually insane already. I used to drive this route at least once a month. Horrible traffic jams out of munich.. especially when you just want to get home to your family on friday and at least a 6 hour drive (if you're willing to use the NO-Speedlimit regulations ... driving fast is exhausting!) .. ofthen you need 8 hours, sometimes more.
Now you can just WALK from the office to your train, sit back, relax and be in Berlin around 4 hours later
I had the joy to travel in Japan with rail in March. Compared to that, even the high speed railway from Berlin to Munich is a "Bummelbahn". The other ICE routes are even worse, because they can't travel on seperate high speed rail tracks for large parts.
but definitely book a seat on that train (for an extra fee of course) because it is VERY FULL. last month i took that route and sat on the floor by one of the doors the whole time because i felt it was unnecessary to book a seat. oh how wrong i was.
4 hours? Are you sure with the operator DB?
@@Schnittertm1 Yeah. Germany unlike other countries like France, Japan, Spain, or China have a very different strategy to high speed rail. Instead of building out large corridors from the beginning, they instead build smaller stretches along key points to speed up journeys and gradually build out further from there. The only line that was largely built in one go is the Hannover to Wurzburg line which was also the very first high speed railway in the country, built before East and West Germany were even unified. But we are finally starting to see a lot of the gaps being filled with projects like the Stuttgart-Ulm line and many others. I will say however one of the biggest areas needing improvements is the northwest between Hamburg and the Rhine Ruhr region. The tracks there are congested and full of regional trains with only occassional max speeds of just 200km/h. It would benefit massively from more high speed rail. Especially if there could also be built high speed rail out to Leer on the Dutch border from where high speed trains could continue from Northern Germany to Amsterdam via the Lelylijn, making it possible to go all the way from Paris to Copenhagen via high speed railways along the western European coast.
Never seen the worse transport then in Germany, it would never happen to me neither in Europe or in Asia. I did not even get why transport in Germany call hig speed? I had 2+ hours late in Munich Berlin. Then I have to go to Potsdam, but the DB Service said that I don't have ticket to Potsdam.... It's African service
It’s crazy because in Europe, Ryan air tickets are usually cheaper than train tickets.
Because Ryanair has to make a profit, so what they're charging you is what it costs. Trains are subsidized in Europe and around the world and lose money everywhere.
@@Peter_SchiavoThat’s not true; aviation also receives significant subsidies worldwide (including in Europe).
Rail also provides significantly more public benefit than aviation.
Public services shouldn’t necessarily have to be profitable; that’s why they’re considered public services.
@@dandavidson4717 What's the public benefit to rail? Not city trains, but long distance trains.
@@Peter_SchiavoIntercity transport. Increased social mobility; including for access to jobs. Accessible and affordable travel for business, tourism or leisure.
It’s also the most efficient and environmentally friendly transportation option when it’s available. More so than by bus or car, and massively more so than by plane.
Also cargo transport, especially mid-long distances.
@@dandavidson4717 Cars are more flexible and convenient at short and medium ranges. Buses are cheaper and flexible at medium range. Planes are cheaper and quicker at long range.
I live in Spain now. Last year we travelled to Leon from Valencia. There is no air connection between those two cities. If there was, it would be about 1.5 hour flight. Instead we took the HSR train. 1 hour to Madrid. 1.25 hours in Madrid at two different train stations. 1.5 hours from there to Leon. The entire trip the train was full of Spaniards yelling at each other because I'm pretty sure they're all deaf from being yelled at from early childhood.
One thing people forget is building high speed lines will allow more space on regular main lines for commuter and local services.
That’s one thing people against projects like HS2 like to ignore. It’s main purpose isn’t to decrease travel times, though it’s a very nice benefit. It’s main purpose is to free up capacity on the existing North - South mainlines in the UK to make room for more local and freight traffic!
@@NaenaeGamingNo, most people are not against it for that, wrong, many people are against the ghastly overspending and delays and constant changes, the HS2 network is the world most expensive construction project outside of the Saudi Arabia new line NEOM city $500billion, and even now the HS2 line has been shortened and amended and changed, its costs are still spiralling upwards of £120Billion.
The country is on its knees and spending £120 billion plus on a rail network that will no longer even serve half of its original planned route is just scandalous.
They also told us that the northern sections NEEDED this new line because they could no longer upgrade the lines and that it was at capacity, they then scrapped the northern sections and instead offered a line upgrade (you know the line that they said was no longer upgradable due to capacity) its now being upgraded🤣🤣.
There are considerably more needing services that could benefit from that money, and imagine how many homes could be built with even just £20 billion of that, around 90,000-140,000 depending on the area excluding london and south regions
@@jasonlee4267 HS2 is just suffering from poor project management.
@@Mgameing123 that is a very fair and accurate assessment, sadly thats every walk of uk construction projects, but regardless, its still not even half the project it initially started with and its costs have quadroupled, and there may also be yet further shrinkage of the route to get the initial construction phases completed, its scandelous
@@jasonlee4267 I didn’t say that freeing up capacity was something people are against. I simply stated that people tend to ignore that fact. Of course people don’t believe the benefits for communities like my own up north are worth what the government is paying, but that wasn’t my point. As for the lines they announced they’re upgrading in the IPR, most of these lines were slated for upgrades anyway, with the planned upgrades in certain regions such as across the Pennines are actually cut back versions of the previously promised NPR.
Also remember that boarding a train is much faster procedure, and train stations are right in the center of the city, while airports are usually several km away. Once you get off the train you're already in the city, you don't need a taxi. Trains are also more relaxing, if you watch outside tye window you can enjoy the countryside.
The reason for longer boarding is mostly security. Trains generally have zero security checking.
@@PhilJonesIIIat Milan central station you can't acces the platforms if you don't have the ticket. There is a gate whit a security guard before the platforms.
@@passionfortrains4538 Thanks for the update. Been a long long time since I passed that way.
0:39 casually uses a modernised 1913 map, lol
😂😂😂😂
Europe had a much denser rail network bak then...
As I got a job in the Netherlands, and I lived in Budapest before, so I've tried several options. Plane: last year I had to wait 4 hours for the security check in Schipol, then my 250eur 2-hours KLM flight delayed by 2 hours, standing on the runway full of passengers. (cheapest Wizzair option is around eur60-80 from Eindhoven). By car: I have to stop at a friend's in Germany to have a rest. Two days, about eur150 spent on fuel, plus tolls. Train: varies from eur80 to eur200, depending on the season and the connection, but from Amsterdam to Vienna, there's a comfortable Nightjet service from öbb. If you're not quick enough on booking, even the most expensive eur160-eur200 places with alacarte breakfast are gone. I ended up travelling by train, as no more security checks, and I can carry as much luggage as I'm able to carry myself. In Holland, my rental apartment is just 5mins from a station, and in Budapest, I can also access the central station easily by public transport. The whole trip is about 1400km. Please, EU, taxate kerosine as car fuels, and make the booking of rail tickets easier, as I sometimes have to book at different providers for the connections.
Word!
If they could fix booking when the train connection crosses a border I would be very happy.
Have you tried trainline? Is pretty good for eu wide Train booking.
this is more of an exception than the rule, especially in Germany. Flying is more often cheaper than train, and if German trains are involved they are very likely to be late.
About 1400 km is the distance between Torino and Reggio Calabria by train (1363 km actually), probably the longest stretch you can run on a HS train in Italy.
Actually HS railways stop at Salerno and from Salerno to Reggio Calabria HS trains run on conventional railways (on a 440 km long stretch).
Anyway there are plans to build HS rail toward Reggio Calabria. It won't be easy nor cheap, though.
Nowadays the fastest train between Torino and Reggio Calabria takes about 11 hours.
That shows that if whole Europe keeps connecting and speeds up her rail network (even if not entirely HS) even very long distances could be doable
Trains are better than cars and planes tbh
Damn right
Only for goods transport… where they still have to be supplemented by trucks. And for certain local routes (some metros, some commuter routes). In all other cases, cars and planes are far superior to trains.
Yup where I live, trains are both
-cheaper (50€ per month)
and
-faster (100-150 km/h with only a few stops on a 30km commute)
for Students and daily commuters in many german towns where train stations are in reasonable range. The only thing that needs improvement is reliability, but thats an issue related to infrastructure, routing from investments going into cars instead of rails for decades,, yet still, you cant drive 50km by car without getting stuck in traffic or passing through construction sites.
I stopped using my car, and many people i know did the same, even though we dont live in an urban area
Trains sure are better than cars. But plains? Heck no. Plains are more cheaper and travel way farther than trains
@@silasmedvedev8019 Trains have no passenger cargo weight limit. As long it fits, it gets in for free.
Planes charge passenger for extra cargo.
1:11 that is actually a 78,9% decrease since you usually divide by the former value
474% xD I was like what? Math not even once.
Apart from the mathematics being wrong, I think the CO2 reduction is vastly greater than 78.9%.
@@andersholt4653 technically, the math isn't wrong, but the author should've said that either the decrease is 78.9% or one value is about 4.74 times less than the other. Just the phrasing is weird (and no need for persentage at all xd)
@@Vlodya It would even then be wrong, as with 109/23 is roughly 4.74 so it's 3.74 times less. And no, that's not how you would calculate a decrease.
@@Vlodya No, the maths is wrong. 100% less than 109kg would be 0kg, so 474% less will bring it into negative numbers.
The Italian high speed network is excellent. I live very near the Swiss border, and thus I can catch local trains to Milan, and from there to Rome, Napoli and the south, or to Venice and thus Trieste. Or to Lyon and Paris. I can also get a bus across the border to Lugano and catch services to Zurich and from there to Germany and Berlin, or to Munich and beyond. Love train travel, and the tickets are easily bookable in advance and affordable on most routes.
I wish we had this luxury here... but we border the most third world countries in Europe. Turkey, Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Albania... if only we bordered France or Switzerland like other lucky countries do!
@@noodleramen2217 unfortunately, that’s applied only for some Western Europe countries. Rest of them are left behind because the EU put nice plans on paper but never actually have them done in reality. And I hate flights! Waste of time and energy.
I had a different experience. In Italy you have to book a seat reservation with your ticket. When you are travelling with Interrail, which was cheaper than buying the tickets directly from trenitalia or DB. And now try to buy a reservation online. If the Interrail tool doesn't work you have to buy it physically in a station. There is no chance buying it online. And there is the cross border problem. There is no application which allows you to search for a good connection. I mean the DB Navigator is ok for that, but sometimes there are trains which don't exist or the schedule is completely wrong. You cannot see the departing platform in the app (that was an Italian problem, in Switzerland no issues), there is no way to see delays etc. There are a lot things to do, to improve.
@@noodleramen2217 Turkey is not even comparable with those countries you indicated dude, it by far is the better one without a doubt but yeah, they also aren't developed as much as France is. So, just shut up and clean your own yard to have a complain about it. (As a half Greek 'Crete/Hania' and half Turkish man)
1:11 You might want to go and check your numbers there again. A decrease of more than 100% would be truly groundbreaking..
is it ? I heard a transport professor (with a background in aviation) state that "with the option to travel Amsterdam-Paris in a half full plane or a half full train, the plane seat would be 10-11x more pollution than the train.. An extra seat occupied does not make a difference in extra energy for a train to roll , whereas an extra seat in a plane requieres a lot more energy usage to fly ' The most energy efficient plane is an empty plane, so to say. Whereas for train the passengers don't make that much a difference. In his words , you should squeeze the maximum out of your (hs) rail capacity, before going by air ..
@@lws7394 That is absolutely not the point that I'm trying to make. There is just a false statement at 1:11.
Mathematically speaking, a decrease of anything by 100% would mean, that it's totally gone. So claiming a decrease in more than 100% (or even 474% like in this video), is just impossible, unless you assume the train's emissions are negative (which they definitely aren't, as you can see in the video).
The issue is, that this video's creator mixed up the order of the calculation (which definitely needs to be considered, if you give relative statements).
Using the absolute numbers from the video, the increase from train to plane emissions is 4.74x (or 474% of the train's emissions)
If you turn that statement around however, the train's emissions are around 21.1% of the planes emissions (meaning there is a decrease of around 79.9%, not 474%)
@@einfachhenry Oh yeah , you are totally right ! Mathematics is too difficult for most journalists or youtubers .😬 ..🙄
@@einfachhenry but he talks about an increase, not a decrease, he should have mentioned the trains first, but the math is correct.
@@motionpictures6629 He might not have stated "474% decrease", but the graphics clearly suggest it, given the arrow's direction..
Tbh i think the main problem is the ticketing. If you could just book whatever journey with one ticket, even if you had to change trains...it would make the travel much easier and less risky in terms of connections
Yes! This is something the EU can theoretically fix easily. Every country would need to participate of course
I agree, basically same ticket system for all would be super helpful.
Some countries already do this and it's honestly quite great when it works, recently me and some friends went on a vacation from the Netherlands to Sweden and we booked our tickets through DB, we got a QR code in the DB app that we could use with German, Danish, and Swedish trains (and even a boat), it was very convenient.
And if you travel within the Netherlands you can just scan your debit card when entering any kind of public transport and you can travel (assuming your bank is participating in it, some banks here aren't for some reason), this kind of system would be great to have expanded to EU level. (and refined a bit more because there is an issue with multiple train operators for example)
@@thegiantpotato3068 I am ona train right now and I used the same QR in my Swiss connections also
In Austria you can buy a year ticket for less than 1000€ and it gives you access to every train ride within the country. I think a standardized year ticket within the EU, which just lets you use every train ride in every EU country would massively boost train use. I know there are problems, but you could theoretically trip from sweden to portugal if you have the flexibility ( you could do computer work on the train, which you cant driving a car, so you dont have to waste your time on the ride).
Trains with Wifi can be a really comfortable experience
This all depends on the countries willingness to co operate and drop ticket prices. Some places like the UK charge an insane amount. Here a monthly pass between two cities that are 2.5 hours apart is £700. There’s no such thing as seasonal tickets everywhere so seeing unlimited travel for a year for €1000 is insane to me
@@carxeco they mainly did it to enhance train traffic. it was climate pledge of the current conservative green government and probably one of the best things they managed to pull off
It´s around 1100€ for singles above the age of 27.
"less than 1000€" lol ok 💀
@@SusGus-rf8gm Thats around 80-90 per month for access to all train services and busses (even the express trains to hop between major cities). While I lived in Germany I had to pay 60€ per month to only be able to take trains in my city and to the nieghboring one where my school was. If I wante to go somewhere else I had to pay extra. So, 90€ a month for the whole country is not a bad deal (could also be less yes, but still a good deal compared to other european countries).
I'm traveling by train since my childhood... I always prefer trains because they're comfortable, you can walk free in them and you can use bistro/restaurant cars on most long distance trains. On a flight you're seatbound most of the time. Sure, planes are faster, when you take flight time only... I live in Salzburg, Austria and a flight from there to Leipzig, visiting my family there, would be with a change in Frankfurt (1 hour stay there) and would cost a minimum of 360€ - going by train has a maximum price of 140€ on the direct route with one change in Munich... full travel time by train? 5 hours 30 minutes or 6 hours, depending on which train is used from Salzburg to Munich (long-distance trains like DB's Intercity/Eurocity or ÖBB's Railjet or the private Westbahn is 30 minutes faster then the private BRB RE5 with many more stops...)
I love travel by train and fully agree with you!
I am living in Vienna and i also have family in Leipzig. I find it ridiculous how difficult is to take a weekend visit there. Trains are slow and unreliable. There are always delays, they are fully booked and taking the level of efficiency compared to a plane they are massively overpriced.
Sure thing trains could provide europe with cheap, fast and reliable transportation but sometimes i think they keep it uncompetitive deliberately.
@@davidpocsi1733 I've got exactly the same impression about train prices. It feels to me like they are expensive on purpose.
During Covid time we traveled mostly by train and while we still enjoyed it, the number of issues on international connections was just ridiculous. It almost put us off from traveling by train from one to another country. At this point efficiency of an airplane cannot be matched on vast majority of international routes. It's really a shame as I would happily replace flights with train connections on most pan-European routes, even if total time of travel would be twice longer than flights, considering similar price.
@@davidpocsi1733 From Vienna to Leipzig is how much longer? 1 hour or 2 or even more? There are direct connections to Munich via Westbahn, but the tickets are sold separately because DB/ÖBB don't sell Westbahn Tickets and the other way it's the same... Next time I'm going, I try to take the Westbahn to Munich and then the direct ICE to Leipzig.
@@davidpocsi1733 And you are talking about route from Austria to Germany...
In Poland Germany is a symbol of a good rail services...
Howevere, today there is starting a massive rail infrastructure investment program in Poland. In fact for about 5 years there are massive investments in Poland in railway sector, however the new program is aimed to build new, high-speed routes.
The plan is to connect almost all big Polish cities with the "less than 2h" rail connection to Warsaw.
2:38
Firstly, you got Latvia and Lithuania the wrong way round
Secondly, you put the Estonian flag in Poland.
Thirdly, the route does not go through Lithuania's capital. It goes through the second largest city, Kaunas. The capital (and largest city) is Vilnius.
And the pronounciation of 'Badajoz' at 1:26 is awful. I wonder if this is narrated by AI.
This part about Rail Baltica is a total mess.
At least they didn'y put e.g. Estonian flag in Kaliningrad Oblast (Russia).
But all the rest is wrong. Estonian flag on Poland's Podlaskie Reegion, Latvian Flag on Lithuania and Lithuanian one on Latvia.
Unfortunately - they didn't mention about ambitious Finiish-Estonian plan to build the Tallin-Helsinki underwater rail tunnel.
It's not a part of Rail Baltica, however (if ever created) it will be de facto extremely important extention for this rail route.
@@pawekasprowicz2543 Rail Baltica is a nonsense anyways. Living in Latvia and often travelling to the Netherlands, I would never use it. Flying is way quicker and presumably cheaper. If I need my car in the Netherlands or Germany, there are good ferry connections for that. Railways are great for cargo and will probably significantly improve the logistics in the region, but don't make any sense for passengers as they are freakin' expensive and slow.
@@melluzi
That's obvious. At longer distance rail is not an alternative to planes.
The railways are planned to be a solution on the national and regional scale.
Maybe it's not so much visible in Latvia (because of the county size), but for example in Poland there is potential to replace domestic flights with rail network.
In the Baltic States however there is regional potential to connect all's three countries and the rest of CEE region.
Of course, for the longer trips there are ideas like developing night trains, which would play not only role of transportstion, but also accommodation.
Ans idea is that instead of starting the trip in the morning, one can start in the evening and spend a night in a train.
That would be probably less popular solution and people would probably choose a flight...
But for short-distance travels, when there is high speed train, it can be interesting proposition to travel.
-474% decrease in carbon emissions was also very "logical". Something can decrease maximum 100%, increase can be bigger than 100%, full of logic mistakes.
The map shown when Rail Baltica is mentioned does not actually show the actual corridor alignment which will be built. Riga and Tallinn will be connected almost by a straight line via Pärnu. I think the map is showing an old alternative alignment. IMHO that more direct alignment was a good decision.
Exactly. The final itinerary will be Warsaw🇵🇱 - Suwałki🇵🇱 - Kaunas🇱🇹 - Riga🇱🇻 - Pärnu🇪🇪 - Tallinn🇪🇪, basically a N-S straight line, with a secondary W-E branch from Kaunas 🇱🇹 to Vilnius🇱🇹.
Also, he misplaced every flag on the map over the wrong country lol.
One other perk: easy stopovers along a route right in the city center. I love hopping off exploring a city then hopping back on and resuming my journey
02:31 Someone doesn't know their Baltic Geography.
Probably the animators animating according to his script rather than geography 🤣
😂😂😂😂
This video is pretty accurate. Recently interrailed through Europe from Portugal to Finland and I learned fascinating things
Trains are much faster and frequent than you'd think but they're also more expensive and crossing borders is a pain. From Italy I made it all the way to Sweden while From Portugal to Italy I had to take three busses (All border crossings)
Yeah, Spain and Portugal don't connect their railway systems for some reasons.
It depends on the connection there is only one so far that's the Celta run from Porto to Vigo, there was the Sud express and the Lusitania that went from Lisbon to Madrid as a night trains, sadly they didn't reactivate after COVID
@@antoniousai1989 There are a few connections but with little use as both countries invested on their own networks and the Portuguese had relatively low and slow investments. They are talking, including in the highest government ranks, about a high speed connection but there are disagreements. As you can see in the video the planned connection was from Madrid through Extremadura to Badajoz and from there to Lisbon. The Spanish side of this line is under construction (a small section was opened but operates with a hybrid diesel/electric train as it is undergoing electrification) but Portugal has no immediate plans to complete their side. It seems that due to restricted resources they've advanced the high speed line between Lisbon and Porto and from there to the boarder for a connection to Vigo, something that is not in the current plans of Spain (who prefer a connection to Madrid, as planned).
A renewed rail connection is planned and it will be better once Spain finishes major works and with the future improvements of the Portuguese side from the direction of Portuguese to Lisbon but a full high sped line there is not expected before 2050 (for now, at least).
@@antoniousai1989 Portugal doesn't want to, they still live in the mindset that connecting their railway (or whatever) lines to those of Spain means they subjugating themselves to Spain. The biggest thing they want to do is connecting to Galicia mostly, but they don't want to hear anything about easier/cheaper connections to Seville/Madrid/Valencia/Bilbao/Barcelona.
Considering they managed to integrate various countries' electricity networks, which were also very different (had to build interconnectors, establish cross-border coordination on maintenance, development, operation and market, developed a common format for the exchange of the network models), I think they'll achieve success with the rail too.
Fantastic the Italian Frecciarossa, it takes you directly to the Grand Canal at Venice
I love the railway I am from Poland where, especially at the end of the last century, the railway fell into decline due to many neglects. Today, several interesting railway projects are being implemented, including investments in the metropolis of Katowice and neighboring cities, only here work is to last until 2026. The topic is very interesting and I hope that it will help in the development of many regions of Europe by expanding such a railway system
This will take decades, but in the end it will work.
Just did a 2 month Interrail train trip starting from Hannover ending in Lisbon and it went way smoother than I thought, minus a few strike days etc. but having a universal ticket reservation system would have been waaaay helpful. In Spain seat reservations could only be made in person at stations with high speed rail so we almost didnt get a spot on our trains.
There was a sale for the europass interrail tickets so it felt worth it to do trains instead of flights with more hiddens costs (taxis, luggage, etc). Its very exciting to see all the projects they have planned!
Awesome info and editing. Thank you! 😉👍
1:12 Its important to note that the 100kg of CO2 are PER PERSON
We're taking the 1400 km train from Stockholm to Berlin in two weeks. Own sleeper coupe and we sure will check out the bar onboard. I also heard they have great restaurant.
This was far more common in the 90s says my parents. Cinema onboard and very cheap tickets to go around Europe how much you want on a monthly continent wide ticket.
Another problem is the cost of rail travel. I was living in Cologne and looking for trips to do. Standard regional train trips from Cologne to other German cities were like 60 euros. Yet Ryanair were running direct flights to other countries for like 20 euros. Of course I'd take the flight further!
On top of that, a train passenger does not pay the full price of the train ticket, as it is usually highly subsidized by the government, as opposed to a plane ticket which is highly taxed.
If people had to pay the full price of the train ticket, or the plane tickets were not made artificially more expensive, nobody would use trains over planes.
Who remembers when DB wanted to start a London-Frankfurt route? What a great idea!
I hope it really takes off. Trains are the only thing I really miss from my time in Moscow, trains were plentiful and cheap
HST in Italy basically killed the most used flight route from Milan to Rome.
Now you can go from city centre to city centre in 3 hours without all the annoyances of travelling by plane.
Not go mention the confort and space. I'm 1,90m and airplanes are a nightmare
Trains have all the qualities to replace trains on such routes and yet... Here we are, they still manage to shoot themselves in the foot with various issues. Was travelling this month between Rome & Florence and a problem with the electric distribution caused all trains to be cancelled for the entire day! How can people trust rail after that?
@@pritapp788 It's not like this never happens to flights either. Years ago I was going to Germany by plane and because of the weather the flight was cancelled and I was told to "come back the next day" which kinda sucks when the airport is over two hours away from where you live 🙃. I know the airline is supposed to help you in instances like that but I didn't know at the time and they sure took advantage of that.
Nice video but I have some corrections.extras.
1. One of the reasons for heavy high speed rail investment in Spain was to improve connection with other countries, which is why the line use standard gauge and not the wide Iberian ones. The problem is with France as they do whatever they can to prevent such connection. The high speed connection through the Mediterranean corridor was open 10 years ago with the completion of the line from Barcelona to Perpignan (which is about 25km from the border with Spain) from there trains used the regular lines prolonging travel time. France was suppose to finish a full high speed connections within a few years but they didn't. Today the high speed line ends in Perpignan anf starts again after Nimes, more than 200km away. That is pretty good compared to the connection of the Atlantic corridor at Irun (basque country) as there is no sign of any type of plan to build the high speed connection there. A few weeks ago they said that both connections will not be finished before 2045. Now only SNCF operates two trains from Barcelona to Paris while the French drag their feet approving Renfe to also operate on this line, even though they operated trains on it for years, before SNCF ended unilaterally the agreement between SNCF and RENFE.
2. There are problems with compatibility and the EU is working to unify the main corridor lines to standard gauge, 25 kV AC and ETCS signaling but this will take time but there are solutions for the transit period. Trains that support multiple signaling systems, gauges and electric systems do exist and the Spanish solution for fast gauge change while on the move - that is used all over Spain (the train passes through a small shed with a on the go mechanism at low speed with passengers without stopping).
3. The rail corridors are not only for passenger trains but also for freight as the EU want's to increase rail transport all over Europe.
4. One of the main elements of the plan is open access, where rail infrastructure is separated from the national rail operator allowing different rail operators to compete on the same lines paying for usage of the tracks and stations. In Spain prices have dropped to as low as 9€ on lines with multiple operators.
"The problem is with France as they do whatever they can to prevent such connection"
I guess france being the problem shouldnt be suprising, but why would they desire to prevent it?
@@correctionguy7632 Because France is kinda self sufficient and French folk in general are veeeeery arrogant. They obviously want to have the monopoly.
They didnt use standard Gauge because they wanted to Connect internationaly, they did it because they had a time constraint with the Sevilla 1992 Expo, they used the French TGV, since then Spain’s own domestic industry changed.
The topic of the gauge size is really hot in Portugal, because we still use Iberian in all Lines. The decison here is to not use European Gauge, and its a good one, it allows secondary connections to that line to be viable. The Spanish also made such decision with the Galician LAV, which has a similar Solution to Portugal, Mainly because in that specific are it is deemed more worthy to pursuit a Connection with the Porto metropolitan are where millions live much closer than Madrid, they can change train in Ourense. The Portuguese side will start in 2035 if as predicted, the Spanish side will also require a very long tunnel on their side but that is as projected. The Lisbon to Madrid line is also in Iberian gauge, there is little reason to change, train is only more competitive up to 3 hours.
Love your channel❤
2:35 as shown on the map, the line does not pass through Vilnius, thus not linking the baltic capitals. (Seems to pass Kaunas instead)
This will turn the peripherical countries even more peripheral. That's really good for unify European countries.
As an half Italian, I'm very proud that you chose to put our lovely Frecciabianca E414s in the timetable of your video 😀
excellent explanation of the difficulties of the developing an European railwaysystem! thanks for that!
But have you seen the prices!! I spend 4x as much getting train London to Munich- flight would have been about £50 I paid about £250 for the train 😢
The first step is to tax kerosene, as all other energies in Europe (even electricity). Then a tax must be added to plane tickets to take into account the pollution and the impact on climate change. Using train must cost less than flying, otherwise most people will fly even if it is less convenient. BTW, for my job (public University researcher), I am suppose to use the cheapest solution to be refund when traveling for work, so I often need to argue not to fly. Another big issue is the lack of interoperability, booking a train ticket crossing borders must be as easy as booking a plane ticket, while for now it is often a nightmare.
With France exclusively using nuclear power and acheving zero emissions because of it, would it be wise of them to do that (tax electricity)?
@@Neville60001 Sadly, France does not exclusively use nuclear power, because of the bad influence of pseudo ecological parties for whom fighting civil nuclear is a historical principal, whatever the danger of the alternatives (eg burning coal as in Germany). Anyway, we can do without nuclear, it will just be quite more expansive because we need to store electricity. However, I do not understand in what more taxes on electricity would be wise. Electricity is already taxed, while kerosene is not, officially because of international rules and more probably because of the lobbying of air companies and because of corrupted politicians. So we must produce more electricity and use it wisely and efficiently. For example we must not just switch from ICE cars to EVs, we also need to only use cars when their is no alternative, for example using an electrically assisted bicycle instead of your EV when possible. Not to mention that cycling is quite pleasant, and cheap, and definitively safer than cars when the infrastructure is here (ie when the road is not shared by cars and bikes).
@@didierpuzenat7280, last time I checxked, France _does_ use nuclear power, even if it's not a lot and solar/wind is also used. We need it as much now as we did in the past (and it's the only 'heavy' power that can completely wean us off using coal and oil for the fuel to run power stations; contrary to the neo-Luddite fools in the environmental movement, wind and solar *_can't_* be used exclusively without somethimng else to back it up and if ist isn't going to be coal, oil/gas or hydro, then it has to be geothermal or nuclear that will do it.) Please don't be encouraging environmentally extremist fantasies.
Also, expecvting everybody to only travel by bike is unrealistic bullshit at best, especially for those who live in rural area such as the rural areas of the United States and Canada; electric vehicles are here to stay, despite how the environmental movment view them (and no, you can't have everything done by train.)
Tax planeroutes where there are other options and spend the increased tax income on lowering train tickets
@@jubmelahtes Yeah, as if politicians would put the money into something useful. To be honest, the "high speed" rail in Germany, other than a very few select routes, is something that will take decades to built. That is before the other bureaucratic, enviromental and private problems that come with that. Japan, for example, committed to a high speed rail network and during my visit there, I could travel the 833 km from Hiroshima to Tokyo in less than four hours. To get to Hannover from my place of residence here in Germany, which is less than 400km away, I need more than four hours.
If rail networks in Europe ever get interconnected and fast enough, it will likely be a joy to travel, but Europe or even the EU, is still fractured by petty nationalisms and slow systems and laws that block many a possibility for that.
This is amazing !
1:12. You do know, 474% down = negative(!) 407.66 kilograms of CO2.
You meant to say 79% reduction.
All good stuff BUT the narrative here revolves around future potential transformations in Europe's rail network and infrastructure, primarily in the form of NEW dedicated high speed (250km/h or greater) lines facilitating real High Speed Rail services between major population centres - removing these existing obstacles would go a long way to achieving the desired goal of drastic carbon emissions reduction - these existing obstacles effectively prevent High Speed Rail from competing with short-haul air ON A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD - they ALL share a common feature and it is the lack of and/or complete absence of coordinated pan-European political backing?
1. Missing High Speed Rail lines - there are still significant gaps in the high speed line network and these need significant investment to overcome - they are being addressed but the solution takes time - think of the section between the Spanish border at Figueres and Montpellier, or the lack of links between the Basque region and Acquitaine, or the lack of links between the Italian and French high speed line network - the Mont D'Ambin base tunnel will help here but what about the line along the Cote-D'Azure coast and onward to Ventimiligia - then look at the lack of links across the Alps - the Brenner Base Tunnel will also help here - everywhere you look there a large gaps which frustrate real competition
2. No common pan-European ticketing system - it's a no-brainer that what European travellers want/need is a simple one stop shop where they can both plan their journey and purchase their tickets from - you could even go further and conceive of a network where passenger's baggage could be loaded at origin and be picked at destination, seamlessly?
3. The continued prevalence of Nationally oriented rail transport policy - why for example is significant investment going into rail lines in both Germany and France, on either side of the Rhine river when there only needs to be one significant rail artery that could operate as a major north-south conduit in any future European high-speed rail network?
4. Taxation policy - Aviation fuel is NOT taxed but the energy driving potentially carbon neutral trains IS taxed - how is that a fair competitive arena - in addition many National and sub-National state actors subsidise short-haul air links, in the misguided view that such subisidies help to promote localised economic activity. Short haul air dumps it waste products into the wider environment yet it pays nothing into central coffers to help mitigate the environmental damage it causes. These fiscal tools should be effectively co-ordinated on a pan-European scale to assist High Speed Rail and hinder short-haul air travel - put additional tax on short-haul air and use the revenues generated to fund construction of NEW, additional High Speed Rail lines?
Just follow china model, make it goverment based company, actually something like these is very good for us,because they are operated not purely for profit.
@@andrimuller6086 Nice idea but it has one small (or not so small) problem - there is no such thing as a "European" Government to sponsor the creation of a "government based company" dedicated to the task of improving/developing a comprehensive Europe-wide rail network.
@@peterdavidson3268 that european main problem , maybe some sort of deal between each member to make a exceptional rules for a join public service transportation can help.
@@andrimuller6086 Which is how we end up back with the same underlying problem - individual EU member states responding 'individually' to their respective electorates, developing and implementing transport policies on an essentially domestic basis. Europe can only break free from this governance impasse if its institutional architecture evolves towards a Federal model - in terms of transport this would require defining policies of pan-European (Federal) import and those of an exclusively domestic nature and allocating them to different tiers of (accountable) governance - obviously the Ten-T corridors referenced in this RUclips video would fall under the Federal tier's remit and would therefore be implemented using pan-European (not domestic) criteria - sadly European governance remains a long way from reaching this entirely logical conclusion?
trains are the transport of the future
no
@@skurinski yeah they are. Shut up train hater
Yes
Maybe
Thank u for sharing😍 Another useful content besides European rail offer video😌 Hope everyone enjoy their travel to Europe 🚂
2:10 The line goes from Paris to Budapest not Bratislava
But great video even with the europe 1900s map
Via BA to BP
@@radovan511 sure but it doesn't end there
474%... damn math isnt your strong suit, is it ?
In germany there are some Tickets from Lufthansa to go by train
Like Berlin Frankfurt have a nonstop highspeed train conection a few Times a day
Excellent video!!! Please make more videos on railway and public transportation in general. Especially those in the EU and China.
That map in 0:39 is sus
For short distances (5-600km) if, railway exists, it's better and more or less the same time spending.
Usually train station is at the centre of a city while the airport outside of the city (extra time and money) plus you have to be 2hours earlier, disembarking plus time to take your luggage and again you have to use a bus or train to go to city centre will be the same time if you had a fast train.
I have to mention also that train tickets are very expensive, I know that airplanes fuels are very cheap so this makes cheap flights but the solution is not to taxate the cirosine in order train to be cheaper!
Sorry but that’s not true.
I would say 100-300km a train is ok and same fast as plane. But for 300-600 I take the plane because it takes 1-2 hours, a train needs 3-6hours.
Comparing amount of co2 is not fair. The tremendous amounts of co2 required to build and maintain a high-speed railway should be included, too.
Standard (no 't') gauge is 4 feet 8 1/2 inches, courtesy of George Stephenson's pioneer Liverpool & Manchester line in 1829. It was exported from Britain to Europe and the United States with the export of British locomotives.
dude i hope they will. Sucks that often trains are still much slower than driving with a car. And planes suck cause you always have 3 hours fixed you need to be there before no matter how short the flight.
All trains should be 300 kmh, it would be a dream come true.
300 km/h is not possible on mountain railways due to tight turns.
@@pikachu8508 pika pika
They need to make traveling by train much cheaper and easier to book. Having many options and arriving as fast as possible is not everything.
how can they make it cheaper? only if they give the tickets away for free.
It is already too cheap, the passenger does not pay the full cost of the ticket, the governments subsidize tickets.
good video, could you add sources on the description?
As a Brit, I wish we were part of the European project, I worked on on an EU harmonisation project from 2010 to 2012, it’s sad to see how we have become on the outside!
You chose America now deal with it
@@Auzzzie82 sorry! I don’t understand your comment
Well tbf I'm not sure how we'd fit into these plans anyway? We're not on the mainland and already have an international rail connection with the Channel Tunnel. Isn't that as integrated as we can be? It's our domestic train services that need work haha
1:10 you never write reduction as more then 100% so it is 79% less.
I took the train from Amsterdam to Vienna, and let me tell you, there’s still a lot of things that needs to be fixed. The ICE is a nice train, but you’re literally stopping at every station in every small village along the way. Also the train broke down twice along the way, which can happen, but it happens all the time with DB. Than there’s the price, it was at least twice as expensive as the plane. From Amsterdam I would only consider taking the Thalys to Paris, or the Eurostar to London. If it’s a destination further than that, I would still take the plane as it’s still that much quicker and more predictable.
In my opinion we should focus on making aviation more sustainable & getting EU regulated taxation on all flights within Europe, or drastically change the way we use the train.
what about the night train?
Did you book the ICE direct? I toom the same line but only stopled in major cities.
I got the nightjet train from venice to vienna and it only stopped a few times and never broke down
@@russell6075 You're talking about the Nightjet, which is an excellent ÖBB (Austrian) service, while he is referring to the ICE, which is a crappy DB (German) non-service. It's true that ICE's are high speed only in name as they stop virtually everywhere and it's also true that they constantly have technical failures. The Austrians by contrast (I'm not Austrian, btw) are serious people.
GREAT IDEA GREAT VIDEO!
Hey, video looks great but I can't help noticing that the ultra-modern-computery looking map at 0:39s illustrates pre-1914 Europe. No Poland at all, for instance. Where does this map (and choice) come from ?
Oh and the flags on the Baltics at 2:42 are placed wrong.
OK. Finished watching now. LOADS of useful information and insights, and quite a lot of great maps material. In spite of what I noted above, I would still absolutely recommend this video.
0:39 Wrong map
1:11 Wrong maths
2:40 Wrong flags
Your intentions are great but you need to polish your content before publishing, if you really want to stand out in this topic
😂😂😂❤
It’s funny how the term short haul flights has different meaning in different countries. Here in Australia a short haul flight would be say Brisbane to Sydney or Sydney to Melbourne. Both of which are over 1000km. A train 🚂 journey between in either of those routes takes about 12 hours vs 1.5 hours for a plane ✈️
Speaks to how backward our train services are between capitals!
So your trains only go 80km/h?? Thats to slow
@@bladehea planes fly a fairly direct route. Whereas trains have to go around obstacles and take a rather circuitous route to avoid overly steep terrain. So what is a 1000km plane flight, may be a 12-1300km train ride.
In addition to the high speed day trains it is necessary to develop a long distance low or average speed trains with night routes and short stops (no more than 15 minutes). Night/sleeping trains with a speed about 100 km/h can be very comfortable for traveling for a distance up to 1000 km (one night) - sleep and travel.
Amazing video
Tbh it's not that train lines are lacking, it's just that train is generally pricier than airplaine for inter countries travel...
And railways are heavily subsidized and planes are heavily taxed. Perhaps trains aren’t such a great idea after all…
Train lines are not lacking? Try to pass the border between France and Spain or Italy on a HS line or between Germany and Italy. Lines ARE lacking. About the price, it depends on countries and on competition on the HS segment. Push for open market and you'll get healthy competition between 2 businesses that'll try to convince you buying their ticket offering the best quality/price ratio
@@lorenzopassero8509 the border france italy and france spain are shaped by mountain of course high speed lines will not be built here.
And beside there's at least one on each border: Perpignan-Barcelona for spain, which goes along the Mediterranean coast, and Lyon-Milan which goes through a tunnel through the Alps.
Even if the trains are as fast as planes, people will still choose planes since they are so much cheaper. Anytime I compared, flight is just so much cheaper... no idea what makes train tickets (even for slow trains from 1970s) so expensive...
They are not. In my country it doesnt cost more than 30€, and you can buy tickets from 7€.
Hahaha no, really the only factors are the time and how far you want to go the closer the train is best
If you only look at the portions of travel where you're actually moving, planes are technically faster. But a train doesn't ask you to arrive 2 hours before boarding. So trains don't even have to be as fast as planes to beat them. Also you usually arrive smack in the centre of a city, as opposed to having to to take a shuttle or taxi, bus ...
In many countries (outside the EU) trains are much cheaper than flights (in Ukraine, India, Vietnam etc.)
@@LeonidAndronov And travel quality in there trains varies quite a lot. India is something special with people jaywalking and defecating on rail tracks. At least Vietnam have those lovely narrow gauge trains who even with technical backwardness look nice.
I would take the train if it was cheaper than flying. In Germany the train can sometimes even be more expensive and take longer. The Germany wide ticket coming next month is great, but only is valid for the slow trains. Could still do a lot more to make it more attractive in Germany...
Cost is always going to be an issue.
I'd be curious to know if the emission comparison factors in the emissions generated in constructing the new train network.
Emissions figures are generally misleading. The better metric is emission per passenger (fully loaded) where planes are significantly better than cars but not as good as trains. France is already 80% nuclear and 18% hydro and those are themselves owned by the government. So, it makes economics sense to back trains.
@@PhilJonesIII ok? That's not really addressing my comment.
I'd love to cross from the UK to the EU on rail, if Eurostar didn't cost so much
There was a low cost alternativ the German national railway (DB) had a direct train Frankfurt London but brexit killed that idea
I would LOVE to see EU implement such infrastructure quickly... the reality is the EU is lacking true ambitions. Governments remain too much "sovereign" and don't want to see that the future of continental Europe is to unite not only economically but also politically, socially, tax wise, and at the defense level. WAKE-UP EUROPE!
EI has ambitions but lacks money. They have a lot of it, but not enough, especially when most of the money is wasted. Surely german and dutch taxpayers would gladly pay more taxes so that french and italians can retire even earlier and buy even more real estate (home ownership in Italy is above 80%, in Germany is below 50%)
I have just one question; WHY no mention of Transrapid MagLev? It climbs steeper gradients and turns tighter circles than conventional wheel-on-rail technology.
Great video, but quick note - at 02:40 the Baltic flags are completely mixed up. Estonia is the most north (with the capital Tallinn), then Latvia sits in the middle (with the capital Riga) and finally Lithuania is most south (with the capital Vilnius).
Europe is the number one place for personal freedoms! i love it
The reason Madrid and Lisbon have no direct train is because, during the Napoleonic wars the portuguese constructed their railway tracks with a different width. This was done so that a french invasion was more difficult to achieve.
Railway in Napoleonic wars???
@@DCDVassili They had Napoleonic wars in mind. Also the same reason why railways in Russia was built with broad gauge.
That is not true. Portugal and Spain have the same gauge.
it would be great if you put sources in the description of the video, really interesting video though!
5:14 Wrong. There is Interrail, which you can use to buy any rail ticket in central and south europe for both regional and continental trains
Since Europe is eliminating nuclear energy where is the clean energy going to come from? Also, what's the point in having an EU (or Nato for that matter) if HRS can't be uniform and transborder compatible?
Rail can be border compatible if both countries simply agree on the train going there. To be fair there are some other hoops but that’s the biggest hurdle. How they will get that clean energy? Nobody knows.
EU, Schengen, and NATO aren't predicated on rail standards, but the first two would save a lot of time with them
Did you listen to the video ? The whole point of it is showing the efforts made by EU to unify the train systems across the continent. Because train is older than the EU, and most of the national tracks, norms and regulations were decided way before the EU existed.
@@noefillon1749 That's good. Thanks.
@@dennyroozeboom4795 Also the EU is now having a bigger say in the running of trains, so the borders matter less.
An electric train will always be better and an electric car and electric plane
All three can compliment each other, Adrian (and neither of the other two are going away.)
I live in the Netherlands and I am really satisfied with the rail system, from my home city of Arnhem j can take a direct train to Frankfurt ( Germany ) and Basel (Zwitserland ) with a high speed ice train or an fast intercity ride to amsterdsm where I can take a high speed train to London, Paris and Brussels or a sleeper train to viena, or a intercity to Berlin witch is not that fast.
When visiting Copenhagen in 2019 my wife and I wanted to take the train to Malmo but it was going to be about 100Euro per person EACH WAY, which was way too expensive to spend a few hours... so we took the train to Helsingor & ferry to Helsingborg instead for less than 50 round trip. Maybe there was a ferry to Malmo that would have been cheaper but we had our backpacks and were in the train station so had to make a decision right there.
Too many immigrants thats why expensive. They want to keep out
We need a high speed train line around the world from Buenos Aires to Cape Town. Crossing Alaska to Russia and Spain to Morroco will be tricky
2:16 Paris Gare L'est Wien Hbf can be done using ÖBB Nightjet 469/468 Orient Express. The reason Why you can find an Austrian train inside Germany it has to do with Austria in the 1960s opting for the West German Punktförmige Zugbeeinflussung system to allow interoperability between them.
Would love to see a tunnel link between Ireland and Europe. A real middle finger to Brexit and the UK 😏
Way too far!
Students in Bavaria are getting a Germany ticket for 29€ this winter !!
Can't wait.
Trains are awesome. So as a trains lover this is a dream coming true.
I think cost will be the main hindrance. In the UK, for example, its cheaper to drive on your own and pay for parking then use rail networks
is the manufacturing and maintenance of the rail roads accounted for, as far emissions go ?
It would be nice if you put links to sources in the description
Love train travel around Europe would love to see a rail link to Ireland but cant see it ever happening because of the cost
Yes, long-distance trains are expensive, if you book last-minute, but so do planes!
If you book around 2 weeks in advance and avoid weekends or public holidays, a 700KM train ride from Hamburg to Munich costs only €17, and I even took the same journey in 1st class for €30!
I book my tickets through DB. London to Cologne & back. The Cologne to Brussels train was cancelled, so I was able to go on the next available service and Eurostar knew about the broken link and put me on the next available service - with NO FUSS.
I've been to sicily and took the train to Palermo there... I think the rail can use a little upgrade
0:39 😅 where did you get this map? From 1876?
Will "Rail Baltica" be built to "Standard gauge" aka 4'81/2" or to the broader gauge of 5' thar currently used in the baltic countries?
Standard gauge
awesome, cheaper than flights, no time consuming boarding hassle security checks and other boring stuff, can travel with folding bike awesome in general
You can catch a fast train to go and watch a champions league game in football in another country in a few hours with train systems like that.
I would love to see long distance routes like Amsterdam-Rome or Berlin-Barcelona served by sleeper trains. Amsterdam-Brussels-Paris-Lyon-Rome could be done in 8 and a half hours at an achievable 240Km/h. It might make sense. Energy costs plummet during nighttime. It could be convenient for some business travelers, since it saves accomodation costs, also for non EU travelers on their Euro trip. It could give more alternatives to the in-between cities... I don't know, in the end I don't think there's enough demand for this travel times and this North-South, East-West connections, but man I would love to see it done. And well done, like 2st century enhanced experience giving you more privacy options but keeping the social component of it.
I love the map shown for a second at 0.39: Imperial Germany, Imperial Russia and Austria-Hungary - high speed rail in the year 1914 :)