this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2024
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Europeans, do you take the train to travel to other countries? (upload.wikimedia.org)
submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Source: https://ec.europa.eu/transport/infrastructure/tentec/tentec-portal/site/en/maps.html

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I took a trip from the Netherlands to Romania, and amazingly only had a single transfer.

At least, that was the plan, but then a train went missing on the way there and we had an additional transfer. Pretty stressful. Way home was super smooth though.

The one thing I don't get the EU doesn't bring down the hammer on is getting directions and buying tickets. Feels like that should be a relatively easy fix, forcing all European rail companies to align from the top down. But I'm probably unaware of something that makes that harder than it seems.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Pretty much all train companies are vast old overcomolicated state-run monoliths that are very used to everyone working around them in their own country. Such organisations suddenly having to work together with others as equals requires a culture shift. Not to mention the technical challenges, the IT systems - if they even have any, or any from this century - are typically vastly different. They'd have to invest massively in modernisation and standardisation before they can even think of integration. This requires a multi-year effort and a lot of investment, which many states are not ready to make.

Sauce: the Swiss state-run train company SBB/CFF/FFS is and has been working hard to integrate the systems of just our neighbours, and it has been .... interesting.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Oh yes, I'm not doubting it would be a multi-year effort, it's more that I'm not aware of any such effort being in progress. Like, couldn't the EU at least have set a goal of interoperability in x years?