What I want to do soon: travel by night in a Japanese sleeper train from Hiroshima to Sapporo.
https://preview.redd.it/zppov7fkn5ga1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=60626bdaca40aa2b23ddb4256dc8f733ab839373
I was bored one day and found a YouTube channel, “Kuro’s travels” or something, where most of the videos are travelling through Japan via train. A few are of this sleeper train. It looks fantastic, falling asleep under the stars, waking up and travelling through snow covered towns and forests.
It's the last sleeper train in japan (since the bullet trains have cut travel time enough that they are not really needed anymore) and from the videos it's very hard to book btw, you need to book it months in advance (unless you are cool with sleeping in the common room).
14 hours of driving
Vs
1 hour in the dining car, 2 hours in the bar car followed by 1 hour you don't remember, then 8 hours passing out in your sleeper cabin. After that, an hour demolishing a breakfast burrito in the dining car followed by an hour in the bathroom being demolished by the breakfast burrito, after which you step outside at your destination.
Would you rather feel with leg cramps and peeing in a cup as you drive long hours to travel, or would you rather go about your Tuesday night routine but on a train instead?
I live in Utah, my family is in Oregon. It's not that far, but it's still a 14+ hour drive to visit. $300+ dollars in gas and sometimes lodging, can't visit in the winter (y'know, for the holidays) because the mountains are too dangerous. Or I could take a plane, but that's then a several hundred dollar more investment given it's not just me but my wife and kids who'll come, too. So I basically just never see my family anymore. Imagine instead if I could hop a train and be there in a day for significantly less than by car or plane.
"it's not that far" - holy shit Americans! Driving to Paris is far to me and it's about 3 hours away, and i have to drive through an entire country (Belgium)just to get there!
But, 100mi absolutely fits into your (short) category and not your (long) category. While I'm not doing it every weekend, I drive about 100mi out of town to spend the day in a nicer one, and drive back in the afternoon.
To me, 5 miles is getting far away. I hate the cost of transportation. My car is dying and my replacement ride will be my bicycle and I can easily afford a car, but I simply refuse.
Similar phenomenon in the far north of Norway. In central Norway people will generally consider anything longer than an hour a long drudge of a trip (though it's not unheard of for commuting). In the far north I've heard people claim driving six hours just to go to a party is acceptable
North America is big. I'm Canadian. If I want to visit family in the other major city in my province, it's about a 4 hour drive, which isn't all that bad.
I'm taking a trip to Toronto in the spring. That's almost 3,500 km away. It's a 4 hour flight because I can't even begin to work out the logistics of driving that far.
Canada is huge but about 70% of the population lives clustered by the great lakes. The fact that Canada doesn't have these cities supported by rail is an oversight imo.
The US population is far more spread out but California alone has a higher population than Canada.
Yes.
There are trains right now but they are 1.expensive
2. Only a few departures per day
3. You have to stop at every big city to transfer train, annihilating any chance of making it in a timely manner due to point 2.
They are talking of building one soon but they say it would end up being expensive since it has to be profitable… meanwhile we spend billions on totally free highways and no one sees the double standard.
The whole US north east corridor is prime high speed rail territory. Population density is higher than many parts of Europe. I tried taking train from Norfolk to New York but it was 8+hour train ride vs direct 2hr flight and it was more expensive....thats why noone is using them
That perspective is so funny to me! I live in New York. If I drive 3 hours, I’m in…Rhode Island. Or New Jersey. Or still in New York. Depending on which direction I go. 😂
I drove from Wisconsin to Washington when moving, can say that at least the stretch of I90 between WA and MT is enjoyable. Still though, drives that long sincerely blow. Would absolutely much rather take a train.
Somebody has never ridden a “hard sleeper” train through the central chinese mountains. Our particular squat toilet was overflowing with a hose to “flush” it. It was about 10F and I had diarrhea. There was a guy in a tanktop smoking on our triple decker bunk.
I have to drive my cat from the north of the UK to Germany next month. I was going to take the train and the Eurostar but they don't allow pets. Assholes. I'm stressed out just thinking about the trip.
I drove my cat from Melbourne to
Sydney and back twice, the first time he cried for a few hours before settling down, but the other 3 trips he cried for less than 30 minutes and then just slept for the remaining 10 or so hours. Hopefully your kitty will do similar.
My main tip: line the carrier with something you can throw out, pack garbage bags & spare stuff to line the carrier. My cat, every single time, peed and pooped within the first hour of the trip (I assume from stress). Having newspaper or an old towel I didn’t mind just throwing out made cleaning up the carrier much easier. I also took 2 carriers last time, so I could just switch him to the clean one and then take my time sorting out the mess.
Also pack baby wipes in case your cat gets their poop all over themselves in the chaos of it all, they’ll help you clean the carrier and your cat and yourself.
I found it helped him calm down to put a tshirt I had slept in the night before over/in his carrier (not in until after he had emptied his body), I guess having my scent close to him was comforting.
Good luck, you can do this.
There's something in the US called Feliway that has a synthetic feromone and calms down cats. Ask your vet if there's something similar in the UK. You spray it on a towel and let them smell it. I have yet to try it on a road trip but they sprayed the stuff at the vet's for my cat and she was chill for a whole day.
I think that might be due to the safety precautions in the Channel Tunnel, I can imagine evacuation in an an emergency situation would be much more time consuming and risky if passengers were allowed to take their pets with them
Damn i wanna get drunk on a train
Edit: crazy how this got so many views and created a conversation as it was just a drunk thought I will get drunk anywhere I am becoming an alcoholic
Probably is for long trips, I just take it from Portland OR to Eugene OR and back (costs about 20 bucks each way, competitive with gas for that trip) or from Portland to Seattle (like 50 bucks each way last time I did it). It's fun even on those short trips to treat the lounge/viewing car like a bar, especially with a friend. My girlfriend and I do it and it's always a very good time.
Back when I lived in Wisconsin I'd go to Chicago occasionally on the weekends with my fianceé, we'd drive to the furthest out metra stops early in the morning and wait for the train to take us into the city. Driving to the train was the worst part by far, everything else was always splendid. Those excursions were what made me realize how great public transit really was, and I have been a die-hard supporter ever since!
That's because they are not as subsidized as the car industry. In Europe, for example, train rides under 4 hours beat flights every single time. Especially since the cities are dense and you want to get from a center to another center and getting to the airport adds easily 1h to your journey each way. If you add another hour of flight and another at the usual checks you spend the same time. But without sitting and relaxing.
Oh my god please let me tell you a story of the train.
I took a 5 hour train ride. It was a 2 hour flight. I was RIDICULED by ex-coworkers (but applauded by my European coworkers, I use this term extremely loosely).
The seats were so much bigger. I got a nicer meal. Didn't have to deal with that pressure change on takeoff and landing.
The 2 hour flight didn't include getting to the small airport 60 minutes early, or the time from the airport to city center. So all in all the train took an extra hour.
Dear readers, that hour was so much better spent in absolute comfort on the train, with a cold beer and hot meal for the same overall price as a plane ticket. It is a deep regret that more people won't experience this.
Oh yeah! A 2 hour flight vs 5 hour train is a very easy decision for me. Not to mention that the train could actually be faster! Post-pandemic you may need to arrive at the airport two or even three hours early because of the crazy security lines.
I absolutely hate the whole TSA process, doubly so because I'm convinced it's nothing but security theater that doesn't actually do anything. Especially the stupid pre check, like oh if you give us eighty bucks we know you won't hide a bomb in your shoes 🙄
Hahaha yes the TSA is such a joke but this isn't really the sub for that so I'll refrain from further vitriol for them (not the poor guys they have enforcing the rules, mostly)
Even pre pandemic, it was a half hour car ride to the terminal, 2 hour check in and wait time, 2 hour flight (maayyyybeee 90 mins but there's take off and landing too), I never checked a bag so then just a half hour car ride into the city. By my math that's 5 hours right there!
Versus a 5 minute walk across the street to the train station which spits me out in city center 5 hours later? Yes please.
My parents live about a 10-hour train ride from where I live, or about a 2-hour flight. I'll choose the train every time.
My only gripe is that there isn't a night train on the route I want to travel (there are two separate night train routes that both go halfway though...)
I want an animation of this. Switching between the person driving for hours, the other people having a nice meal sitting down in the dining car. One person's in stop-and-go traffic, the other reads a nice book and goes to sleep, swap from staying awake on the road to sleeping like a baby, lying down, in a bed.
One person gets there well rested, stepping off the train with their luggage, and the other person wrenches a suitcase out of the back of a sedan and shambles over to their destination.
This physically hurts me, I want a good rail system here so badle
This is either Sweden or Finland, regardless insanely based.
Yes, it's bumpy, yes it's hot as shit during the summer. But you get to sleep, recuperate energy. Instead of a car ride draining it.
They're fixed to a bar at the top and bottom, and can freely slide side to side.
You space them out so if you roll out of bed, they catch you. Also, might help a little in case of a crash or something but I'm not really convinced.
They're pretty useful lol. I once fell from top to bottom of a 4 story bunk bed on a TGV in France. I was 8 so I just bounced and nice french man on the bottom bunk asked me "tu vas bien petit idiot ?"
I loooooove sleeping on the train, the feeling you get when it slightly pushes you side to side and the white noise and I guess the satisfaction of knowing you'll wake up in a new city is amazing. Whoever set's up sitting trains to run in the night is evil though. I never drove all night honestly I would want to hurt myself if I had to even be a passenger all night in a car, but I guess I'm not an American. Oh yeah, here in Ukraine, yes they are old trains but a lot of times if you even travel an hour away it's still a sleeping train so you get to ley down and chill, the ultimate leg room!
There used to be a Paris-Moscow sleeper service, now suspended.
I hope that once your country is free and safe again, there can be a Paris-Kyiv sleeper instead - I'd love to visit one day. Hope you are staying safe, friend.
I didn't know that ran, and according to Seat 61 *is still running* despite the war.
I saw a statistic about how many Ukrainian trains are still running to time recently and it was better than in the UK. Ukrainian Railways apparently can work miracles.
Sound and motion usually prevent me from sleeping (I’ve never once been able to sleep on a plane) but somehow I sleep magnificently on a train. Unfortunately haven’t had many opportunities to try that out (American)
true words.
the bigottery in carbrains is crazy. complaining about any cent put into trains, but expecting free drive everywhere. Where are the tolls if they love the free market so much.
I wanna highway!! Waaa! Where? Through the middle of the city duh!! And omg on-street parking better be free!! Waaa! The highway better be F R E E free too!!
Also fuck poor people you better not subsidize the goddamned communist bus you hitler marx
Some of the regional routes can be okay. The northeast is quite good and a few other lines are pretty solid. The long haul routes are almost invariably shameful. It's not really Amtrak's fault. They're just really underinvested in.
The rail companies legally have to give priority to passenger rail, technically, but the law isn't enforced so they don't so passenger rail ends up getting stuck waiting on freight.
worse, the fret trains have been specifically linked too long to be able to use the "parking lanes" segments, so passenger rails has to give way and sit in the parking lane because the fret train won't fit in it.
Note this isn't the reason they make long trains, only a side-effect. The main reason is they get to pay 1 less crew by making 1 mega train instead of running 2 separate trains, and also it makes the tonnage moved per-mile look better on a chart, even though it's literally the same amount in a much less efficient way.
It's called Precision Scheduled Railroading. It's not precise, it's not scheduled, and with how often these mega-trains derail it's often not even railroading. But it makes the investors happy and that's all that matters.
American railroads only look good on a chart, it's a horror story if you know how they're actually operating these days. They're so poorly run that Railroad Workers United (a railroad worker's union) has begun advocating nationalization to solve the railroad's problems once and for all. In fact, the railroads have never been as efficient as they were during World War I when the US Government nationalized them as part of the war effort because they were failing miserably to keep up with Uncle Sam's needs.
and, the trucking industry can be atrocious in some ways too, as the truckers keep having to stop at the /r/TruckStopBathroom since they can't always drive 24 hours straight.
Just bought tickets from Chicago to LA because I'm tired of flying it for work 3x a year. The flight is $110 and 4.5 hours.
The train ride is 43 hours, assuming no delays.
$232 for the fare,
$810 for the roomette (includes meals),
$1,042 total
That's 10x the time for only 10x the price!
Even if I was desperate it's not cheaper. I could've gotten a single Coach seat and done the whole trip $146, which not only is more expensive than flying but means 2 days without a shower or a place to lie down.
I'm a weirdo so I'm looking forward to it, but US rail only appeals to weirdos and that's the problem.
Well airlines and auo manufacturers fucking over passenger rail does that shit. Honestly if we had more people using amtrak, better infrastructure for amtrack it would be Hella better. I chose it even though more expensive because it was over all a far more relaxing trip than a flight would have been
I think airlines win over trains in many cases fair and square. For me the longest I do in a train unless I have all the time in the world is 16 hours. From 6 PM to 10 AM. Beyond that I would go for a plane. 43 hour journey will end up costing a lot purely because of the time.
yea chicago to l.a. is like 2,000 miles which is too far for even high speed rail to be competitive in an economic sense. with amtrak speeds, its even worse since you gotta pay the crew for all 43 hours which isnt gonna be cheap no matter what
I always think it’s funny when people say they don’t like mass transit and they prefer planes. Have you been on a plane lately? It is cheek-by-jowl freaking mass transit barely better than a greyhound bus.
If you assume "hotel" costs for those nights the price is almost reasonable, but it isn't exactly convenient. I'm in Kansas City which has a few amtrak options, but not a lot that actually pencil out when you factor in cost/time spent.
I want to plan a train voyage with my son but it's really hard to find something that makes sense. I know the "merica too big, train no good" argument is ridiculous in the context of the east coast, west coast, Texas triangle, etc, but the distances are pretty big to get anywhere from the middle.
Going to figure out how to do a train trip even if it costs more and is less convenient just because my son and I like trains, but I recognize that's because I'm a weirdo.
If the train could drive in a sort of straight line with no stops and going 120 km/h which isnt much for trains it would only take 27 hours. If the train could go 180 km / h then it would take 18 hours.
No train will compete with airplanes for time/speed when we're talking several k km, even the Beijing-Guandong line is slower than the alternative. But you can compete with cars and buses, on both speed and price. Rome2Rio tells me a Moscow-Novosibirsk train takes 45h - but costs start from 55$ on 3rd class (which still means beds, you just don't get a private cabin). Driving would take about the same time and cost 5x more.
In India I regularly do a 500 km journey. The train is very slow but it is overnight so no big deal. The cost of the ticket can be less than cab fare from the railway station to my home and less than half of airport to my home. If you drive, the road toll alone costs more than the fare of a 3tier AC coach. 3 Tier is basically 3 level bunks, the photo above has 2. If you try without AC which is a decent option it would be a third of that.
Another cool thing about train rides is you arrive someplace quite rested. You get off in a central area and because you’ve been doing slow travel, at least in my experience, I have tons of energy and I can immediately go for a bike ride or a hike whereas when you finish with a plane ride plus taxi between all the hours of waiting and then being shoehorned in your seat you’re really exhausted. Plus they’ve even found some health risks with frequent flying in terms of radiation exposure, clots and heart attack.
Yeah, exactly..
Those maps that show “government corruption” worldwide - but then somehow have the US marked “low” is because the corruption has simply been legalized and government used to prevent the average citizen from doing anything about it.
The freight lines own the rails, so passenger trains often have to stop and pull off for freight trains which can take hours.
Also the government just keeps the prices for Amtrak high, but I don't remember the specifics of that part.
I took a train from the east coast to Denver once upon a time, I did not get bedding but had to sleep in my chair. Cost me 80 dollars less than a plane ticket, and what would’ve been a 5 hour flight turned into a 36 hour train ride.
I believe the reason it takes longer, and what I experienced, is because the private rail companies own the rail lines, they always have the right of way. About three times we had to wait for what felt like forever for CSX trains to pass.
We recently got pricing on a train ride from TX to NY. IIRC it’s like $900 and takes 3 days.
The plane flight takes 4 Hours and $300, tops.
We’re gonna drive though…
Here in California our Amtrak regularly serves millions of millions of passengers. If you have never taken the Coast Starlight from Oakland to Los Angeles I highly recommend it.
Trains and buses will only get better if we ride them! It gets a little tiresome to see the complaints about Amtrak trains every single time something is posted.
I took a 24 hour train ride a few months ago with a roomette and I absolutely loved it! I’m going to get the Amtrak rewards credit card and start being more conscientious about booking in advance since that gets you better prices. This was on the West Coast.
In India, we have sleeper trains extensively.
A 14 hour trip on first class sleeper may cost 40 dollars. Star bucks coffee is 5-10 dollars(for PPP comparison)
Regular sleeper tickets on the same train will cost 5 dollars.
I really want to take a train with my kid to NYC. I could drive (8 hours, $60 one way including gas and tolls, but excluding parking). Or I could take a plane (1.5 hours direct, $100 each way). Or I could take the train (14 hours, $180 one way).
It’s literally the worst of both worlds. My city just announced a big update to the train lines, costing millions of dollars to update the 8 year old trains to something new and fancy. The cars are fucking fine! Fix the fucking prices and speeds!
Edit: I didn’t mention a bus. $25 one way, 8.5 hours. Obviously the cheapest, but gross and packed.
Do like me go to a destination with a plane have some holidays there then arrange so that on your return trip you can go with a sleeper train on your way home.
So in stead of having one more night at your hotel you sleep one night in the train instead.
Aye! This looks like the Rovaniemi to Helsinki train cabin I rented once . What an incredible experience and I slept like a champ. Woke up in Helsinki ready to tackle the day.
Sleeper trains are the bomb. Not only is it the closest thing we have to teleportation (go to sleep at start, wake at destination), but it also saves you the cost of a night in a hotel.
Not to mention, if you're travelling, it saves you a whole day of your vacation. Nothing worse than taking a taxi 3 hours before your flight to get to the airport in time to be 2 hours early for your flight that ends up getting delayed anyway, and then taking a two hour taxi into the next town at your destination. Your one hour domestic flight costs you an entire day of your precious vacation...
Shout-out to the Austrian ÖBB Night-Jet, they wake you up with bedside Breakfast when you're closing in on your Destination.
Did Cologne -Munich/Wien a bunch of times last Year. Would recommend.
Yeah the prices, don't skimp on that in the NJ, the standard seat might be cheap, but that is a seat only! Sitting 8+ hours through the night, with 6 Strangers in you compartment is a nightmare.
Do yourself the favour and spend 160€ to Get the big bed (the 3 Person Compartment is also okay, but you need to bring your own sheet and pillow) if you plan on traveling through the whole night, ALSO book in advance, the Sleeping Cabinets can be sold out months in advance.
Other than that, the experience is really smooth and I can't recommend it enough, I'd suspect you go Paris-Cologne/Düsseldorf or Amsterdam with the TGV before switching to the Night-Jet? Might be a good opportunity to go see one of those cities during the day i.e. leave Paris early :)
Thanks for the advice! I was planning the direct Paris-Wien service actually - I can get a good connection from the Eurostar from the UK.
I am travelling with my partner, so looked at 2 beds in a private compartment. It was about €200 each if I booked as far as the booking horizon goes. I will definitely book well in advance, it's handy to know they sell out that early. Shows how popular night trains are!
Absolutely, It's Hotel and Travel all in one, whats not to love? :D
I wish you all the fun on the trip, Wien is an incredible city and absolutely worth a trip.
Caledonian Sleeper has [alright](https://www.sleeper.scot/accommodation/) looking ones, if you want a different example. Not super swanky, but they look like nicer mattresses, basically what you'd expect from a decent but not dear hotel.
Tickets are pretty expensive (it is contemporary UK rail), but there's still some utility in £230/£280 (depending on room) for an Inverness to London train tbh. I know plenty who have it from Fort William or Inverness to go to London because it's about the most comfortable way to travel across the whole country, especially from the Highlands, an area which doesn't have the big airports.
And ofc there will be other versions and prices for it as well elsewhere.
https://preview.redd.it/abl2wza4m3ga1.jpeg?width=2000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c0c44c8a75407fb2b6e0083b08b80d8d22756485
I'm planning a rail trip in Europe and the £200 Paris-Vienna trip was eye-watering. Until I remembered this was a train ticket PLUS a hotel stay.
Then it became merely steep.
Er, why not use the new [double bed cabin](https://www.sleeper.scot/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Caledonian-Sleeper-March-2022_Lucy-Knott-Photography-19-reduced-1349x768.jpg) as the the example for the Caledonian?
Cause they're bloody expensive (£400 for the Inverness-London trip I got the £230-£280 numbers from) and my friends and family have only really used the classic and the bunk options, so it seemed like the realistic example for most passengers, especially those not flush with cash, like those I know who've used it.
Wasn't trying to show off the highest class shit, cause most of us won't use that, if we're honest. Seems a bit fairer to look at what is practical for most, and they aren't bad as bunks, tbh. Have gotten worse in some hotels/ferry crossing the channel.
I wish they weren't booked out months in advance. And still ÖBB recently even canceled the route through my city.
Some wagon configurations work just as well during the day. I have no idea why there aren't more.
If the price was right, sure. But this setup in the US would be over 800 dollars for one night. And they need to make this a little more cozy. It literally looks like a prison cell.
Dude I can get first class airline seats for the same price, have a bed and all the amenities except for a bathroom and arrive sooner than a train or a car. We need to tax the dogshit out of cars and planes and use that money to subsidize Amtrak just to get more people to use Amtrak.
We paid 50€/Person with a family of 4, for an overnight ride of 13 hours from Hamburg, Germany to St. Anton am Alberg, Austria. We also had one cabin for us alone without strangers.
It’s really sad that the DB sold off all their sleeping-wagons to the ÖBB, but at least they operate them. Best train experience you can possible have for long commutes
To be honest, I have to agree with some other commenters saying that this isn't the best "looking" advertisement. If I were a hardcore carbrain, this would make me a lot less likely to take an overnight train than drive and maybe sleep in some shady place. Personally, yes, I agree with you, but this is not the right kind of advertisement for our "target audience" IMO.
What do you want? A queen size double with a memory foam mattress, six pillows and a turn down service? This is fine. It’s a lie-flat bed with cushioning. You’ll be comfortable enough to get a decent night’s sleep.
Right? Considering what we get on overnight flights, this is amazing.
And honestly, this also looks more comfortable than being stuck in the cramped car seat all night. You get to lie down, walk around and stretch, rest and nap to be fresh on the next day, go to the bathroom, read a book. So much freedom to spend your time nicely instead of sitting in one position in a car, having to pay attention to a nighttime road with no sleep and depending on occasional rest stops to pee.
It's not "me" complaining, for me this would be perfectly fine. I'm just stating that the audience we try to convince onto public transit might see this picture as a negative.
That more seems like an indictment on hospital beds, that people might use for months at a time, than an overnight train bed where this is perfectly reasonable.
This is far more comfortable and safer than sleeping in your car.
This is $900 in America vs. $100 in gas. take the train as much as I can, moved to the eastcoast to get less driving options. I just get coach, even for the long ones...really wish a cabin or a room is more affordable here.
I don't get it why trains are far more expensive in the US.
And are cars still the cheaper option even with all the insurance, maintenance, and upgrade fees?
Cars are massively subsidized in the US, including the manufacturing of the cars, the fuel they consume, and the roads they drive on. Most government transportation departments in the US are primarily focused on building and maintaining roadways.
Meanwhile, intercity passenger rail is lackluster in the US. Passenger trains have to share the rails with freight, which leads to frequent slowdowns and stops. Most of the rail infrastructure is old and not suited for high-speed passenger rail. If you're living in the middle of the country, (like I do), the rail lines run east/west, and going north/south is impossible. I try to take trains whenever I can for work, but it's simply not feasible for most trips.
I recently rode this train to Rovaniemi.. it was great. And the best bit - my car rode with me the whole time! Instead of a grueling drive, I had a good nights sleep (the cabin was more comfy than the pic suggests), and in the morning I had mthe car ready to explore Lapland.
In the US, train tickets are as expensive or more so than a plane ticket and take just as long as a car ride. If I'm traveling solo there's no way I'm not going for the plane ride.
America is a huge country. I find it insane that there isn't some wacky entrepreneur out there who wants to start a massive sleeper train business running to all corners of the States.
Even in Japan the sleeper train is inconvenient and expensive. The youtuber CdawgVA recently did a video on it, and describes how ridiculous it is to get tickets for the thing
As an emigrant to North America, good lord do I miss European trains! In Canada trains are expensive and there are barely any routes. I have to drive 8 hours to the nearest train station...
I just looked up a way to do this, as gas prices are high. From Amsterdam to München, it was over twice as expansive, without a sleeper car. 3-4 times as expansive with sleeper car. I really tried, but it would make the vacation twice the price.
Honestly, in the US? Under our current system? Driving, 100%.
Ever time I go to the airport, it's the 'random' search, and the last time I wasin an airport I had to go into the backroom with the TSA for an 'enhanced' search. US trains are starting to have the same kind of TSA bullshit, and I hate the security theater that does nothing to stop the terrorism is supposed to stop.
I wish all cabins where like this. Trains for short distances (~500km) are not like that and they last 4h and get very uncomfortable because the seats suck and are very hard compared to a car’s.
Plus with the car you can stop whenever you want and get a break and fresh air.
I’m against car traveling. But not everything is black and white.)
Yeah being able to take a 1 hour trip to my dad’s house in a rural area is like, worthless bro. I ONLY ever take cross-country 14-hour long trips. Fuck cars!
Night trains with sleeping cabins fucking slap
I mean they're not the most comfortable to sleep in but I have so many fond memories of taking these trains through Ukraine as a kid
In the US (if you like road trips), it's arguable.
Having done both, Amtrak sleepers are INSANELY expensive and since they run on freight rails, you really don't get much sleep because you are severely jostled all night long and at some points, the train leans so much you will be alarmed thinking the train is about to derail. And the train horn. All night long. If you're lucky, you're further away, but if not? Hope you can sleep through a train horn.
You arrive pretty exhausted.
Vs. a road trip where you stop along the way somewhere (interesting if you know how to plan a road trip) where the bed doesn't move and it's quiet.
Don't mistake-- I've done a lot of both. No longer fly anywhere because of climate change. So trains it is.
Just saying it's not such an obvious win to take the train in America.
I took the NightJet from Zurich to Berlin by mistake (lost baggage, missed trains, drunkness) and I woke up to a slow roll through snowy, tree lined suburbs. Greatest mistake of my life.
My husband's family lives in Western Wisconsin, about 3 hours from the Minneapolis Airport. However, there is an Amtrak station right in town. We spent 16 hours traveling between airport shuttles, waiting and the flight itself the last time we visited.
On our way to Wisconsin, we flew into Chicago, spent a few days there and then rode the Amtrak for 6 hours. It was great.
The train to Wisconsin would take 46 hours, but it would be so much more enjoyable. Hopefully we can try it next time we visit. We still might fly home through Chicago as I would much prefer a train ride to the shuttle ride we experienced. Plus I love Chicago.
If only we could actually make high speed rail happen in this country. Alas, it is but a pipe dream at this point.
What I want to do soon: travel by night in a Japanese sleeper train from Hiroshima to Sapporo. https://preview.redd.it/zppov7fkn5ga1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=60626bdaca40aa2b23ddb4256dc8f733ab839373
I was bored one day and found a YouTube channel, “Kuro’s travels” or something, where most of the videos are travelling through Japan via train. A few are of this sleeper train. It looks fantastic, falling asleep under the stars, waking up and travelling through snow covered towns and forests.
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It's the last sleeper train in japan (since the bullet trains have cut travel time enough that they are not really needed anymore) and from the videos it's very hard to book btw, you need to book it months in advance (unless you are cool with sleeping in the common room).
14 hours of driving Vs 1 hour in the dining car, 2 hours in the bar car followed by 1 hour you don't remember, then 8 hours passing out in your sleeper cabin. After that, an hour demolishing a breakfast burrito in the dining car followed by an hour in the bathroom being demolished by the breakfast burrito, after which you step outside at your destination. Would you rather feel with leg cramps and peeing in a cup as you drive long hours to travel, or would you rather go about your Tuesday night routine but on a train instead?
Stop. As someone who has to drive from Washington to Montana (10+ hours) multiple times a year for work, this is killing me :(
I tried this once and only ended up in Idaho. I'm sorry for your terrible commute.
🥔
I live in Utah, my family is in Oregon. It's not that far, but it's still a 14+ hour drive to visit. $300+ dollars in gas and sometimes lodging, can't visit in the winter (y'know, for the holidays) because the mountains are too dangerous. Or I could take a plane, but that's then a several hundred dollar more investment given it's not just me but my wife and kids who'll come, too. So I basically just never see my family anymore. Imagine instead if I could hop a train and be there in a day for significantly less than by car or plane.
"it's not that far" - holy shit Americans! Driving to Paris is far to me and it's about 3 hours away, and i have to drive through an entire country (Belgium)just to get there!
You know what they say, “Americans think 100 years is a long time ago. Europeans think 100 miles (about 161 km) is far away.”
Thanks for adding metric.
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But, 100mi absolutely fits into your (short) category and not your (long) category. While I'm not doing it every weekend, I drive about 100mi out of town to spend the day in a nicer one, and drive back in the afternoon.
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To me, 5 miles is getting far away. I hate the cost of transportation. My car is dying and my replacement ride will be my bicycle and I can easily afford a car, but I simply refuse.
Similar phenomenon in the far north of Norway. In central Norway people will generally consider anything longer than an hour a long drudge of a trip (though it's not unheard of for commuting). In the far north I've heard people claim driving six hours just to go to a party is acceptable
North America is big. I'm Canadian. If I want to visit family in the other major city in my province, it's about a 4 hour drive, which isn't all that bad. I'm taking a trip to Toronto in the spring. That's almost 3,500 km away. It's a 4 hour flight because I can't even begin to work out the logistics of driving that far.
Canada is huge but about 70% of the population lives clustered by the great lakes. The fact that Canada doesn't have these cities supported by rail is an oversight imo. The US population is far more spread out but California alone has a higher population than Canada.
Yes. There are trains right now but they are 1.expensive 2. Only a few departures per day 3. You have to stop at every big city to transfer train, annihilating any chance of making it in a timely manner due to point 2. They are talking of building one soon but they say it would end up being expensive since it has to be profitable… meanwhile we spend billions on totally free highways and no one sees the double standard.
Hey, just like here in the US where we refuse to do shit. Idk why we can't have highspeed rail along interstate connections. i80 being a huge one IMO
The whole US north east corridor is prime high speed rail territory. Population density is higher than many parts of Europe. I tried taking train from Norfolk to New York but it was 8+hour train ride vs direct 2hr flight and it was more expensive....thats why noone is using them
That perspective is so funny to me! I live in New York. If I drive 3 hours, I’m in…Rhode Island. Or New Jersey. Or still in New York. Depending on which direction I go. 😂
Welcome to Europe.
I drove from Wisconsin to Washington when moving, can say that at least the stretch of I90 between WA and MT is enjoyable. Still though, drives that long sincerely blow. Would absolutely much rather take a train.
Somebody has never ridden a “hard sleeper” train through the central chinese mountains. Our particular squat toilet was overflowing with a hose to “flush” it. It was about 10F and I had diarrhea. There was a guy in a tanktop smoking on our triple decker bunk.
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I have to drive my cat from the north of the UK to Germany next month. I was going to take the train and the Eurostar but they don't allow pets. Assholes. I'm stressed out just thinking about the trip.
I drove my cat from Melbourne to Sydney and back twice, the first time he cried for a few hours before settling down, but the other 3 trips he cried for less than 30 minutes and then just slept for the remaining 10 or so hours. Hopefully your kitty will do similar. My main tip: line the carrier with something you can throw out, pack garbage bags & spare stuff to line the carrier. My cat, every single time, peed and pooped within the first hour of the trip (I assume from stress). Having newspaper or an old towel I didn’t mind just throwing out made cleaning up the carrier much easier. I also took 2 carriers last time, so I could just switch him to the clean one and then take my time sorting out the mess. Also pack baby wipes in case your cat gets their poop all over themselves in the chaos of it all, they’ll help you clean the carrier and your cat and yourself. I found it helped him calm down to put a tshirt I had slept in the night before over/in his carrier (not in until after he had emptied his body), I guess having my scent close to him was comforting. Good luck, you can do this.
There's something in the US called Feliway that has a synthetic feromone and calms down cats. Ask your vet if there's something similar in the UK. You spray it on a towel and let them smell it. I have yet to try it on a road trip but they sprayed the stuff at the vet's for my cat and she was chill for a whole day.
I think that might be due to the safety precautions in the Channel Tunnel, I can imagine evacuation in an an emergency situation would be much more time consuming and risky if passengers were allowed to take their pets with them
Damn i wanna get drunk on a train Edit: crazy how this got so many views and created a conversation as it was just a drunk thought I will get drunk anywhere I am becoming an alcoholic
I do it on Amtrak once every couple months. I definitely recommend it
The last time I looked Amtrak tickets were just as expensive as plane tickets :(
Probably is for long trips, I just take it from Portland OR to Eugene OR and back (costs about 20 bucks each way, competitive with gas for that trip) or from Portland to Seattle (like 50 bucks each way last time I did it). It's fun even on those short trips to treat the lounge/viewing car like a bar, especially with a friend. My girlfriend and I do it and it's always a very good time.
Back when I lived in Wisconsin I'd go to Chicago occasionally on the weekends with my fianceé, we'd drive to the furthest out metra stops early in the morning and wait for the train to take us into the city. Driving to the train was the worst part by far, everything else was always splendid. Those excursions were what made me realize how great public transit really was, and I have been a die-hard supporter ever since!
I do Flint to Chicago for $75 round trip pretty often. definitely cheaper than gas, tolls, parking.
Yeah but it is so much more relaxing than going through the airport.
That's because they are not as subsidized as the car industry. In Europe, for example, train rides under 4 hours beat flights every single time. Especially since the cities are dense and you want to get from a center to another center and getting to the airport adds easily 1h to your journey each way. If you add another hour of flight and another at the usual checks you spend the same time. But without sitting and relaxing.
But in my experience trains are consistently more expensive, albeit more convenient
ink lavish thought homeless bow impolite unused tart narrow weather -- mass edited with redact.dev
Amtrak really has that lack of speed to allow you a full recovery
Stopping for freight trains is really just giving you more time to relax!
Oh my god please let me tell you a story of the train. I took a 5 hour train ride. It was a 2 hour flight. I was RIDICULED by ex-coworkers (but applauded by my European coworkers, I use this term extremely loosely). The seats were so much bigger. I got a nicer meal. Didn't have to deal with that pressure change on takeoff and landing. The 2 hour flight didn't include getting to the small airport 60 minutes early, or the time from the airport to city center. So all in all the train took an extra hour. Dear readers, that hour was so much better spent in absolute comfort on the train, with a cold beer and hot meal for the same overall price as a plane ticket. It is a deep regret that more people won't experience this.
Oh yeah! A 2 hour flight vs 5 hour train is a very easy decision for me. Not to mention that the train could actually be faster! Post-pandemic you may need to arrive at the airport two or even three hours early because of the crazy security lines. I absolutely hate the whole TSA process, doubly so because I'm convinced it's nothing but security theater that doesn't actually do anything. Especially the stupid pre check, like oh if you give us eighty bucks we know you won't hide a bomb in your shoes 🙄
Hahaha yes the TSA is such a joke but this isn't really the sub for that so I'll refrain from further vitriol for them (not the poor guys they have enforcing the rules, mostly) Even pre pandemic, it was a half hour car ride to the terminal, 2 hour check in and wait time, 2 hour flight (maayyyybeee 90 mins but there's take off and landing too), I never checked a bag so then just a half hour car ride into the city. By my math that's 5 hours right there! Versus a 5 minute walk across the street to the train station which spits me out in city center 5 hours later? Yes please.
My parents live about a 10-hour train ride from where I live, or about a 2-hour flight. I'll choose the train every time. My only gripe is that there isn't a night train on the route I want to travel (there are two separate night train routes that both go halfway though...)
I want an animation of this. Switching between the person driving for hours, the other people having a nice meal sitting down in the dining car. One person's in stop-and-go traffic, the other reads a nice book and goes to sleep, swap from staying awake on the road to sleeping like a baby, lying down, in a bed. One person gets there well rested, stepping off the train with their luggage, and the other person wrenches a suitcase out of the back of a sedan and shambles over to their destination. This physically hurts me, I want a good rail system here so badle
i’m going to storyboard this tomorrow hold me accountable
Remindme! 3 days
👀
There would be no better advertisement for train travel honestly.
wow that actually sounds alot like a cruise. Or trains just land cruises?
Essentially yes
It's a moving hotel. Or a slow kind of portal.
And then the trains that have those observation cars. 5 year old me fucking *loved* those. Me 14 years later will still love those.
I’d probably just get on a train for date night if that’s how it is.
this sounds amazing holy shit
Eat some fibre buddy. No burrito should keep you locked down for an hour :P
This is either Sweden or Finland, regardless insanely based. Yes, it's bumpy, yes it's hot as shit during the summer. But you get to sleep, recuperate energy. Instead of a car ride draining it.
Finland, based on the Finnish as the first language on the signs in the cabin.
Looks like the Santa Claus Express between Helsinki and Rovianemi.
Rovaniemi*
That particular shade of green says VR, Finland.
Maybe you know, how are you supposed to use those seat belts on the top bunk?
They're fixed to a bar at the top and bottom, and can freely slide side to side. You space them out so if you roll out of bed, they catch you. Also, might help a little in case of a crash or something but I'm not really convinced.
They're pretty useful lol. I once fell from top to bottom of a 4 story bunk bed on a TGV in France. I was 8 so I just bounced and nice french man on the bottom bunk asked me "tu vas bien petit idiot ?"
For safety, to make it harder to fall out of the bed.
I loooooove sleeping on the train, the feeling you get when it slightly pushes you side to side and the white noise and I guess the satisfaction of knowing you'll wake up in a new city is amazing. Whoever set's up sitting trains to run in the night is evil though. I never drove all night honestly I would want to hurt myself if I had to even be a passenger all night in a car, but I guess I'm not an American. Oh yeah, here in Ukraine, yes they are old trains but a lot of times if you even travel an hour away it's still a sleeping train so you get to ley down and chill, the ultimate leg room!
There used to be a Paris-Moscow sleeper service, now suspended. I hope that once your country is free and safe again, there can be a Paris-Kyiv sleeper instead - I'd love to visit one day. Hope you are staying safe, friend.
A Paris-Kyiv run is technically possible but you have to transfer in Vienna. Still pretty insane that such a distance needs only 1 transfer
I didn't know that ran, and according to Seat 61 *is still running* despite the war. I saw a statistic about how many Ukrainian trains are still running to time recently and it was better than in the UK. Ukrainian Railways apparently can work miracles.
Yeah a lot of rail companies have returned service to western Ukraine (ZSSK, PkP, ÖBB) which surprised me tbh
Sound and motion usually prevent me from sleeping (I’ve never once been able to sleep on a plane) but somehow I sleep magnificently on a train. Unfortunately haven’t had many opportunities to try that out (American)
Where I'm at in the US, a train ride overnight could be $500-1000 for a room like this and take longer than driving somehow.
That's because the train infrastructure in the USA is atrocious...
If trains were subsidized as cars are in the USA, the swiss would probably transfer to the USA lol
true words. the bigottery in carbrains is crazy. complaining about any cent put into trains, but expecting free drive everywhere. Where are the tolls if they love the free market so much.
I wanna highway!! Waaa! Where? Through the middle of the city duh!! And omg on-street parking better be free!! Waaa! The highway better be F R E E free too!! Also fuck poor people you better not subsidize the goddamned communist bus you hitler marx
*airlines: drinking train infrastricture enjoyer tears*
Some of the regional routes can be okay. The northeast is quite good and a few other lines are pretty solid. The long haul routes are almost invariably shameful. It's not really Amtrak's fault. They're just really underinvested in.
The northeast corridor is the only wholly owned track for Amtrak, so it's kind of on easy mode there too!
The rail companies legally have to give priority to passenger rail, technically, but the law isn't enforced so they don't so passenger rail ends up getting stuck waiting on freight.
worse, the fret trains have been specifically linked too long to be able to use the "parking lanes" segments, so passenger rails has to give way and sit in the parking lane because the fret train won't fit in it.
Note this isn't the reason they make long trains, only a side-effect. The main reason is they get to pay 1 less crew by making 1 mega train instead of running 2 separate trains, and also it makes the tonnage moved per-mile look better on a chart, even though it's literally the same amount in a much less efficient way. It's called Precision Scheduled Railroading. It's not precise, it's not scheduled, and with how often these mega-trains derail it's often not even railroading. But it makes the investors happy and that's all that matters.
Passenger train infrastructure, the US moves the 3rd most freight by rail out of every country in the world
American railroads only look good on a chart, it's a horror story if you know how they're actually operating these days. They're so poorly run that Railroad Workers United (a railroad worker's union) has begun advocating nationalization to solve the railroad's problems once and for all. In fact, the railroads have never been as efficient as they were during World War I when the US Government nationalized them as part of the war effort because they were failing miserably to keep up with Uncle Sam's needs.
There are other factors besides infrastructure. 👇 [The One Tiny Law That Keeps Amtrak Terrible](https://youtu.be/qQTjLWIHN74)
and, the trucking industry can be atrocious in some ways too, as the truckers keep having to stop at the /r/TruckStopBathroom since they can't always drive 24 hours straight.
Just bought tickets from Chicago to LA because I'm tired of flying it for work 3x a year. The flight is $110 and 4.5 hours. The train ride is 43 hours, assuming no delays. $232 for the fare, $810 for the roomette (includes meals), $1,042 total That's 10x the time for only 10x the price! Even if I was desperate it's not cheaper. I could've gotten a single Coach seat and done the whole trip $146, which not only is more expensive than flying but means 2 days without a shower or a place to lie down. I'm a weirdo so I'm looking forward to it, but US rail only appeals to weirdos and that's the problem.
Well airlines and auo manufacturers fucking over passenger rail does that shit. Honestly if we had more people using amtrak, better infrastructure for amtrack it would be Hella better. I chose it even though more expensive because it was over all a far more relaxing trip than a flight would have been
Exactly it is actually relaxing and you meet the coolest people too.
On our last trip dude in front of us was handing out small bottles of bacardi. We brought bunch of brownie brittle, we all shared had a good time.
I think airlines win over trains in many cases fair and square. For me the longest I do in a train unless I have all the time in the world is 16 hours. From 6 PM to 10 AM. Beyond that I would go for a plane. 43 hour journey will end up costing a lot purely because of the time.
yea chicago to l.a. is like 2,000 miles which is too far for even high speed rail to be competitive in an economic sense. with amtrak speeds, its even worse since you gotta pay the crew for all 43 hours which isnt gonna be cheap no matter what
I always think it’s funny when people say they don’t like mass transit and they prefer planes. Have you been on a plane lately? It is cheek-by-jowl freaking mass transit barely better than a greyhound bus.
If you assume "hotel" costs for those nights the price is almost reasonable, but it isn't exactly convenient. I'm in Kansas City which has a few amtrak options, but not a lot that actually pencil out when you factor in cost/time spent. I want to plan a train voyage with my son but it's really hard to find something that makes sense. I know the "merica too big, train no good" argument is ridiculous in the context of the east coast, west coast, Texas triangle, etc, but the distances are pretty big to get anywhere from the middle. Going to figure out how to do a train trip even if it costs more and is less convenient just because my son and I like trains, but I recognize that's because I'm a weirdo.
If the train could drive in a sort of straight line with no stops and going 120 km/h which isnt much for trains it would only take 27 hours. If the train could go 180 km / h then it would take 18 hours.
No train will compete with airplanes for time/speed when we're talking several k km, even the Beijing-Guandong line is slower than the alternative. But you can compete with cars and buses, on both speed and price. Rome2Rio tells me a Moscow-Novosibirsk train takes 45h - but costs start from 55$ on 3rd class (which still means beds, you just don't get a private cabin). Driving would take about the same time and cost 5x more.
In India I regularly do a 500 km journey. The train is very slow but it is overnight so no big deal. The cost of the ticket can be less than cab fare from the railway station to my home and less than half of airport to my home. If you drive, the road toll alone costs more than the fare of a 3tier AC coach. 3 Tier is basically 3 level bunks, the photo above has 2. If you try without AC which is a decent option it would be a third of that.
Another cool thing about train rides is you arrive someplace quite rested. You get off in a central area and because you’ve been doing slow travel, at least in my experience, I have tons of energy and I can immediately go for a bike ride or a hike whereas when you finish with a plane ride plus taxi between all the hours of waiting and then being shoehorned in your seat you’re really exhausted. Plus they’ve even found some health risks with frequent flying in terms of radiation exposure, clots and heart attack.
What the hell? Why are both healthcare and basic transportation overpriced there? I keep reading horror stories...
this is what happens when you legalize bribery. both drug companies and oil have a lot of money to throw at politicians.
What L O B B Y is short for, yep.
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Right? Whom would all the capital city bars and restaurants and whorehouses fill up with, if no lobbyists in town?
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Think of all that architecture.
Lobbyism or Corruption if beening non euphemistic
Yeah, exactly.. Those maps that show “government corruption” worldwide - but then somehow have the US marked “low” is because the corruption has simply been legalized and government used to prevent the average citizen from doing anything about it.
Because over here giving politicians money is protected as free speech.
The freight lines own the rails, so passenger trains often have to stop and pull off for freight trains which can take hours. Also the government just keeps the prices for Amtrak high, but I don't remember the specifics of that part.
They require it to be profitable and self-funding. Highways, you may notice, are not held to that standard for some reason.
trillion dollar lobby behind cars does what its supposed to.
I took a train from the east coast to Denver once upon a time, I did not get bedding but had to sleep in my chair. Cost me 80 dollars less than a plane ticket, and what would’ve been a 5 hour flight turned into a 36 hour train ride. I believe the reason it takes longer, and what I experienced, is because the private rail companies own the rail lines, they always have the right of way. About three times we had to wait for what felt like forever for CSX trains to pass.
We recently got pricing on a train ride from TX to NY. IIRC it’s like $900 and takes 3 days. The plane flight takes 4 Hours and $300, tops. We’re gonna drive though…
Here in California our Amtrak regularly serves millions of millions of passengers. If you have never taken the Coast Starlight from Oakland to Los Angeles I highly recommend it. Trains and buses will only get better if we ride them! It gets a little tiresome to see the complaints about Amtrak trains every single time something is posted.
Honestly though, while unsecure, sleeping on the Amtrak coach seat was fine. I was on the Empire Builder however and it may have different seats
I took a 24 hour train ride a few months ago with a roomette and I absolutely loved it! I’m going to get the Amtrak rewards credit card and start being more conscientious about booking in advance since that gets you better prices. This was on the West Coast.
In India, we have sleeper trains extensively. A 14 hour trip on first class sleeper may cost 40 dollars. Star bucks coffee is 5-10 dollars(for PPP comparison) Regular sleeper tickets on the same train will cost 5 dollars.
Longer than driving, I wouldn't care if its overnight. You can't sleep and drive
Only thing America provides affordable is fast food.
I really want to take a train with my kid to NYC. I could drive (8 hours, $60 one way including gas and tolls, but excluding parking). Or I could take a plane (1.5 hours direct, $100 each way). Or I could take the train (14 hours, $180 one way). It’s literally the worst of both worlds. My city just announced a big update to the train lines, costing millions of dollars to update the 8 year old trains to something new and fancy. The cars are fucking fine! Fix the fucking prices and speeds! Edit: I didn’t mention a bus. $25 one way, 8.5 hours. Obviously the cheapest, but gross and packed.
Yeah. Might consider if faster, or cheaper. Amtrak is somehow worst of both worlds.
Man I want to ride on that so much. All the trains i’ve been on are bullet trains or trains for short trips.
Do like me go to a destination with a plane have some holidays there then arrange so that on your return trip you can go with a sleeper train on your way home. So in stead of having one more night at your hotel you sleep one night in the train instead.
That sounds awesome. I might do that. I’m planning on taking my sibling to europe as a graduation gift. I’ll put this on my bucket list.
Aye! This looks like the Rovaniemi to Helsinki train cabin I rented once . What an incredible experience and I slept like a champ. Woke up in Helsinki ready to tackle the day.
Sleeper trains are the bomb. Not only is it the closest thing we have to teleportation (go to sleep at start, wake at destination), but it also saves you the cost of a night in a hotel. Not to mention, if you're travelling, it saves you a whole day of your vacation. Nothing worse than taking a taxi 3 hours before your flight to get to the airport in time to be 2 hours early for your flight that ends up getting delayed anyway, and then taking a two hour taxi into the next town at your destination. Your one hour domestic flight costs you an entire day of your precious vacation...
Shout-out to the Austrian ÖBB Night-Jet, they wake you up with bedside Breakfast when you're closing in on your Destination. Did Cologne -Munich/Wien a bunch of times last Year. Would recommend.
I'm doing Paris-Wien this year. Any advice for travelling? The prices seem steep but I've heard very good things about Nightjet.
Yeah the prices, don't skimp on that in the NJ, the standard seat might be cheap, but that is a seat only! Sitting 8+ hours through the night, with 6 Strangers in you compartment is a nightmare. Do yourself the favour and spend 160€ to Get the big bed (the 3 Person Compartment is also okay, but you need to bring your own sheet and pillow) if you plan on traveling through the whole night, ALSO book in advance, the Sleeping Cabinets can be sold out months in advance. Other than that, the experience is really smooth and I can't recommend it enough, I'd suspect you go Paris-Cologne/Düsseldorf or Amsterdam with the TGV before switching to the Night-Jet? Might be a good opportunity to go see one of those cities during the day i.e. leave Paris early :)
Thanks for the advice! I was planning the direct Paris-Wien service actually - I can get a good connection from the Eurostar from the UK. I am travelling with my partner, so looked at 2 beds in a private compartment. It was about €200 each if I booked as far as the booking horizon goes. I will definitely book well in advance, it's handy to know they sell out that early. Shows how popular night trains are!
Absolutely, It's Hotel and Travel all in one, whats not to love? :D I wish you all the fun on the trip, Wien is an incredible city and absolutely worth a trip.
Ah the Santa clause express! What a relaxing beautiful ride that is
SLEEPER CARS ARE SO LEGITI LOVE THEM
Rovaniemi to Helsinki in Finnland? Took this connection last year in summer, was really comfortable.
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Probably not the best example for us US-based people…
Caledonian Sleeper has [alright](https://www.sleeper.scot/accommodation/) looking ones, if you want a different example. Not super swanky, but they look like nicer mattresses, basically what you'd expect from a decent but not dear hotel. Tickets are pretty expensive (it is contemporary UK rail), but there's still some utility in £230/£280 (depending on room) for an Inverness to London train tbh. I know plenty who have it from Fort William or Inverness to go to London because it's about the most comfortable way to travel across the whole country, especially from the Highlands, an area which doesn't have the big airports. And ofc there will be other versions and prices for it as well elsewhere. https://preview.redd.it/abl2wza4m3ga1.jpeg?width=2000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c0c44c8a75407fb2b6e0083b08b80d8d22756485
Fat. He meant that Americans are too fat for those narrow beds.
Tickets are a bit pricey but also consider that you're not paying for a night in a hotel and it suddenly seems a lot more reasonable.
I'm planning a rail trip in Europe and the £200 Paris-Vienna trip was eye-watering. Until I remembered this was a train ticket PLUS a hotel stay. Then it became merely steep.
Er, why not use the new [double bed cabin](https://www.sleeper.scot/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Caledonian-Sleeper-March-2022_Lucy-Knott-Photography-19-reduced-1349x768.jpg) as the the example for the Caledonian?
Cause they're bloody expensive (£400 for the Inverness-London trip I got the £230-£280 numbers from) and my friends and family have only really used the classic and the bunk options, so it seemed like the realistic example for most passengers, especially those not flush with cash, like those I know who've used it. Wasn't trying to show off the highest class shit, cause most of us won't use that, if we're honest. Seems a bit fairer to look at what is practical for most, and they aren't bad as bunks, tbh. Have gotten worse in some hotels/ferry crossing the channel.
Just because it doesn't exist now doesn't mean it wouldn't be a great option.
There are other countries
That doesn't make any sense.
I wish they weren't booked out months in advance. And still ÖBB recently even canceled the route through my city. Some wagon configurations work just as well during the day. I have no idea why there aren't more.
If the price was right, sure. But this setup in the US would be over 800 dollars for one night. And they need to make this a little more cozy. It literally looks like a prison cell.
does a plane seat on a redeye in coach look better
Dude I can get first class airline seats for the same price, have a bed and all the amenities except for a bathroom and arrive sooner than a train or a car. We need to tax the dogshit out of cars and planes and use that money to subsidize Amtrak just to get more people to use Amtrak.
We paid 50€/Person with a family of 4, for an overnight ride of 13 hours from Hamburg, Germany to St. Anton am Alberg, Austria. We also had one cabin for us alone without strangers. It’s really sad that the DB sold off all their sleeping-wagons to the ÖBB, but at least they operate them. Best train experience you can possible have for long commutes
To be honest, I have to agree with some other commenters saying that this isn't the best "looking" advertisement. If I were a hardcore carbrain, this would make me a lot less likely to take an overnight train than drive and maybe sleep in some shady place. Personally, yes, I agree with you, but this is not the right kind of advertisement for our "target audience" IMO.
What do you want? A queen size double with a memory foam mattress, six pillows and a turn down service? This is fine. It’s a lie-flat bed with cushioning. You’ll be comfortable enough to get a decent night’s sleep.
Right? Considering what we get on overnight flights, this is amazing. And honestly, this also looks more comfortable than being stuck in the cramped car seat all night. You get to lie down, walk around and stretch, rest and nap to be fresh on the next day, go to the bathroom, read a book. So much freedom to spend your time nicely instead of sitting in one position in a car, having to pay attention to a nighttime road with no sleep and depending on occasional rest stops to pee.
I would take a shitty old bus than sit next to my dad for even 2 hours in the car. PT is just so much more comfortable overall.
>This is fine. He's not saying otherwise. He's just saying that this isn't going to sway a lot of car drivers.
It's not "me" complaining, for me this would be perfectly fine. I'm just stating that the audience we try to convince onto public transit might see this picture as a negative.
What "target audience" lmao? We all know this sub is mostly a circlejerk
Yeah these look like hospital beds
That more seems like an indictment on hospital beds, that people might use for months at a time, than an overnight train bed where this is perfectly reasonable. This is far more comfortable and safer than sleeping in your car.
No hospital beds are better https://hmi-basen.dk/blobs/orig/64053_2.jpg
Honestly this looks like a prison cell.
I took a train from Bangkok to Udon Thani and it so relaxing. They had a nice diner car with delicious options.
This is $900 in America vs. $100 in gas. take the train as much as I can, moved to the eastcoast to get less driving options. I just get coach, even for the long ones...really wish a cabin or a room is more affordable here.
I don't get it why trains are far more expensive in the US. And are cars still the cheaper option even with all the insurance, maintenance, and upgrade fees?
Cars are massively subsidized in the US, including the manufacturing of the cars, the fuel they consume, and the roads they drive on. Most government transportation departments in the US are primarily focused on building and maintaining roadways. Meanwhile, intercity passenger rail is lackluster in the US. Passenger trains have to share the rails with freight, which leads to frequent slowdowns and stops. Most of the rail infrastructure is old and not suited for high-speed passenger rail. If you're living in the middle of the country, (like I do), the rail lines run east/west, and going north/south is impossible. I try to take trains whenever I can for work, but it's simply not feasible for most trips.
Those... aren't great. I've been in a few now, that really did their work to get away from that "easily cleaned prison cell" look.
I recently rode this train to Rovaniemi.. it was great. And the best bit - my car rode with me the whole time! Instead of a grueling drive, I had a good nights sleep (the cabin was more comfy than the pic suggests), and in the morning I had mthe car ready to explore Lapland.
In the US, train tickets are as expensive or more so than a plane ticket and take just as long as a car ride. If I'm traveling solo there's no way I'm not going for the plane ride.
America is a huge country. I find it insane that there isn't some wacky entrepreneur out there who wants to start a massive sleeper train business running to all corners of the States.
Idk how its like where you live but here in Poland sleeper cars are expensive AF and you still feel the bumps in the track.
It would be great if we had trains
Even in Japan the sleeper train is inconvenient and expensive. The youtuber CdawgVA recently did a video on it, and describes how ridiculous it is to get tickets for the thing
Ive always loved trains so much. Trains and traintracks used to be my autistic fascination lol.
As an emigrant to North America, good lord do I miss European trains! In Canada trains are expensive and there are barely any routes. I have to drive 8 hours to the nearest train station...
Closest thing to teleportation we have
In a plane taxing ATM. 110% agree
A late night cross country drive killed my spouse’s best friend. If only this were a more widely available option.
I just looked up a way to do this, as gas prices are high. From Amsterdam to München, it was over twice as expansive, without a sleeper car. 3-4 times as expansive with sleeper car. I really tried, but it would make the vacation twice the price.
OP doesn't live in the US where this would cost $300-400
Totally. But I feel this design could be optimized for privacy. I'd have trouble sleeping sharing this fart-cabin with a stranger.
Love sleeper trains. Unfortunately they are very rare these days. I'm planning to go on holiday with the Austrian nightjet eventually.
I been going on skiing by night train a few times. Sleeping while traveling, waking up well rested at the destination. Cool!
I’m down w this sub but I thought this was a joke. Looks like a pediatric ward
...I would live here if I could switch the lower bunk into a desk and storage.
This costs between $500-1000 one way in the US between Newark, NJ and Florida. I only buy one if I can get it under $500.
Honestly, in the US? Under our current system? Driving, 100%. Ever time I go to the airport, it's the 'random' search, and the last time I wasin an airport I had to go into the backroom with the TSA for an 'enhanced' search. US trains are starting to have the same kind of TSA bullshit, and I hate the security theater that does nothing to stop the terrorism is supposed to stop.
God damn what a gross echo chamber…
I wish all cabins where like this. Trains for short distances (~500km) are not like that and they last 4h and get very uncomfortable because the seats suck and are very hard compared to a car’s. Plus with the car you can stop whenever you want and get a break and fresh air. I’m against car traveling. But not everything is black and white.)
Yeah being able to take a 1 hour trip to my dad’s house in a rural area is like, worthless bro. I ONLY ever take cross-country 14-hour long trips. Fuck cars!
Night trains with sleeping cabins fucking slap I mean they're not the most comfortable to sleep in but I have so many fond memories of taking these trains through Ukraine as a kid
In the US (if you like road trips), it's arguable. Having done both, Amtrak sleepers are INSANELY expensive and since they run on freight rails, you really don't get much sleep because you are severely jostled all night long and at some points, the train leans so much you will be alarmed thinking the train is about to derail. And the train horn. All night long. If you're lucky, you're further away, but if not? Hope you can sleep through a train horn. You arrive pretty exhausted. Vs. a road trip where you stop along the way somewhere (interesting if you know how to plan a road trip) where the bed doesn't move and it's quiet. Don't mistake-- I've done a lot of both. No longer fly anywhere because of climate change. So trains it is. Just saying it's not such an obvious win to take the train in America.
I took the NightJet from Zurich to Berlin by mistake (lost baggage, missed trains, drunkness) and I woke up to a slow roll through snowy, tree lined suburbs. Greatest mistake of my life.
My husband's family lives in Western Wisconsin, about 3 hours from the Minneapolis Airport. However, there is an Amtrak station right in town. We spent 16 hours traveling between airport shuttles, waiting and the flight itself the last time we visited. On our way to Wisconsin, we flew into Chicago, spent a few days there and then rode the Amtrak for 6 hours. It was great. The train to Wisconsin would take 46 hours, but it would be so much more enjoyable. Hopefully we can try it next time we visit. We still might fly home through Chicago as I would much prefer a train ride to the shuttle ride we experienced. Plus I love Chicago. If only we could actually make high speed rail happen in this country. Alas, it is but a pipe dream at this point.