Well, FWIW, my Brussels-Schiphol Thalys ticket is ?65, first class.
But yes, what you describe must be annoying. Here on the Iberian peninsula
things are expanding, despite the crisis--very soon the Spanish AVE
network will be linked with the French TGV, et voila, travel to Paris in a
civilised manner :-)
Cheers
Nathan
Op Vr, 1 februari, 2013 16:35, schreef iwert bernakiewicz:
> Nathan,
>
> the trains inside the countries (national transport) are all mostly
> fine. It is the international connections that detoriated the last
> years. In this Europe 'without' borders, the borders for the locals
> are becoming real borders again (financially). I could travel a 330 km
> trip in 3hrs for 20 euro's two months ago (I have a fidelity card).
> Now it should have been replaced to 330 km trip in 2.45 hrs for 88
> euro's (no fidelity cards possible). With the old train, I did not
> have to make reservations, so if my class would be late, or early, I
> could just take the train before or after. With the 88 euro this
> option also exists, if seats are available, and I have to change the
> ticket in the station at the desk before boarding, so I have to be
> almost one our earlier at the station?
> The worst part is the people living in cities just across the border:
> Antwerp - Rotterdam, Liege - Maastricht, Aachen - Maastricht. All the
> normal IC trains have been deleted over the last years, so a trip that
> would last say 30minutes - 1hr now last 1hr-2hrs with the very slow,
> old train stopping in every possible station in between.
>
> So for the 'poor' people it has become worse. And not to forget,
> EU-workers taking the new train could have taken it for 40 euro, and
> they get all travel expenses covered. No, I don't see much improvement
> over the years for international cross border train transport.
>
> Iwert
>
> 2013/2/1 Nathan Wajsman <photo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>> I don't know...I use the low-cost airlines a lot, but also the trains
>> here
>> in Spain and abroad, and they are fine. Even the UK ones have improved
>> lately, at least the parts I use with reasonable frequency
>> (London-Bath-Bristol-Cardiff).
>>
>> To get home from Brussels on Thursday afternoon, I will take a train
>> from
>> Brussels-Midi, just a few metro stations away from the Commission where
>> I
>> will be in meetings during the morning. That train will bring me
>> directly
>> to Schiphol in under 1.5 hours, and from there I have a direct flight
>> home
>> to Alicante a couple of hours later.
>>
>> The alternative would have been to spend another night in Brussels and
>> take an obscenely early morning flight on Friday. Not my favourite
>> option
>> :-)
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Nathan
>>
>> Op Vr, 1 februari, 2013 14:58, schreef iwert bernakiewicz:
>>> 2013/2/1 Chris Trask <christrask@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>>>
>>>>>And Frank: the story about the fyra: I choose from the start not to
>>>>>take it, 280% more expensive for an unpredictable service that could
>>>>>be 15 minutes faster for my total trip, no thank you... so now I'm on
>>>>>the slow train.
>>>>>
>>>>>Nathan, I hope it will be all right (or was all right?) the Thalys is
>>>>>also notorious for being late.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> How I envy you having passenger train service. Last one I rode
>>>> was
>>>> the TGV (orange and silver livery) from Geneva to Paris in 2000.
>>>>
>>>> Chris
>>>> --
>>>
>>> It used to be very well organized over here, with good connections
>>> throughout Europe, trains going from Moscow to Brussels to Ostend,
>>> from Brussels to Marseille, we even had a direct connection to Zurich
>>> from Brussels. Now all this is gone and replaced by fragmented private
>>> 'fast' connections (but they do not connect to each other, so much of
>>> the speed is lost in transition) with obligatory reservations. I
>>> remember the time you could simply think: of to (fill in any capital
>>> in Europe) and hop on the train and arrive smack in centre town. There
>>> is one alternative: discount low quality air-travel brings you to an
>>> airport 10-20km into oblivion with mostly no public transport.
>>>
>>> Iwert
>>> --
>>> _________________________________________________________________
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>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Nathan Wajsman
>> photo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> --
>> _________________________________________________________________
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>>
> --
> _________________________________________________________________
> Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
> Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
> Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
>
>
>
--
Nathan Wajsman
photo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
--
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