Travel by train - Reisen mit dem Zug

In 1825 the first passenger train ran from Stockton to Darlington. In the following decades the triumphal march of the railroad began as a means of mass transport. As early as 1885, the length of all railway lines in Europe was 190,000 kilometers. On every continent except the Antarctic railways were built. Today road traffic and rail travel have often overtaken their former rank. But even today, traveling by train offers advantages and is interesting for many. In many cases, the train is more comfortable and allows you to do other things on the side. For distances between 100 and 800 km, the train remains the fastest mode of transport when traveling from city center to city center; the plane is faster on long journeys. On a train journey, compared to flying, you usually experience more of the landscape and also have the opportunity to interrupt the journey; the path becomes the goal.

The aim of this travel topic is to show potential train passengers that there is an alternative to the car and the plane, to give general practical tips and new ideas to experienced travelers.

Further information on rail travel is also available in the respective country articles at getting there and mobility. Details can often be found in the section getting there in local articles.

Railway lines and rail offers (selection)

Asia

KTX high-speed train in South Korea

Australia

Europe

A train of Berchtesgadener Land Railway (BLB), which as line S4 of the S-Bahn Salzburg is also on the road in overland traffic.
  • InterRail - Whole generations go into raptures - a guide to imitate.

Germany

Liechtenstein

Luxembourg

Norway

Austria

Russia

Switzerland

Czech Republic

Ukraine

United Kingdom

North America

  • Rail travel in the USA - Even if the plane and the car have long outstripped the rank of the train, comfort and sightseeing are unsurpassed by the train. Trains travel through impressive natural landscapes that cannot be reached by car. Between Boston and Washington America's fastest train runs: the Acela Express, which can travel up to 150 miles an hour and is now more popular than the airlines with business people and federal employees.

South America

Tickets

Rail tariff

Ticket desks and machines of the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB)
An Intercity (IC) at Stuttgart Central Station 2018

Tickets and their prices are an important point for travelers and rail companies. Because, for example, the construction and operation of a railroad, as it is called in official German, is an expensive business. On the other hand, none of the customers want to pay more than necessary, possibly because they were not sufficiently informed.

The traditional train ticket is based on the model Distance tariffwhich was previously easy to calculate: with the help of route tables or tables, the distance from the start, sometimes over several sections of the route, to the destination was determined and then multiplied by the price per kilometer. Today, prices are often no longer so easy to understand because databases work in the background with additional parameters such as a degressive kilometer price (the greater the distance, the lower the kilometer price). However, the basic principle is often still recognizable. The great advantage of such tickets is the high flexibility for the traveler, but bargains are usually not provided.

Today, prices are often set without a fixed rate per kilometer. The companies are more oriented towards demand and the specific competitive situation. Depending on the specific start and destination, there is a certain price, often as a Global price designated. If necessary, certain connections can only be used with a global price, which may also differ between certain trains and days of operation. Or the price is even more flexible and can also change in advance sales. Here, various railway companies are getting closer and closer to the airlines in their sales concepts. Some offers include additional services such as meals or seat reservations in the price. These offers are rather inflexible, some of them tied to a particular train; but there are quite cheap offers. In times of high demand, for example around a public holiday in the travel destination, comparatively high fares cannot be ruled out for reasons of market economy.

Interrail

Pass offers as the InterRail-Tickets are a worthwhile alternative if you want to make several longer journeys within a certain period of time. The passes are often designed as tourist offers for foreign visitors and may not be available to the citizens of the destination country. In addition to the European InterRail ticket, country-specific passes such as BritRail, or Swiss Pass offered.

Savings offers

Special offers (in Germany Savings prices, in Austria Sparschiene are usually tied to a pre-emptive period or with a Train binding provided, so only apply to the booked connection. A Seat reservation usually costs extra if it is not part of a global price. Unless it is already excluded, buying tickets on the train is usually the most expensive option.

Flex price

Flexible tickets are not necessarily valid on every train on a route. In a more complex route network, several offers with different names can exist, depending on the Train typesthat in the German-speaking area in marketing to customers today Products to be named. If a company wants to get extra reimbursement for a higher level of comfort or a shorter travel time for certain trains, corresponding surcharges are due for the customers. In many countries, however, the number of higher-priced trains on the regular network is low. For the categorization of the train types, the stopping concepts are particularly decisive (from pure city connections to stops in other larger towns and / or at railway junctions to stops at all stops).

Daily network tickets

Similar to Across the country ticket or the Country tickets there are also daily network tickets for rail transport in other European countries, such as B. the Austrian Simply get out ticket.

Association tariffs

Also in other European countries exist mainly in metropolitan areas Transport associations, which offer a uniform tariff for rail and city traffic (subway, light rail, tram, city and regional buses) and, in some cases, other means of transport such as ferries in their network area.

There are different pass offers and network cards from European railway companies, see Rail passes in Europe.

Travel planning

In general, it is advisable to buy train-bound tickets or reservations as soon as the plans are fixed, otherwise they will be sold out or become more expensive. In the case of flexible tickets, it is actually advisable to wait until the last moment before booking, as something can always come in between.

Times of day

It may be advisable to avoid morning rush hours in major cities (Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays, 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.). (For example, the day tickets for the London U-Bahn and suburban trains are a lot cheaper outside of the morning and sometimes also evening rush hour.) Large pieces of luggage and bicycles may only be transported with restrictions (no taking with you at rush hour).

At the train station

The ticket should always be kept until you leave the destination station, also in order to be able to prove your entitlement to reimbursement in the event of delays.

In some countries (such as in France in the United Kingdom) there are platform barriers at which the ticket has to be validated, especially in the case of rail transport, where the platforms are considered to be a ticket-requiring area, since the tickets are checked in addition to the controls in the vehicles also when leaving the station, this applies among other things. for the means of transport S-Bahn Hamburg, as well as the subways in Hamburg, Nuremberg, Munich and ViennaHowever, on the Hamburg S-Bahn and U-Bahn, entering the platforms is also permitted without a valid ticket, provided that a platform ticket has been purchased from the machine beforehand.

On board

Dining car for the American railroad company Amtrak

According to the transport conditions of most railway companies, the ticket must be presented at all times. It is also advisable to have this to hand on the way to the toilets or restaurant carts. Every passenger should also supervise their luggage themselves.

Train categories

Long-distance transport

Night trains

Network map of night train connections in Europe with sleeping and / or couchette cars and seating cars, as of 2020
Sleeping car compartment in an Austrian night train with three beds

Operate within Europe as well as in Asia and North America Night trains in long-distance rail transport, which are mostly based on the categories Sleeping car, Couchette cars and seating car. Sleeping car spaces are mostly divided into 1st class and 2nd class, there are also compartments with different numbers of beds, mostly between one and four beds per compartment, in Europe there are mostly compartments with four or six berths in couchette cars, and in seating cars there are compartment cars six seats each. As a rule, there is only 2nd class in the couchette and seated car category. - In general, night trains, also in the seating car and couchette categories, require a reservation. In contrast to other long-distance rail transport, night trains have toilets as well as washrooms with sockets and chlorine-free washing water. Sleeping car compartments usually have their own washing facilities, as well as toilets and showers in the 1st class compartments. The night trains often have a dining car on board. In the sleeping car and couchette car categories, breakfast is included, which is served by the train attendants in order to avoid overcrowding in the dining car. In Germany, the Scheiz, Austria and Italy runs after the dissolution of the CityNightLine the ÖBB Nightjet. One of the most famous railway lines used by night trains is the Trans-Siberian Railwaywhose trains are in Russia, the Mongolia as in China circulate. Night trains run from Germany to other countries under the categories Nightjet (NJ), Euronight (EN) and Flixnight.

Night trains are to be distinguished from rail cruises, because even if the passengers also travel in sleeping car compartments and the trains have an on-board restaurant and showers, the night trains represent a form of public transport that is used to transport passengers to a specific destination and not just a holiday is what is spent on board the train for the entire duration of the holiday.

High speed traffic

Europe

High-speed trains such as the French TGV, the German ICE 3 and ICE Velaro can now travel at top speeds of up to 330 km / h on new lines. In Germany only the Cologne-Frankfurt, Ebensfeld-Erfurt-Halle / Leipzig and Nuremberg-Ingolstadt routes are approved for 300 km / h, in France the trains run at speeds of up to 320 km / h.

The travel times on main routes vary considerably within a country. This depends on the route and the state of development. Road crossings and conventional signal systems on the track limit the speed to 160 km / h. Often only 120 km / h are possible on old building routes, on mountain routes the maximum speed can be as low as 80 km / h or lower. Only the signal transmission via line cables or other transmission paths to the driver's cab and crossings without crossings allow the increase to 200 to 230 km / h. New lines are built in such a way that they can be driven at 250 km / h or more. Lines with unrestricted level crossings often reduce the speeds to 60 km / h.

Great Britain

With the East Coast Main Line you drive at a top speed of 200 km / h in 4 hours 20 minutes London to Edinburgh. In contrast, there are secondary lines with a cruising speed of 60 km / h such as the route Blackpool–Leeds. For 135 km you need 2 hours 15 minutes, which corresponds to an average speed of 60.2 km / h.

France
An SNCF TGV in Rennes in Brittany, 2 hours drive from Paris away

The French TGV was the first high-speed train in Europe and a modified TGV still holds the speed record for a train on wheels (as opposed to magnetic levitation). Although the trains are unbeatably fast and relatively cheap, French centralism means that, in some cases, places are “detached” from the rail network to save a few minutes. On the other hand, there are some TGV stations on the high-speed line, which in the eyes of customers are nicknamed gare de betteraves (= Beet station). The French TGV have a similarly high level of security as the Japanese Shinkansen; in more than 30 years of operation there has not been a fatal accident on a high-speed line in regular operation.

Spain

Spain was more of a laggard in terms of high-speed trains, which is also related to the Spanish network, which until recently was built exclusively in Spanish broad gauge and is not compatible with the European standard gauge network. The Spanish TALGO (tren articulado Goicochea Oriol) In principle, this problem caused by re-gauging axles, but the standard gauge was nevertheless decided when building the high-speed lines. Since 1992 with Madrid–Seville the first line went into operation, the high-speed system is enjoying growing popularity, and especially the Madrid-Barcelona was a complete success. Today Spain has the second longest high-speed rail network in the world after China. Unfortunately, the lofty plans to connect every provincial capital to Madrid in less than four hours in just a few years have been considerably dampened by the crisis which has hit Spain hard. However, if you book in good time, the ticket prices remain reasonable.

South America

After numerous state rail companies were privatized between 1980 and 1995 and the route network was thinned out considerably, South America is now experiencing a tentative revival in rail traffic. So are in Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela High-speed lines planned. However, the traveler still has to be satisfied with a few, often very slow trains.

Asia

Japan

The "inventors" of the modern high-speed train have been operating one of the fastest, cleanest and most punctual rail systems in the world since 1964. Since the Shinkansen (also as bullet train also known as '(rifle) bullet train'), there has not yet been a single fatal accident despite frequent earthquakes, typhoons and tsunamis. However, the - meanwhile privatized - trains are not cheap. Compared to Europe, you have to dig deeper into your pockets for service and speed.

China

In recent years, China has built by far the largest high-speed network in the world, at 13,000 kilometers. On many routes, the timetable is consistently driven at 300 kilometers per hour. Some trains, especially the Velaro models supplied by Siemens, are also approved for higher speeds of up to 350 km / h, but have been limited to 300 km / h in daily operation for several years. If you want to travel fast, you have to pay attention to the different types of trains. The maximum travel speed of a train is usually marked with a letter.

South Korea

The South Korean system is still being developed, but is already outstripping the airlines. After the first stretch of Seoul to Busan was a complete success and has relieved one of the most congested road corridors in the country, there are already ambitious plans, particularly with the construction of tunnels or bridges around the nearby islands Jejuto connect one of the most popular holiday destinations in the country to the network. There is definitely a need - the Seoul – Jeju route has been the most flown in the world for several years. The Korean trains of the first generation were basically a French TGV, but now there is increasing reliance on domestic technology and suppliers.

Taiwan

So far Taiwan has only one line in the west of the island of Taipei in the north after Kaohsiung in the south, however, even this one line, which the train crosses in just ninety minutes, has an immense effect on the travel habits of Taiwanese people. Domestic flights have become much rarer in Taiwan, and now you can often book a train ticket from Taipei to your destination right away with the airlines.

Regional traffic

A regional express (RE) of the Metronome railway company near the Hamburg Central Station
Local train on Salzburg Central Station
Railway stop Borkum Jakob-van-Dyken Weg of the Borkumer Kleinbahn

In addition to long-distance trains, local trains run in all European countries that have a rail network, which are mostly divided into trains that stop more frequently, similar to those in Germany.

  • Regional train: In Germany and Luxembourg as a regional train (short RB), in Austria as a regional train (short R.) designated.
  • Regional Express: The regional express is a faster local train that does not stop at all stations; it is known under the abbreviation RE in Germany and Luxembourg, as REX in Austria.
  • Local railways are a mixed system of city traffic (tram or light rail) and regional trains, which run in tunnels or on tram tracks in urban areas, and on railway lines in regional traffic, for example the local trains in Vienna, Linz, Salzburg or the Saarbahn in Saarbrücken and environment.
  • Island railways are trains that serve to connect the villages on smaller islands with the ports, for example the island railways from Borkum, Langeoog or Wangerooge in East Frisia.
  • The Museum horse tram on Spiekeroog.

The tariff regulations and differences look very different in the countries of Europe and the world. For example, in Austria a uniform tariff applies to the use of all long-distance and local trains, in Switzerland a uniform tariff applies to single tickets in local and long-distance transport, but monthly and season tickets are more expensive for long-distance transport than for regional transport.

S-Bahn traffic

S-Bahn station Vienna Gersthof the line S45 of S-Bahn Vienna

S-Bahn trains mostly appear in metropolitan areas with more than 500,000 inhabitants; these serve to supplement the inner-city public transport and regional rail services as well as to connect the surrounding area with the city centers. Unlike subways, light rail vehicles and trams, however, S-Bahn trains run within the railway network and, apart from tickets from the transport associations, can also be used with tickets that are valid for national railway companies.

Car classes

In Europe there is a general distinction between 1st and 2nd carriage class. In most countries, 1st class only exists on long-distance trains. If there is no carriage class written on local trains or S-Bahn trains, this automatically means 2nd carriage class. Even if the tariff is differentiated between 1st and 2nd carriage class in night train traffic, it should be noted that there are more than two different tariffs and travel classes, the subdivision usually consists of seated carriages and couchette cars (mostly only 2nd class) and sleeping cars ( 1st and 2nd class) .S-Bahn, local railways and island railways usually run without 1st carriage class. Other areas of the trains, for example bicycle, ski and multi-purpose compartments and travel wagons, are generally also classified as 2nd class wagons.

Compartment categories

  • Smoking compartments have largely been abolished in Central, Western and Southern Europe, including in long-distance traffic.
  • Often there is a separation between rest compartments and non-rest compartments in long-distance and sometimes also in local transport, e.g. in the trains of the metronome and in some cases the ÖBB, but it should be noted that this produces unnecessary noise, such as playing music over loudspeakers is also prohibited outside of the rest compartments.
  • WiFi is often available on newer long-distance and local trains.
  • All modern trains have multi-purpose compartments, which are primarily used to transport wheelchairs, strollers, bicycles, scooters, skis and bulky luggage.

Reservations

Bicycle compartment on a train on the Paris - Laon line in France
  • Reservations are generally required for night trains for all travel categories and for bicycle parking spaces.
  • With a few exceptions, there is generally no obligation to make a reservation for other long-distance transport; paid seat reservations and parking space reservations for bicycles are available through the sales channels of the respective transport company.
  • In local trains, for example the DB Regio in Schleswig Holstein and the metronome, there is the possibility, but not the obligation, of a chargeable seat reservation.

Sanitary facilities

There are sanitary facilities at busy train stations, some of which are public showers that are subject to a charge. Most regional and long-distance trains also have sanitary facilities, but not mostly in S-Bahn, suburban, regional light rail and island railways or some compartments, depending on the travel category, also have showers.

Park and Ride

→ Main Products: Park and Ride

There are park and ride facilities at numerous train stations and stops, which enable you to switch to public transport.

Bike and Ride

→ Main Products: Bike and Ride
Theft-proof bike-and-ride facility in the basement of the Salzburg Central Station

Bike and Ride systems are used to switch from bicycles to public transport or vice versa. They are located at numerous regional, long-distance and city traffic stations. There are different categories of bike and ride facilities, bike racks at or near the train station are the simplest version, these are usually free of charge, there are also lockable bike boxes or bike stations that are subject to a charge at more frequented stations, where bikes can be parked Renting, washing or repairing is also possible.

literature

  • Railways and Ferries Europe. Friday & Berndt & Antaria, 2017, ISBN 9783707916898 , P. 2.
  • Railway Atlas EU. Friday & Berndt & Antaria, 2017, ISBN 9783894941475 .
  • Chronicles and illustrated books of rail transport in major cities worldwide, publisher: Robert Schwandl Publishing House
  • VCD timetable cards

Web links

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