Texan Eagle
Conductor
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2011
- Messages
- 1,705
I was recently in Central Europe and ended up traveling on 8 long-distance trains across 5 countries-
1. ICE from Frankfurt to Leipzig (Germany)
2. IC from Leipzig to Dresden (Germany)
3. EuroCity from Dresden to Prague (Germany-Czech)
4. Cesky Drahy express from Prague to Ceske Budejovice (Czech)
5. Cesky Drahy local passenger from Ceske Budejovice to Cesky Krumlov (Czech)
6. OEBB Railjet from Linz to Vienna (Austria)
7. OEBB/ZSSK regional shuttle from Vienna to Bratislava (Slovakia)
8. Cesky Drahy EuroCity from Bratislava to Budapest (Hungary)
Here is a Flickr album with pics and videos from all these journeys- https://flic.kr/s/aHsm5zbqHd
In addition, I also traveled by trams in 3 cities (Prague, Bratislava, Budapest), metros in 2 cities (Prague and Budapest) and funicular railways in 2 cities (Prague and Budapest).
Two things really stood out to me compared to US train travels-
1) The punctuality. None of the trains I took were more than 15 minutes late. I even made a 9 minute connection between two long distance trains in Leipzig
2) The sheer number of trains. Apart from long distance ones, every station is teeming with hundreds of trains of all shapes and sizes scuttling across on small and medium routes. At major stations, a two column wide giant schedule board cannot even accommodate one hour worth of departures!
1. ICE from Frankfurt to Leipzig (Germany)
2. IC from Leipzig to Dresden (Germany)
3. EuroCity from Dresden to Prague (Germany-Czech)
4. Cesky Drahy express from Prague to Ceske Budejovice (Czech)
5. Cesky Drahy local passenger from Ceske Budejovice to Cesky Krumlov (Czech)
6. OEBB Railjet from Linz to Vienna (Austria)
7. OEBB/ZSSK regional shuttle from Vienna to Bratislava (Slovakia)
8. Cesky Drahy EuroCity from Bratislava to Budapest (Hungary)
Here is a Flickr album with pics and videos from all these journeys- https://flic.kr/s/aHsm5zbqHd
In addition, I also traveled by trams in 3 cities (Prague, Bratislava, Budapest), metros in 2 cities (Prague and Budapest) and funicular railways in 2 cities (Prague and Budapest).
Two things really stood out to me compared to US train travels-
1) The punctuality. None of the trains I took were more than 15 minutes late. I even made a 9 minute connection between two long distance trains in Leipzig
2) The sheer number of trains. Apart from long distance ones, every station is teeming with hundreds of trains of all shapes and sizes scuttling across on small and medium routes. At major stations, a two column wide giant schedule board cannot even accommodate one hour worth of departures!