Differences between European trains and Amtrak

[Seaboard92]

Well this is an apples to orange comparison so let's compare European trains to Amtrak. For the sake of fair comparison. For high speed lets compare the Acela. And for every other train IC/EC.

European

You let your self on and off the train.

American

Cattle lines to get on a coach

European

Reservations

Reserve a seat (some trains it allowed but not needed) and if you don't have one. Just make sure you move before the passenger shows up.

American

You don't get your seat till you show up. Then don't leave it.

First class

European

Two and one seating on most trains

American

Business class on an Amfleet I full coach is two and two.

Half cars are two and one.

Dining

European

Normally contracted out to a private company. And it depends on the train for service.

American

Standard nationwide menu. And ran by amtrak.

Can you guys think of any other.

 

[me_little_me]

Amtrak trains have wider seats in coach and often in business (vs Europe first class) if I remember European trains right.

 

[jis]

European trains faster and smoother running and usually more frequent with well timed connections

 

[Seaboard92]

The best trains I've been on is a three way tie. DB ICE I, DB ICE II, and the ÖBB Railjet. Each has it's own attribute that I like. I love the dining car and compartments of the ICE I. I love riding behind the engineer of the ICE III. And I love the Railjet from an operations stand point

 

[seat38a]

Well just booked by trip to Europe for September so I'll fill in when I get back. We will be taking the Eurostar to Paris. Been on the old one already. Hopefully we will get the new German version. Then TGV Lyria to Swiss and a bunch of Swiss Rail trains to get from Interlaken to Lucerne to Zurich. What I do remember from my last European trip is that the trains in Europe are much narrower inside than Amtrak or some of the Asian trains. Amtrak is roomy at 2x2 in business but that would not work on a European train. I guess a good example would be Amtrak Cascades. When they use the European trains Business Class is 1x2. I believe the proper terminology is "loading gauge," and Euro trains are smaller loading gauge than American trains. We will also be going to Istanbul but not sure if we will be taking any train or public transit there.

Also, I did see a video regarding food service on the German ICE trains. EVERYTHING is prepackaged and microwaved, then nicely plated. Its all about the presentation and the microwaved food on the ICE food really TASTY!! This compared to Amtrak which keeps everything in the original container when the nuke the food and then toss it in the cardboard carry case.

 

[seat38a]

The best trains I've been on is a three way tie. DB ICE I, DB ICE II, and the ÖBB Railjet. Each has it's own attribute that I like. I love the dining car and compartments of the ICE I. I love riding behind the engineer of the ICE III. And I love the Railjet from an operations stand point

I wanted to do the Railjet to Vienna from Zurich but just not enough time. I really wanted to ride in the Business Class semi private compartment. Funny how business class is the higher class of service on Railjet than first class.

 

[Barciur]

Being from Europe myself, very interesting thread!

European
You let your self on and off the train.
American
Cattle lines to get on a coach

This depends where. It's all so different depending on the experience, really. For example, my home station is Lancaster and the boarding procedure is hardly any different than boarding procedure on a European train.

Reservations
Reserve a seat (some trains it allowed but not needed) and if you don't have one. Just make sure you move before the passenger shows up.
American
You don't get your seat till you show up. Then don't leave it.

Well, once again, depends on a train: Keystone or NER you just show up and sit wherever you want, for example.

First class
European
Two and one seating on most trains
American
Business class on an Amfleet I full coach is two and two.

I think the biggest difference here is the compartments. Not all countries, but most European countries have a lot of trains where there are compartments. I personally prefer them in a lot of cases, but that's a very personal preference.

Things drastically change when you go east of Poland. Ukrainian, Belarussian and Russian long distance trains have three classes. 1st class is a 2-berth room, 2nd class is a 4-berth room and 3rd class (called platzkarta) is an open car with beds everywhere. No seating cars at all in those trains

Here is the plackarta car:

European trains faster and smoother running and usually more frequent with well timed connections

Poland being a very unhappy exception to this rule

As for my plans, this summer I am planning a traim from Poland to Ukraine and then a sleeping train from Lviv to Odesa by train, so I will be sure to post the results!

 

[AlexandriaVATraveler]

1. A significant amount of Amtrak's network consists of once-a-day LD trains. I can't recall any such situation in Western Europe. Even routes with overnight trains would often have a daytime train covering the same distance (e.g. I took the Munich-Vence CNL 40463, but there was also a daytime EC train as well on that route).

2. In the US, most commuter railroads are peak-direction only. In Western Europe the suburban/regional railroads are bi-directional all day.

3. European stations, unless explicltly listed as a non-main station (e.g. Munich East), are typically at or near the city center and served by local public transport. I once looked into taking the train to Savannah or Charleston and noticed that both stations are on the edge of town, nowhere near anywhere I wanted to go.

4. European stations are usually high-platform with some exceptions. Of course, the rolling stock is generally high-platform too.

5. Nearly all modes are proof-of-payment over there, from local all the way up to interntional trains. Rome's Metro was gated, and we had to show our reservation on CNL 40463. The US generally require positive access (i.e. showing your ticket to a conductor upon getting on or scanning it at a faregate.)

 

[cirdan]

1. A significant amount of Amtrak's network consists of once-a-day LD trains. I can't recall any such situation in Western Europe. Even routes with overnight trains would often have a daytime train covering the same distance (e.g. I took the Munich-Vence CNL 40463, but there was also a daytime EC train as well on that route).

I don't think there is an immediate daytime equivalent to the Madrid Lisboa Trenhoten Lusitania.

Probably you can do it somehow by changing trains.

Zürich to Zagreb is another one that theoretically you can do in daytime but it would take multiple changes of train and I don't think many people bother.

 

[Alexandria VA Traveler]

Both of those city pairs have cheaper and faster flights.

Lisbon-Madrid will never justify a daytime train with $40 on a 75 minute flight. Bear in mind that European airports don't have security theater, so the time wasted in line would be less than in North America.

https://www.google.com/flights/#search;f=LIS;t=MAD;d=2015-05-13;r=2015-05-17;tt=o

Zurich-Zagreb is just too far as a city pair to run as a daytime train. But the cheapest flight comes in at the low $100s for 4 hours (stopover included).

https://www.google.com/flights/#search;f=ZRH;t=ZAG;d=2015-06-10;r=2015-06-14;tt=o

 

[Barciur]

Europe is also sadly slowly but surely getting rid of overnight trains. Poland has very few now and most are seasonal. Germany have recently done away with a bunch of their lines. Some lines are truncated. The only place is east of the European Union - over there, overnights are still king.

As for "US LD are once a day while in Europe there is more distance" - sure, but what is LD here and what is LD in Europe? USA should really be compared more to Russia in terms of LD network. In Poland, for example, one of the bigger (not the biggest, but one of the bigger) countries in Europe, the longest train route is 600 miles. That's a long-distance train with overnight. Here in the US, that's medium distance.

 

[cirdan]

Both of those city pairs have cheaper and faster flights.

Lisbon-Madrid will never justify a daytime train with $40 on a 75 minute flight. Bear in mind that European airports don't have security theater, so the time wasted in line would be less than in North America.

https://www.google.com/flights/#search;f=LIS;t=MAD;d=2015-05-13;r=2015-05-17;tt=o

Zurich-Zagreb is just too far as a city pair to run as a daytime train. But the cheapest flight comes in at the low $100s for 4 hours (stopover included).

https://www.google.com/flights/#search;f=ZRH;t=ZAG;d=2015-06-10;r=2015-06-14;tt=o

In what way is this different from the situation to many city pairs in the US?

I was just trying to point out that similar situations do exist in Europe.

 

[Alexandria VA Traveler]

Never ridden the Trans-Siberian, but I've see videos of old ladies doing track-side food sales at stops along the way. Apparently the food is better and cheaper than the restaurant car on board.

If on-time performance was more or less assured, I'd presume that a track-side catering could take off. But it'd be hard to ask a local restauranteur to sell food if the anticipated arrival time was nowhere near schedueld.

 

[Ziv]

If you are going to be traveling by rail anywhere in the world, a good place to start is Seat 61 dot com.

http://www.seat61.com/

It has links to nearly every railroad in the world with pictures and schedules. Outstanding site. I used it before and during my trip round the world by rail.

 

[Bradenmeridian]

One big difference in European trains in general is in the ventilation systems. We often marvel at how quiet trains are in Europe, but in the case of standard trains, it's because they have passive ventilation which doesn't make a sound, not those infernal blowers we seem to be wedded to. Americans aren't even aware of how much white noise we deal with on most trains. In Europe, even when they do have more sophisticated hvac's they are more considerate of reducing the noise they make, I assume because their passengers are used to perfectly quiet trains. When you ride an amfleet train, you have only to experience one of those moments when the power goes out to realize just how quiet trains really would be without those systems. Admitedly, it has improved on Viewliners, etc.

 

[Barciur]

https://youtu.be/bSJEI5tc-Ys?t=2m40s- this is the kind of sound passengers of Polish trains are used to

The countries where you can open the windows (that's a bunch of countries with a decent amount of older cars still with opening windows) are not all that quiet.

I definitely share your sentiment about the amfleet and white noise when the power goes out. It really is crazy to think about it.

 

[Shanghai]

I lived in Europe for six years (1996-2001) and traveled extensively by train (much better than flying).

I really liked the DB ICE trains (First Class). I found it more convenient than flying short distances. We

took several overnight trains - Amsterdam to Prague, Paris to Munich, Munich to Vienna, Budapest to Paris,

Amsterdam to Berlin, Berlin to Malmo (on the ferry) Paris to London (Eurostar) and commuted from Paris to

Amsterdam (Thalys) on weekends for seven months. Amsterdam to Geneva. We often took our little dog on train trips.

Except for the frequency of train service, I didn't see much difference in the European trains compared to Amtrak.

The sleeper cars (bedrooms) did not have toilets or showers. The daytrip compartments did not have luggage

storage and the seats were smaller. I also found that even with seat assignments, most people just sat where

they wanted, particularly in Germany. Denmark had good trains and Russia (Moscow & St Pete) had good trains.

I did take a day trip in Poland (coach) and found it quite comfortable. Generally, food service on trains was like

Amtrak's Café Cars.

We took the Jungfrough trains to the top of the Alps, which was a most scenic trip and quite cold and icy on a

sunny July afternoon. My daughter took the train from Amsterdam to Interlaken, Switzerland for summer camp

on trains - along with 30 other kids and always had fun trips!!

I prefer Amtrak trains for long distance trips.