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Comment by light_hue_1 | Hacker News Reader

> Keep in mind that European trains are typically more expensive than flights even on richly priced air routes

I have a lot of experience taking trains all over Europe. In almost no case was a train cheaper than flying once I included transportation to the airport. The few times a train costs more the difference is marginal and you'd end up flying Ryanair or Easyjet --- no thanks.

> And then the profitability of short distance routes is a direct product of the density of population.

Not a problem in the Northeast in the US. Only Amtrak can fail to offer a service that works everywhere else in the world.

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I assume you meant to say train was usually cheaper. This will greatly depend on the country: for example in Germany trains are fairly expensive, a well-ahead booking (say, six months in advance) across the country usually ends up having the train option twice as expensive as a flight.

That said, I don't understand the hate for easyJet. It's one of my favourite airlines, being straightforward, well-informing, and no more crammed than your usual cattle class option in a traditional airline.

> a well-ahead booking (say, six months in advance)

You can only book train tickets three months in advance in Germany.

Last I was checking was for October tickets in May. Also, according to https://faq.trainline.eu/article/220-train-tickets-booking-h... it would be six months.

That said, currently they seem to reach only to mid-December so I don't really know.

Agree. I flew both Ryanair and EasyJet on a recent European trip and they were fine. The base cost of the flight was ~$26. We had to check luggage so they ended up closer to $50.

In this case it wasn't that the trains were more or less expensive, but they were just slow from point A to B. I think Americans have a romantic notion that trains are great all over Europe, but it really does depend on the country. Western Europe, with Italy and Germany in particular seem to have a great high speed rail system. Eastern Europe has trains, but they are not nearly as efficient time wise.

The reason those airlines are so inexpensive is because they us Wray their employees, have to pay no tax on anything, and they get subsidies from politicians next to useless airports.

I don't think that's fair to Amtrak. In Canada, Via Rail also fails to deliver the service that works everywhere else in the world.

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