General Train Discussion

[Deleted member]

Did you "educate" those friends?

I couldn't help but "educate" a friend of mine the other day who booked a train ticket from Sydney to Brisbane :shock: that cost about 50% more than a JQ price-beat fare.

I have a friend who will visit me in BNE shortly. He will Train it. Purely for the enjoyment and contemplation of being on a train. Matt will know what that's about.

 

[Mattg]

Re: You know you are a frequent flyer when ...

I have a friend who will visit me in BNE shortly. He will Train it. Purely for the enjoyment and contemplation of being on a train. Matt will know what that's about.

I do think that's entirely reasonable - not everyone loves flying as much as we do! But in the case of this friend, we were subjected to constant Facebook updates about how long and boring the train trip was, and how they wished they could "afford" to fly...

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Re: You know you are a frequent flyer when ...

I do think that's entirely reasonable - not everyone loves flying as much as we do!

But in the case of this friend, we were subjected to constant Facebook updates about how long and boring the train trip was, and how they wished they could "afford" to fly...

If this argument was 30 years ago he might've been correct.

What was the actual cost of the train fare btw? Bet you London to a brick there are airfares for less than what he paid for the rail ticket.

 

[Mattg]

Re: You know you are a frequent flyer when ...

If this argument was 30 years ago he might've been correct.

What was the actual cost of the train fare btw? Bet you London to a brick there are airfares for less than what he paid for the rail ticket.

Exactly. The train from memory was around $70. I've flown Jetstar from Sydney to the Gold Coast for half that.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Re: You know you are a frequent flyer when ...

Exactly. The train from memory was around $70. I've flown Jetstar from Sydney to the Gold Coast for half that.

Sounds like he's firmly in the glass is half empty camp and just loves a whinge. If you tell him he can fly for $70.00 that would solve his problem so he'll have some lame excuse as to why he can't take up that offer.

 

[Boca68]

Re: You know you are a frequent flyer when ...

Exactly. The train from memory was around $70. I've flown Jetstar from Sydney to the Gold Coast for half that.

I, for one, love a good train journey. Unfortunately, train travel in Australia is like the dark ages compared to Europe. Everyone, once in thier life should travel on SNCF or RenFe etc.. and see how good it can be. And seriously competitive in price and time. Yep, I know, we have the tyranny of distance to contend with. But, even though , train travel here is dastardly. T

Next year, I will be doing my inaugural OW RTW in J. A lot of the European sectors will be surface sectors via rail. Wish me luck, start booking in a few weeks

But, I also really love a flight. Both have thier great pleasures. Flying only wins out, because I'm a bit of an Avgeek. (read planespotter)

 

[Milefest]

Re: You know you are a frequent flyer when ...

I, for one, love a good train journey. Unfortunately, train travel in Australia is like the dark ages compared to Europe.

Went first class on the XPT SYD-MEL, one of the worst train experiences of my life. Never again.

 

[Fiches Mouser]

Re: You know you are a frequent flyer when ...

Went first class on the XPT SYD-MEL, one of the worst train experiences of my life. Never again.

Is there a TR out there we can read?

I, for one, love a good train journey. Unfortunately, train travel in Australia is like the dark ages compared to Europe. Everyone, once in thier life should travel on SNCF or RenFe etc.. and see how good it can be. And seriously competitive in price and time. Yep, I know, we have the tyranny of distance to contend with. But, even though , train travel here is dastardly. T

Next year, I will be doing my inaugural OW RTW in J. A lot of the European sectors will be surface sectors via rail. Wish me luck, start booking in a few weeks

But, I also really love a flight. Both have thier great pleasures. Flying only wins out, because I'm a bit of an Avgeek. (read planespotter)

Also, try Japan's Shinkansen network for a how-to in building beautifully run, premium high-speed rail.

Sorry to take this further OT!

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Re: You know you are a frequent flyer when ...

I, for one, love a good train journey. Unfortunately, train travel in Australia is like the dark ages compared to Europe. Everyone, once in thier life should travel on SNCF or RenFe etc.. and see how good it can be. And seriously competitive in price and time. Yep, I know, we have the tyranny of distance to contend with. But, even though , train travel here is dastardly. T

Next year, I will be doing my inaugural OW RTW in J. A lot of the European sectors will be surface sectors via rail. Wish me luck, start booking in a few weeks

But, I also really love a flight. Both have thier great pleasures. Flying only wins out, because I'm a bit of an Avgeek. (read planespotter)

The TGV in France is a perfect replacement for short-haul flights.
Paris - Lyon in 2 hours - compared to 1 hour actual flight time which turns into 3-4 hours when you factor in between 30 minutes and an hour getting from Paris to CDG/ORY, another hour before departure, and an hour collecting luggage and getting from LYS to Lyon at the other end.
As much as I love flying it's hard to choose a flight over the TGV on a route like this!

 

[Deleted member]

Re: You know you are a frequent flyer when ...

If this argument was 30 years ago he might've been correct.

What was the actual cost of the train fare btw? Bet you London to a brick there are airfares for less than what he paid for the rail ticket.

Yep. He doesn't care. It's the train. Not the cost. He could probably fly J and it might even be cheaper !

 

[Milefest]

Re: You know you are a frequent flyer when ...

Is there a TR out there we can read?

I'll keep it short. Had never used the XPT before and I had a day spare to get between cities so I thought I'd give the train a go and get some work done on there. First wasn't much more money so I paid up.

The cabin I received was a sleeper, although the beds are unable to be used during the day so you basically get a long seat for yourself in the cabin. The cabin was quite dirty and old and I wasn't able to close any of the curtains. The toilet next to my cabin was filthy (I'm pretty sure someone urinated on the floor). The cabin did have a power point but it said "shavers only", I used it to charged my phone, very slowly, definitely not sufficient for a laptop. The cabin didn't have a desk or tray table to work on and with the lack of charging facilities my laptop was dead within a few hours. All you can really do is sit there if you don't have any entertainment. The trip is something like 10 hours? You're continually stopping throughout. The food (which you have to purchase) I'd rate 3/10, beer selection 1/10.

The only real positive is the scenery.

 

[PineappleSkip]

Re: You know you are a frequent flyer when ...

Had never used the XPT before and I had a day spare to get between cities so I thought I'd give the train a go and get some work done on there.

Don't forget the 03:53 scheduled arrival into BNE in Summer. That is so convenient
Cheers skip

 

[Moindardt]

Re: You know you are a frequent flyer when ...

The TGV in France is a perfect replacement for short-haul flights.
Paris - Lyon in 2 hours - compared to 1 hour actual flight time which turns into 3-4 hours when you factor in between 30 minutes and an hour getting from Paris to CDG/ORY, another hour before departure, and an hour collecting luggage and getting from LYS to Lyon at the other end.
As much as I love flying it's hard to choose a flight over the TGV on a route like this!

We took the Eurostar from Paris to London in October. I was constantly telling the kids what an engineering marvel the tunnel was. About an hour into the trip, one of the kids goes, "if we had taken the other engineering marvel, we would have been there by now. Its called a plane". When we finally got to Heathrow, I had 4 grumpy kids and even more grumpy wife and had just wasted an extra 4 hrs (traffic was insane) and $1400 over what it would have been to fly. And it was boring as hell.

You mention about the time saving, but we had to queue an hour beforehand, had to carry out bags with us the whole way, it was interesting for the first 10 mins and cost 3 times as much. I'll take baggage check in, lounges, the savings and those hours of my life back please.

 

[medhead]

Re: You know you are a frequent flyer when ...

TRaffic? Why? HEX!

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Re: You know you are a frequent flyer when ...

We took the Eurostar from Paris to London in October. I was constantly telling the kids what an engineering marvel the tunnel was. About an hour into the trip, one of the kids goes, "if we had taken the other engineering marvel, we would have been there by now. Its called a plane". When we finally got to Heathrow, I had 4 grumpy kids and even more grumpy wife and had just wasted an extra 4 hrs (traffic was insane) and $1400 over what it would have been to fly. And it was boring as hell.

You mention about the time saving, but we had to queue an hour beforehand, had to carry out bags with us the whole way, it was interesting for the first 10 mins and cost 3 times as much. I'll take baggage check in, lounges, the savings and those hours of my life back please.

The Eurostar is a different proposition, even though the French part may be a TGV.
I was referring to TGV services within metropolitan France. As far as they are concerned, I've never encountered the problems to which you refer.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Re: You know you are a frequent flyer when ...

Even if Eurostar takes longer and is more expensive IMHO it's one of those 'I just gotta do this at least once' lifetime experiences - will you repeat? Will I repeat? Decide that down the track but I have done it and loved it.

 

[Fiches Mouser]

Re: You know you are a frequent flyer when ...

We took the Eurostar from Paris to London in October. I was constantly telling the kids what an engineering marvel the tunnel was. About an hour into the trip, one of the kids goes, "if we had taken the other engineering marvel, we would have been there by now. Its called a plane". When we finally got to Heathrow, I had 4 grumpy kids and even more grumpy wife and had just wasted an extra 4 hrs (traffic was insane) and $1400 over what it would have been to fly. And it was boring as hell.

You mention about the time saving, but we had to queue an hour beforehand, had to carry out bags with us the whole way, it was interesting for the first 10 mins and cost 3 times as much. I'll take baggage check in, lounges, the savings and those hours of my life back please.

Completely agree – I was so unimpressed by the Eurostar.

 

[Bindibuys]

Re: You know you are a frequent flyer when ...

Even if Eurostar takes longer and is more expensive IMHO it's one of those 'I just gotta do this at least once' lifetime experiences - will you repeat? Will I repeat? Decide that down the track but I have done it and loved it.

Yep, did it once - the "clickety clack" club on Eurostar on my 44th birthday. So my experience will differ from others.

 

[exceladdict]

Re: You know you are a frequent flyer when ...

Yep, did it once - the "clickety clack" club on Eurostar on my 44th birthday. So my experience will differ from others.

I thought that was the "mile long" club, but I guess it depends on the speed of the train.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Re: You know you are a frequent flyer when ...

I prefer trains which are above ground and have a view.