Those of you from countries that have high-speed rail networks, how often do you use it?

27 comments

1. Every time i have to go in a distant city i tend to use the high speed train. Last time was this summer when i went to Milan and Turin.

   The service is very good especially compared to the standard speed line. The price is slightly higher but i think it’s worth it.

2. Not very often. Even though I live right by a train station that has access to the high speed train, I rarely go far enough away to make it worth my while. Plus I own a car so any trip under a couple of hours it‘s much easier and cheaper to just drive (the train is expensive if you just take single trips)

3. I made the choice years ago to avoid buying a car. So every time I have to go to a distant city I use the high speed line. It seems a little more expensive but compared to the cost of owning a car its peanuts. Right now I teach 4 or 5 times per semester at a university in a city about 1hr15 away by car, so I am taking the high speed train instead (in around 45 mins).

4. Pretty sure we have those in Belgium but I don’t see a reason to use them here, Belgium is so small there’s literally no need.

5. Every time I have to go to Madrid and then back home, roughly once a month. I like the service but the prices are very expensive.

6. I don’t have a car, so I use train regularly. For local comute staying in the same region (every months), this is normal speed train 180km/h. For bigger trave (every 3 months) , for example from one region to an other, I almost always use high speed train 300km/h.

   For exemple Paris – Marseille
   – around 8 hours in car (without pause and traffic jams)
   – around 3 hours in train, and you are far more confortable

   Only problem is that the french network I shaped around Paris , so sometimes you have to make a huge detour start→Paris→destination

7. The only one in the UK currently is the Eurostar from London to Paris and Brussels. I personally find it a bit overpriced and before Covid I usually took the coach instead. And it’s also a similar experience to taking the plane, you have to come early and go through security, various passport checks, sit in a crowded waiting room etc.

8. I use it quite rarely. But I use regional trains quite often because of the pricing. For example I can use my student ticket to do Bremen-Hannover for free, but it would cost about 30€ to get an Intercity or an ICE. Those would save about 20 mins. Service is quite average when compared to other countries but it is a lot worse than the utopia that is Japanese rail. A lot of Germans will tell you that the rail system is bad. It’s not terrible but it has had a big decline after semi-privitisation (the government holds all the shares but it has become a for profit company).

9. I use it when I travel in Italy.

   When possible…in much of the south, and on the island where I live,it doesn’t exist!

10. In Germany, where I live now, I’ve only used it a couple of times – I moved just before Covid so haven’t travelled much.

    In Italy, I did Milan – Rome quite often, it was great, super fast, very pleasant, fares were very competitive if booked in advance. Regional trains are not as good but Italian high speed is excellent.

11. When I lived in Germany I used it a handful of times and only for long distance travel when I could find cheap tickets. I usually stuck with the regional trains as they were cheaper (within the state I was living in they were completely free for me as a student) and you can get really good deals on tickets for those trains.

12. Got a yearly ticket for all public transport in Austria, so I take it whenever I want to.

13. Once a year on average to get to Berlin or Munich. Rarely any faster than 200km/h though.

    The actual “high speed” service doesn’t suck like other trian connections. The trains are usually nice, clean and quiet.

    Sadly it isn’t the cheapest way to go. Going by car is actually be cheaper if you don’t take an expensive rental, just like many flights. I prefer high speed rail if I go from one big city to another by a lot.

14. Really often since i study in milan and i come from friuli. They have hightened the prices a lot though. Italo is a bit cheaper

15. Every time I go to a city outside the region. Hasn’t been much travel recently, but my son has been zipping around France this year. We usually assume, whether France, Germany or wherever, that any two large cities will be reachable by rail. We have taken the train on almost all of our holidays in the last 20 years (throughout Germany, Poland, Slovakia, France, Italy, The Balkans, Belgium and the Netherlands). The exceptions were when it was simply too time consuming.

16. Rarely, only if I have to go from Milan to Rome or Florence but that doesn’t happen often.

    They are crazy expensive (90ish euros one way, a plane ticket to Rome was 40€), so the only times I buy the tickets is for an association I’m part of, just because they get reimbursed lol

    At least they work, unlike the regional system

17. Twice per week. Im studying in a cuty that’s 350km away from where I live, so I use a high-speed train to get there.

18. 🇦🇹 : before the pandemic quite frequently to do business trips between Vienna and Innsbruck. Its quite cost effective if you have a rail card and even more so now if you have the Klima ticket. Not so much at the moment but I don’t really go anywhere!

19. I used to take the high speed train pretty often until low-cost flights became available with Easyjet and Ryan Air. Before the pandemic I could get plane tickets for 30 or 40 euros, when taking the train was always more expensive, and all they had to eat onboard was stale sandwiches. Another problem of our railroad network is that going from one end of the country to the other, you often have to transit through Paris. France is centralized up to absurd levels.

20. > Something I’m very jealous of, cause we don’t have any, so I always try to use it when I’m in a country that has one.

    You are asking at the wrong subreddit. There are way more of those in Asia than in Europe.

21. Before the pandemic I had to travel quite a lot for work, and many travels were to Paris because I work for a French company. It happened quite often that, leaving from my place in Brussels, I’d be at the Paris office faster than many French colleagues. Thalys (the train company) is pretty good and efficient imo.

22. I travel long distance a few times a month. The trains go up to 125mph.

    Prices have more than doubled since covid started. I travel in first class.

23. My guess would be maybe 10 times per year. You can get really good prices (like 18 Euros through half of Germany) if you book early. But if you want to go spontaneously it’s almost prohibitively expensive.

    Many people like to complain about delays and it’s true that punctuality is a problem, stil I’d say the quality is quite good in general.

24. Whenever I visit family, so I guess roughly 5 to 10 times a year (10 to 20 train rides).

    The service is good, the pricing is a bit high. I am not the kind of person who is able to book in advance, because it would stress me out too much. So I can’t take advantage of cheaper tickets through early booking. Instead, I got myself to a BahnCard 50, which means that I only pay half the regular price for any ticket I buy. Only 25% off of early booker’s special prices, but I don’t use those anyway.

    The price that I pay is fine, but imagining that the regular price is double that, it’s definitely too high.

25. Never… Too expensive here in Germany. Usually always take my car within the country

26. Hell I’m broke af so basically not at all but I’m glad it’s there freeing up timetable slots for regional trains.

27. Very often. Anytime I leave my city that’s what I use. If you plan ahead you can get tickets on the cheap and you can cross France in 3 hours while it took me 7 hours when I had a car.

    Plus you didn’t drive so you are fresh as a daisy when you get to destination.