Post #1468393

@lewd case in point: I live in Berlin and last week I learned that in a week I'd need to be in Valencia. Flights were almost sold out for some reason, and the remaining ones were like 350 euro one way, with Ryanair. Buying regular train tickets on such a short notice would be like 500 euro one way (in 2nd class of course), with zero passenger rights, and most likely also involving an overnight stay in e.g. Lyon (for extra cost of course), and take like 36+ hours if I don't want to risk not getting to my destination 12 hours late because of some delay. With 20 hours of these 36+ spent in trains. Interrail would fare a bit better, at "just" ~400 euro (plus overnight stays) for round-trip (which would mean that I also have to take a similar excruciating train journey on the way back, instead of buying a more reasonable flight ticket). So in the end, after some research, I found relatively cheap flights from Poznan, and I'm going to take an evening train to Poznan, spend the evening and half of the night there, and then second half of the night in Poznan airport to catch a very early morning flight. Total price: ~120 EUR per person, one way; total duration of journey: 16 hours, including sleepless night. And I was only able to plan it because I'm an experienced traveler; I don't think regular people start with "you're in Berlin, with decent rail in Germany and nearby countries (those closest to Berlin), so just look at all airports within 500km distance and see which of them have cheap flights to Valencia". Were EU rail network more like China's, and were EU ticket prices more like China's, I'd simply buy a ticket for the same ~120 EUR on a direct train taking like 8 hours. And surely even the most awful 2nd class train seat for 8 hours cannot be worse than the options I actually have in EU; and this price level is actually the cheapest way I can get from origin to destination in EU even with crappy multi-modal journeys. (Meanwhile, non-high-speed train in China on the same route would take ~20 hours (vs. 20 hours in EU on mostly high-speed trains, not counting the interchange or overnight stay time); and would cost like 40 EUR in an (I assume awful) seat or like 60 EUR in an (I assume awful, but still) couchette.) Maybe things would feel differently for me if I already had a valid continuous interrail pass for 1st class. But I don't, so I personally experience how tickets on the flagship high-speed networks in EU are nowhere close to being at the same price and often cheaper than in China; nor do they provide anywhere near the same level of comfort. But I don't know, maybe I'm missing something, maybe my information on the prices and schedules in China is actually wrong, or maybe there actually are ways to occasionally travel in Europe on very long distances for cheap.