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train travel

Just read a post from Vicki about train vrs car travel from Munich to many areas along the Romantic road. Seem that everyone feels that the public transport is so excellent in this region that renting a car would be wssteful. I am wondering though what the wait times are for trains coming from Canada it is the opposite Train travel is long and the wait times equally long. Is it truely that economical to use the trains in Western Europe?

Posted by
12040 posts

I'm not sure what you mean by "long waits", because your post is a little unclear. Please explain and provide more details on what you had in mind. As for driving the Romantic Road... the experience of driving the road itself is nothing special. It's just an ordinary secondary road and the scenery is no more impressive than hundreds of other rural routes throughout Germany. If there are towns along the road that specifically interest you, then by all means, visit them. But the road itself is not intended as the attraction.

Posted by
32171 posts

carol, I agree with Tom - part of your post is a bit hard to decipher. I think some rewording and punctuation are needed. The trains in Europe tend to run frequently. You can check any rail journeys you're considering using the www.bahn.de/i/view/USA/en/index.shtml website. Trains and other public transit in Europe are quite different than the typical Via Rail situation in Canada. Cheers!

Posted by
19641 posts

@ Ken: " I think some rewording and punctuation are needed." Aha! Got it! Your an English teacher. Seriously, the German railway network is great. Most routes have trains in each direction minimum once per hour and you can just about set your watch by them. Little Rothenburg has a departure at 6 past the hour from 6 am to 8 pm, then a last one 10:06 pm. They connect perfectly at Steinach with trains running on the main line. The Rothenburg train is the only one I've been on that is not electrified, plane old Diesel-Electric. Some of the trains run at up to 300 km/hr, though most of the main line express trains are in the 160 to 180/km/hr range. Near the larger cities, they may run a train every 15 minutes at rush hour.
Look at the gas prices. They are in the $8 per gallon (US) range. What do they do with the excess gasoline taxes? Subsidize public transportation.

Posted by
32171 posts

@Sam, No, I'm not an English teacher but I'm fairly conversant with written English. Unfortunately, that seems to be a skill that's being lost on the younger generation, who are more likely to use a goofy spell checker that has no ability to correct grammar or accurately convey meaning. Don't get me started on those who also don't have basic arithmetic skills. I've encountered kids at fast food restaurants that couldn't figure out how to "count up" when giving change. Thankfully modern POS terminals provide that information these days. Cheers!

Posted by
19641 posts

Normally, I edit and re-edit posts about 6 times to get rid of all spelling and usage errors. But once again, I came up short.

Posted by
7010 posts

Carol, the trains in western Europe are mostly fast, frequent, and on time. They are not like those in US and Canada that only run once a day in each direction (sometimes less frequently than that) and often run late, sometimes up to hours late. You can get most anywhere in Europe using public transport, both trains and buses, and in some places they are a much better option than a car.