Climate in Trains

I tend to visit a lot of smaller cities, so I end up on a lot of regional trains. I always travel 2nd class. On a summer-long trip last year to Italy, eastern Germany and the Balkans, I hit a fair number of non-air-conditioned cars. I don't know whether the cooling equipment was malfunctioning or some individual cars do not have a/c.

Well I've never been too cold on a train and I'm usually too hot. I did 1st class on a recent trip from Paris to Barcelona and it was ok....I would have liked it cooler but at least I wasn't sweating. Not so on my other recent trips....daytrip from Venice to Venona....completely overheated the entire time. Venice to Naples...okay, pretty warm but not hot. And this was all in April... on my recent trips in June and July the trains were brutally hot.

One thing I did notice was that we took the Italotrain from Naples back to Rome last week and that train was very cool inside and the seats were more comfortable. However, that was my first-ever ride on those trains so it may just have been a fluke.

On one of my recent "fast trains" where the windows are all sealed closed I thought it was a little too warm and stuffy. I just walked to the "control office" near the front of the train and told the lady it was a bit warm in car number xx. She said ok, punched a few electronic controls and the temp was instantly better.

In other words - just tell somebody :-)

The older regional or eastern trains that may not have as good air conditioning will usually have windows that open, instead. Sun beating in on you can get warm in the best of times, so if you have a choice of where to sit, pay attention to that, and/or try adjusting curtains or shades that are there for that purpose. I have found that some Mediterranean people really dislike a draft, so not everyone will agree on the best solution. In night trains, each compartment usually has a temperature control and if I can board early, then I like to set the temperature to my liking, and not everyone knows that I did it.

I don't think I've ever noticed it being too hot on trains in France. Airplanes are another story.

I haven't noticed an issue with trains being either too hot or too cold. Normally we're traveling in September. I agree that the airplane temps fluctuate wildly cold & hot between flights and also down the length of the planes.

some Mediterranean people really dislike a draft

Yep. Many older Italians (and some young ones too) hold the myth that if you go from a hot climate (like outside on a hot day) to a cold climate (cool air conditioned building) you will catch a cold (or worse) and/or muscular pains.

Same will happen to you if a sudden 'draft' of wind surreptitiously enters inside the house from an unattended open window.

Air conditioning and even a blowing fan is often considered a major cause of epidemics and should be avoided at all costs.

I noticed the Italians are not the only Mediterraneans to believe that. A few weeks ago I was at the gym where they have huge ceiling fans. A Middle Eastern guy on the machine next to mine kept complaining to me that was not good, so he asked the staff to turn the fan off.

I don't know where that comes from. I tried to explain to my parents all my life that if I catch a cold is because someone gave me the virus and it has nothing to do with cool wind, but I've never been successful.

In their mind it was because I caught a 'cold draft' somewhere, probably driving with my car window open, which they thought was also a cold spreading practice (never mind that in Italy I practically lived on a motorcycle or a vespa, yet I rarely caught a cold, but what can you do? Myths are hard to die)

Maybe it's bad luck or an actual design floor, but I always seem to find the ICEs used between Brussels and Cologne to be hot, stuffy and badly ventilated.

Germans hate drafts and AC too. Nothing like being in a gym and them going around shutting the window because a breeze is coming through. If you are on a train with windows that open, they will surely shut them.

I have been on my share of trains where the AC has broken down, mainly because the weather has gotten far too hot for them to cope with. This has been a problem the past few summers in Germany with huge amounts of customer complaints that the AC stopped, no water available, people passing out from the heat, etc.

In 2010, we got caught in a downpour in Italy. We boarded a regional train soaking wet. It was refrigerated enough to keep meat cold. I thought icicles were forming in my hair.

Ten days later, we were on the night train I talked sbout earlier this week. The temperature was fine until the train stopped on a siding and the power was turned off. No airflow from outside or inside and hot summer temps made it unbearable.

But both times, we got to our destination just fine and caught no mysterious colds due to drafts or lack thereof 😜 . I don't think there are any temperature norms on trains, it's just luck of the draw. As always, layering is the answer I guess.

oh the drafts and the Europeans!!! My husband, honestly (Italian, which I really think are the worst, but only to a degree among all their European cousins). We have - what's it called -- double exposure; that is, our apartment has windows to the east and the west. So one can open said windows and get a lovely cross breeze. Except that's when my husband notices something amiss and starts yelling and warning COURANT d'AIRE!!!! COURANT d'AIRE!! and I am mystified, as I rather thought that was the point!!

Oh boy...and I thought only (largely older) Polish people were superstitious about "the draft". Thanks for the laughs. I don't know how this scare spread across the Iron Curtain to Italy and Germany, but it seems more prevalent than I thought. My Grandma, especially, filled me with fear of "the draft" when I was a little girl. Thankfully, I have shaken this. I love open windows and strong air circulation..."drafts" be damned!

The "drafts, especially from air conditioning, will give you a cold" was a common saying from my parents in the Midwest. Our ancestry is German, so maybe that's the reason. And, make sure you wear socks and shoes on the train, or you will really get a cold - ha!

Hi,

In the past decades when traveling on the train in Germany and France in the summer, I experienced rides when it was at times a broiler, more than 80F with the sun beaming, no AC. What to do, put up with it, and hopefully you brought water. If the locals can put up with it, I had better do so too.

On the the night trains taken in May, June, July, August I've never found the temperature uncomfortable, never too hot, never had an unbearable temp wise experience, but then I don't use the sleeper or couchette option, where that could happen. I sit in the general seating area or in a six seat compartment. Obviously, having AC on is better than without it. But I don't rely on it, basically don't need it. When one takes the regional trains in France in the summer, there is no AC , and you swelter as everyone else is doing

Bottom line , I have no problems with temperature on trains, esp on night trains.

Maybe it's bad luck or an actual design floor, but I always seem to find the ICEs used between Brussels and Cologne to be hot, stuffy and badly ventilated.

You are not the only one. I noticed that too, and I rode this train every other month between Frankfurt and Liege for a few years. The best explanation I ever heard came from another passenger and it had something to do with the different electrical systems used between NMBS and Deutsche Bahn. I can't verify the accuracy of this statement but it sounds good enough to me.

Very rarely, I had the bad luck of riding in an ICE carriage without a working AC. I would have found the resulting temperature very pleasent if I was in a sauna wearing only a towel. But wearing regular clothes, it can be intolerable.