Yeah, that's why you build stations periodically and run trains at faster speeds than cars.

I always found it infuriating to have a discussion like this with people who prefer to fly.

For example, a flight from Copenhagen to Stockholm (or, Malmo to Stockholm) is about 50 minutes.

But a train is four hours.. clearly the train is slower!

Except the train takes you into downtown Stockholm- no express train, no getting to the airport 1hr+ before your flight and no travel to the airport in the first place.

I once raced my girlfriend (our travel plans lined up pretty perfectly) and the train ended up 25 minutes faster back to Malmo from Stockholm.

So, even though I have an anecdote that supports your claim, I'm going to go ahead and say that if you have congested traffic a train can easily be faster- even with the time at both ends. But yes, we should be making rail a much more attractive option, not running trains at the same speeds as cars.

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arethuza 6 days ago | parent | next [-]

Pretty similar for me - I travel to London from Edinburgh quite a lot and I much prefer taking the train.

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walthamstow 6 days ago | parent [-]

Before Brexit I got the train from London to Amsterdam. 3h45 direct, clean, comfortable and so much more civilised than flying.

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CalRobert 6 days ago | parent | next [-]

Even after brexit it’s very possible. I understand InOui may start offering competing services in the channel tunnel.

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arethuza 6 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I actually don't mind the flying bit of flying - but I loathe all the faffing about and waiting at airports.

	▲	tialaramex 6 days ago \| parent [-]
		I'm actually the opposite, it really fucks with my ears - I think it's probably the pressure change but I don't care to experiment too much, I'm lucky if I'm not out of action for a week after landing. I could stand to wait an hour, have to do a ridiculous dance for "security", traipse two miles across a vast building designed on the wrong scale for humans and so on, that's all fine, but the flying I do not like at all.

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pjmlp 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

In Germany, even if it takes the same amount of time, door to door, usually flying is half price, and isn't hit as often in delays as having your ICE stopped in the middle of nowhere, and then miss one of the two connections yet to come.

It is an interesting exercise to see how frequently people start using their Bahn app, trying to work around what might be their way to still make it into the destination, as the pause times between stations increase.