Expanded high-speed rail network part of vision for Europe, says EU’s transport chief
The bloc – which will present plan this autumn – wants train travel to compete with planes on connectivity and cost
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Definitely good news to hear. Over the last couple of years, I've made several long journeys by train that normally would have been by plane.
One rule of thumb I've been using is to only get direct trains. I find travel a bit stressful in any case and I don't want to be worrying about any delay with the first train causing me to miss the second. If the two trains are the same operator, you would at least be able to reschedule onto a later train - as long as there is one with free space which isn't guaranteed at zero notice. If the trains are run by different operators then it's presumably down to whatever agreements exist between them. So I skip all that uncertainty by only doing it when there's a single direct train available. Hopefully the EU will come up with a good solution for this as well.
There is an agreement between most major European train operators called Agreement on Journey Continuation (AJC): https://www.cer.be/cer-eu-projects-initiatives/agreement-on-journey-continuation-ajc
That's good, thanks for that info. It does say it's a "good will" gesture from the various train companies, but it seems to be a firm offer - would be good to have it enshrined in law nevertheless.
From what I read, you need to get a Delay/Cancellation Confirmation somehow. You then would need to book a seat on one of the following trains - on some routes, most trains are full by the time of travel, and in the event of a delay like this, you're probably not the only one needing to reschedule. You may well need to get a hotel overnight and travel the next day. All possible, but potentially stressful.
I will still avoid getting long distance trains with connections - but saying that, none of the several international train journeys I've made so far have been delayed more than 15 minutes.
Missing a connecting flight is no less stressful - and I also always avoid those as much as possible, although because long-distance flights are shorter, the knock-on effects of missing a connection tend to be less (more likely to be able to find a seat on a replacement flight on the same day for instance).
