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Quixoticgeek

@ehproque @tml @cstross @SteveJonesnono1 You live in Madrid, your daughter just got her first appartment in Barcelona, you want to take your box of tools, and go help her do some DIY.

Try that on a RENFE highspeed train.

4 comments
ehproque

@quixoticgeek @tml @cstross @SteveJonesnono1 that's a funny example too: another common complaint (one I agree with) is it used to be possible to travel to the next province by train on the cheap, but nowadays you can only travel very fast (and at a high price) between Madrid and anywhere else

Quixoticgeek

@ehproque @tml @cstross @SteveJonesnono1 It fundemantally breaks rail travel if you can't take stuff with you.

At least on an plane you can check your tool box in the hold. But that's not an option on the train the way Renfe implement it.

When I was in Barcellona, I took an R11 to Portbou, and then a local SNCF train to avoid the RENFE stupidity at Sants.

Charlie Stross

@quixoticgeek @ehproque @tml @SteveJonesnono1 There are VERY FEW things I will praise Amtrak for, but some of their intercity services have (or had as recently as 2016) a guard's wagon where you could check your big-ass suitcase and they'd offload it on the platform at your destination.

Quixoticgeek

@cstross @ehproque @tml @SteveJonesnono1 Deutsche bahn and OBB have guards vans on some trains. That's where bikes go. Ditto VR in Finland, and my bike went in a guards van on a train in Norway too.

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