@yogthos Our rail system sucks. 😞

@yogthos It sucks incredibly much in #Canada too.

There's been effort put into making the experience worse.

@yogthos The distance from Boston to Philadelphia is about the same as that from Amsterdam to Paris. Surprise! There’s a train there too (Acela), with nice seats etc.

The big problem the USA has is that it’s a large, empty country on a huge, empty continent. European countries are small, densely populated countries on a smallish peninsula off of Asia called Europe.

@yogthos no parking lot right next to the train station though, surprised they didnt advocate for building a brand new walmart adjacent like they would here 😂

@yogthos flying used to be like that too.

@yogthos the author’s name is T Rains. This has to be a joke?

@yogthos the distorted view of trains here in the US is strange. Take the Boring Company for example. They say they are going to build tunnels under cities that will have trams to carry people around to reduce or bypass traffic. Cities are clamoring to have them dig a hole for them. Meanwhile subways have existed for over 100 years and are in use around the world, including parts of the US.

@yogthos What is this sorcery?!! 😱🚄

@yogthos Good god. Americans need to travel more. Guess what! Those Europeans riding the train have universal #healthcare coverage, too! And paid maternity/paternity leave. And vacation days and sick days. Yes, those things do exist.
#uspol #uspolitics

@yogthos

That is really cool and good to know, Thanks.
Do you have more pics of inside the train?

@yogthos

Trains with safety features that work! :D

@yogthos Go easy on them, we aren't allowed to have nice things like decent mass transit here.

@yogthos Wait until she goes to the hospital.

@yogthos Next up, a bunch of articles about why trains are bad actually and will never catch on.

@yogthos

Can't wait until they discover health care

@yogthos He prefers the transport without security checks, he must have something to hide.

@yogthos @anildash Yep, I had a similar experience my first EU rail experience several years ago, even on the same line (Amsterdam-Antwerp). My favorite bit is the ticket info saying, “Please be on the platform at least two minutes before the scheduled departure time.”

@yogthos Fediverse discovers a Twitter user discovering a journalist discovering trains.

Context: https://twitter.com/juanbuis/status/1629072189956804609

@yogthos I particularly love the part where you don’t have to strip down your belongings and walk through metal detectors. Just board the train, sit down and lean back.

@yogthos Amsterdam to Paris really isn't that far... Wait until the author realizes you can actually get all the way to China from Venice. Or that the London to Paris line goes "under the sea!" 🤿

@yogthos How simple thi gs can be 😂

@yogthos 😂

@yogthos imagine the journalist coming to experience Japanese high speed trains...

@yogthos I am *so* looking forward to that.

@yogthos For context, in the first paragraph, she says she is “an aviation writer”:

“As an aviation writer, I rarely find myself traveling via train between countries — even if it is sometimes faster than flying.”

Kinda relevant

@yogthos I'm looking forward to discovering the heck out of them this summer.

@yogthos @jon Now they just need to make the North American rail experience feel less like flying. Via Rail Canada still makes everyone queue at the platform gate instead of letting them walk to the platform and board in their own time. Oh, and they have baggage weight restrictions as well 🤷‍♂️

@yogthos the aviation lobby in North America will do absolutely ANYTHING to prevent any real fast or efficient passenger rail from being built.

@yogthos American journalists will write in awe about European trains when they really should be writing about derailments in the USA.

@yogthos
@krysztophe We can recognise the north station of Paris on the first picture :)

@yogthos That's not even 'one of Europe's fastest'. 😅

@yogthos @gedeonm funny because the Thalys is probably the worst of the bullet trains… 🙃

@yogthos this is not how journalism works. The author anticipates her readers‘ expectations, which in the US is that there is no competition to flying. Framing American authors as clueless is lazy just because they write from another perspective and most likely for another audience.

@yogthos

Here's a shock for him...

You can do Paris-Marseille in 3h8m and for as little as 19eur

@yogthos we are powerfully un-trained in the US. I've only been on a train for transportation once as an adult

@yogthos Wait'll he tries 𝘭𝘢 𝘍𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘢. Milan to Florence in 2 hours. And look where you start and finish!

@yogthos when my American colleagues discovered the ICE they never wanted to rent a car … and we could use the time to prepare for upcoming meetings with customers

@yogthos I find it interesting that so many people assume that flying is going to remain a viable option for long-distance continental travel. Better to build up rail infrastructure while we still have the luxury of time.

@yogthos And overpaid for it too. If they booked early, they could have made the travel for ~40 freedom coins. Then again, this story is about a service that’s almost 30 years old now. So early was clearly not what they were going for.

@yogthos

Hey, I discovered that great invention that is the «samovar» in 2010 in a train from Astana to Almatı.

@yogthos Europe is a beautiful Continent. High speed trains sleeper trains and not expensive, and disabled friendly. I can travel from St Pancras international station to Transilvania, Brașov in 24 hours I reach my birth place. I prefer trains than planes. Plus to other destinations.

@yogthos their name is T. Rains.

@yogthos I used to take the train from Montréal to Toronto for business but on on my time. Much preferred. A civilized way to travel. And yes - I don't like to fly and I will and have.

@yogthos To be fair, I experienced similar levels of awe and envy the first time I encountered European trains.

@yogthos Especially ironic when the journalist's name is "T. Rains".

@yogthos the wonders of civilised nations never cease to amaze those from inferior countries

@yogthos great, we desperately need more positive train coverage like this

@yogthos Next Great Discovery: health care.

@yogthos While I love these message for their message about how train journeys are, it frustrates me that I never seem to be able to secure that $160 fare on the same journey.

@yogthos I'm glad to live in Switzerland were trains are everywhere and very well done!

@yogthos also, if you fly that distance you are just a d*ck

@yogthos wait... "Taylor Rains"? Hmmmmm

@yogthos riding a train throug Europe from on destination to another can be much simpler and comfortable compared to taking a Plane for the same route. 😀

@yogthos Imagine that!! Sit down and relax! But it’s a good one thing people are writing about it. Finally..

@yogthos Since Brexit the Eurostar experience has gotten a bit worse, mostly because of the passport check. Otherwise, yes, this.

@yogthos This is one of the best memes I've ever seen. Bravo.

@yogthos
Non oso pensare a come sono i treni americani allora... O questo signore è un semplice.

@yogthos make trains great again!

@yogthos Trains are so cool, though! 💕 Wish we had more of them here in Eastern Europe. Instead, some of the lines between the countryside cities and the capital were shut down because there wasn't enough demand, despite buses between those being packed.

@yogthos Rode this exact route while on vacation with my wife some years ago. It was a lovely travel experience.

@yogthos take the Eurostar if you want the airport experience while taking the train! Boarding passes, check-in, security and a lot of queueing and waiting around

@yogthos to be fair except in major cities, there are very few passenger trains and none of them are high speed. Also car culture and the "freedom" of cars is ingrained and hard to overcome. One of the biggest obstacles is unlike most European countries that are very dense, vast areas of the US are very sparse and empty.

@yogthos Geez, if they really wanted to discover how great trains are without leaving the US, they could've come to NYC and experienced the subway. I don't even own a car nor do I know how to drive.

@yogthos Europe: Here is an inexpensive high speed rail system that is far more environmentally friendly than flying or driving.
North America: It'll cost too much for us to fix the tracks or trains to make them safe, so we'll just wait till things fall apart and then abandon them...

@yogthos but see, even paesants are able to use it. much better to fawn over vapourware shite like Elon's hyperloop brainfarts

@yogthos
But we suck and don't have any trains unlike the rest of the "civilized" world.

@yogthos To be fair we practically do not have them here, not passenger rail in most places.

Ironic since the rail road actually is very influential in early US history, but the car industry was much more influential in modern US history

@yogthos I will continue to be loud and annoying about it: I've used Amtrak for several journeys across the northeast (down to NYC, over to Columbus, Ohio), and it's so much better than flying. It's not even comparable.

Make Amtrak high-speed across the country and that'll encourage the airlines to sort their messes out right fast.

@yogthos @maddy to be fair This is what trains look like in America.

@yogthos It hurts but the reality is that the #infrastructure is just so bad in the #USA that some people don't know that alternative transportation exists...

@yogthos reminds me of my CalTrain days before tgey added tocket kiosks.

@yogthos I just noticed the author's name is T. Rains...

@yogthos We don't really have trains here. I mean, I've been on Amtrak & CalTrain and...yeah.

@yogthos

Thats how American trains work too. Its nice. And they don’t destroy your wheelchair as much too!

@yogthos Yeah, although the US has tried to make trains as unpleasant as flying, by forcing everyone to wait until the last second then herding them like cattle onto the train, etc.

@yogthos - A ton of good ol’ 🇺🇸American🇺🇸 ‘hateration’ in the comments 😆🤣😂😅…

@yogthos Unfortunately it isn’t always the best option. The train from Switzerland to Edinburgh takes 10x as long and costs double what a flight costs.

@yogthos

Author is T. Rains??

@yogthos @CarrieSDickson ”Believe it or not, dear reader, these fast moving hollow tubes…”

@yogthos 😂

@yogthos @jules any time I go to Europe I come back to the US pissed off at our infrastructure. And I live in Chicago which has, well had, a decent public transit system. Staff shortages and whatever else have decimated the CTA. Any time I have used Amtrak the train broke down and had several hours of delays. One time they had to borrow an engine from a freight company to tow the train to the next town in central Illinois.

@yogthos well sadly its not cheaper to travel by train in the uk.

@yogthos his nameis T. Rains, he had to.

@yogthos a few years ago I was going to a work conference from Philadelphia to DC. I told them I was going to go by train. They kept asking if I was sure I didn't want to fly down instead. Heck no! I love trains.

@yogthos exactly. What we need way more of. And at the way things are going, it will easily probably end up having to be new line for high speed passenger for the freight lines to not be jerks and clog everything up.

@yogthos
One wonders, how trains work in America

@yogthos gee whiz

@yogthos what if you show them the 1st class Paris-North <-> Cologne rides starting at even laess per route...