Definitely not having those individual bins which encroach on your leg room and have the bin smell under your nose, is something we get right over the Continent.
In Britain our fellow passengers tend to prefer leaving rubbish on the floor or on the table rather than looking for the few bins on the train. Whether that is better than having at seat bins is open to debate.
Portugal! Recently InterRail'ed there - getting on and off inter-city trains with a (modest-sized) suitcase and 70-year-old knees was a nightmare. Vestibule to platform a long way out and a long way down, narrow metal steps lethal in rain. Saving grace was helpfulness of other passengers.Where would that be?
Portugal Algarve, parts of FranceWhere would that be?
Being 70+ myself I wouldnt go there then. But I know of quite a few stations in the UK where it's the same. & the footbridges of course.
Frequency, mostly clock face timetabling, walk up still possible, staffing levels?
over multiple days.
A few things which the UK does really well: impartial retailing, care for passengers, and Delay Repay.
On the European mainland there have been plenty of cases where the incumbent has refused to sell tickets for an open access competitor (HKX in Germany, MTR Express in Sweden), or even for a 'friendly' neighbouring country TOC. In the UK, any operator will sell you any ticket at the same price.
Care for passengers is another thing the UK does better: if you're on a delayed service and you miss a subsequent connection for which you have an advance ticket, in the UK people will help you to complete your journey without any costs to you. On the continent, you're likely to be left to your own. "Sorry mate, you've got to buy a new ticket for that TGV."
On the European mainland there have been plenty of cases where the incumbent has refused to sell tickets for an open access competitor (HKX in Germany, MTR Express in Sweden), or even for a 'friendly' neighbouring country TOC. In the UK, any operator will sell you any ticket at the same price.
I appreciate the publication and posting of the all lines electronic UK timetable at Network Rail's website, which allows one to see the service and stopping patterns of all trains on that branch at a glance. By comparison, DB does not post this information on line in this format; you have to use their journey planner (which is not bad).
The UK timetable used to be accompanied by an excellent (mostly) geographical UK map. Fortunately, another member on this forum not too long ago updated this map, picking up where the older map left of. (I am not a fan of the cartographic style used by Project Mapping.)
Oddly, while DB does print paper network rail maps for purchase, they do not upload this map in a PDF format on their website; instead they break up their excellent rail map into awkward segments that are posted on line and viewable only one segment at a time.
I've not found similar all line electronic timetables for SNCF or for South Korea--which makes trip planning more of a chore.
I think the term, meaning something like 'validation' in French, might be compostage? The machine is called a composteur. Tickets which require this will probably be printed with 'Billet a composter avant l'acces au tren' - ticket to be validated before boarding the train.What is “composting” tickets? I did a search and came away thinking it meant decomposing tickets lol
Saperstein.
I've travelled extensively on the UK rail system and have rarely found access as challenging as in Portugal. I InterRailed two years ago in Netherlands, Germany and France, and didn't encounter comparable issues there - though of course my knees were two years younger then! But I wouldn't want to deter anyone (including the 70+) from European train travel, as I said fellow-travellers were helpful and it's a great experience overall!Being 70+ myself I wouldnt go there then. But I know of quite a few stations in the UK where it's the same. & the footbridges of course.
I appreciate the publication and posting of the all lines electronic UK timetable at Network Rail's website, which allows one to see the service and stopping patterns of all trains on that branch at a glance. By comparison, DB does not post this information on line in this format; you have to use their journey planner (which is not bad).
The UK timetable used to be accompanied by an excellent (mostly) geographical UK map. Fortunately, another member on this forum not too long ago updated this map, picking up where the older map left of. (I am not a fan of the cartographic style used by Project Mapping.)
Oddly, while DB does print paper network rail maps for purchase, they do not upload this map in a PDF format on their website; instead they break up their excellent rail map into awkward segments that are posted on line and viewable only one segment at a time.
I've not found similar all line electronic timetables for SNCF or for South Korea--which makes trip planning more of a chore.
And websites such as Realtime Trains, OpenTrainTimes and Traksy. I'd love to have that much open data in the Netherlands.We have JourneyCheck. Most other operators in Europe are nowhere near as transparent and would die pa rather than use something as transparent as JC
The NS has at least quite decent data (right down to the unit numbers) available for passenger trains (used on sites like https://treinposities.nl/ and apps like "NL Train Navigator").And websites such as Realtime Trains, OpenTrainTimes and Traksy. I'd love to have that much open data in the Netherlands.
Duisburg Hbf [...] slightly neglected.
Definitely frequency. It amazes many people (and me on occasion) how infrequent some services in wider Europe can be. Frequent services are something that are taken very much for granted in the UK.
The NS has at least quite decent data (right down to the unit numbers) available for passenger trains (used on sites like https://treinposities.nl/ and apps like "NL Train Navigator").
Sure, it makes more sense to use them in countries with limited electrification. But they are a great way to use limited electrification as much as possible and I wish they would spread to other countries as well.