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Report on cost of rail travel in various European countries

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Oscar

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Those of you who read German or French may be interested to read a report just published by a Swiss public transport association comparing the cost of rail travel in Switzerland, France, Germany, Britain, the Netherlands and Italy. It looks at journeys of different lengths and different kinds (urban, intercity, from city to the countryside, regular journeys), the flexibility of the ticketing systems (in some countries separate tickets are needed for different categories of train), possibilities to save (for example using Advance-type tickets) and the value for money (comparing ticket prices with indicators quality of the rail system such as the density of the network, average speeds and punctuality). It concludes that Switzerland provides particularly good value for money when quality and purchasing power are taken into account. Unsurprisingly, the UK is presented as the most expensive and the worst value for money for peak-time tickets and commuting, but the country offering the most dynamic / commercially agressive pricing with the greatest savings available for booking in advance.

The full report is available in German here, a shorter version in French ('brochure') here. A graphic representation of key price comparison data adjusted for purchasing power is available here (German) / here (French).
 
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duesselmartin

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interesting, the UK is inflexible. That is its main problem. Also the French sounds like its to suit the company and not the costumer.
 

30907

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interesting, the UK is inflexible. That is its main problem. Also the French sounds like its to suit the company and not the costumer.
Looking just at the summary, "flexible" seems to be used to mean "a range of tariffs" - in contrast to simple standard fares which were the norm in mainland Europe.
 

yorksrob

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The powers that be need to realise that a couple of twenty pound gimmick returns on selected journeys do not make up for an overall lack of flexibility and poor value for money.
 

duesselmartin

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Its the competion with low cost air, or3the perceived competion that destroys it.
Also low cost trains like Flix plunder the high demand routes.
SNCF and RENFE oddly wants a cheap TGV to compete too. This totally splinters the market.
 
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