What are your favourite and least favourite trains in other countries?

[DanTrain]

Too cramped, horrible seats, not aligned with windows. I hate these trains and avoid them at all costs, even if it takes me 3 or 4 more time to travel with a classic train, TER or otherwise.

Cramped, claustrophobic, dingy and poor window alignment even in 1st. The ICE is how to do a high speed train.

Oh ok, I found them quiet (except for the vestibule door which kept opening), fast and confortable, although I've only used TGV réseaux.

 

[SHD]

Oh ok, I found them quiet (except for the vestibule door which kept opening), fast and confortable, although I've only used TGV réseaux.

Regarding seats and carpets; it all boils down to personal preferences - I find ICE seats, despite the leather covering, to be woefully uncomfortable, roughly equivalent to a wooden bench, and I am very fond of the soft comfort of TGV seats, especially 1st class Duplex and Atlantique trainsets.

The ride comfort on ICE - especially ICE3s and Velaros - is objectively inferior to TGVs (suspension damping, horizontal bodyshell movements, and noise).

Obviously there are also objective drawbacks and faults with TGVs - e.g. from a passenger standpoint: access is difficult at certain times with only one door per trailer, luggage space is insufficient, etc.

But looking at qualities and faults from a higher perspective than passenger experience, it is certainly not preposterous to consider TGVs as classic high-speed trains (remember that Patrick and Sophie - TGV Sud Est trainsets 1 and 2 - are still in revenue service, although they are more than 40 years old) and remarkable pieces of engineering.

 

[duesselmartin]

Too cramped, horrible seats, not aligned with windows. I hate these trains and avoid them at all costs, even if it takes me 3 or 4 more time to travel with a classic train, TER or otherwise.

My impression is that German seats are generally harder than French. Not just ICE vs TGV, but even in cars.

 

[404250]

Much prefer TGV/Thalys/original Eurostar to the new Eurostar. Haven't used ICE but presume they're similar to the new Eurostar to travel in?

 

[dazzler]

My favourite trains outside the UK?

SNCF Corail stock, both day and couchette stock. (I would support any motion for this stock to be made mandatory on all railways worldwide!!)
SNCF Petit Train Jaune (La Tour De Carol - Villefranche/Vernet les Bains) - Rickety 3rd rail electric, what's not to like?
Chemin de fer de Provence - back in the mid 1980s was basically a motorised conservatory on wheels, excellent fun.
DB Silberlinge regional stock - I've travelled on this stock in the 1980s and 1990s, very comfortable.
DB IC (Loco hauled) also very comfy.
RhB/MGB/ZB/MOB - Basically anything that involves Swiss Narrow Gauge.

There are probably more, I will update when (if!) I remember!

 

[duesselmartin]

Much prefer TGV/Thalys/original Eurostar to the new Eurostar. Haven't used ICE but presume they're similar to the new Eurostar to travel in?

Yes you can certainly tell that ICE and the new Eurostar are of the Velaro family. Seats are different.
The TGV family has a smoother ride in my opinion.

 

[DanTrain]

SNCF Petit Train Jaune (La Tour De Carol - Villefranche/Vernet les Bains) - Rickety 3rd rail electric, what's not to like?

Never ridden it but it did look very cute when I saw it! Although reviews say it’s packed in summer and freezing in winter...

 

[Bletchleyite]

Much prefer TGV/Thalys/original Eurostar to the new Eurostar. Haven't used ICE but presume they're similar to the new Eurostar to travel in?

No, not at all. The new Eurostar interior is very, very poorly designed indeed - yet another bad thing from a very bad company. The ICE is super-classy and comfortable as well as spacious. Think glass, wood (actual wood, not wood effect), chrome and premium Grammer seating (not even the IC3000, even better ones) as well as indirect lighting which nicely builds on the overall classiness.

The one thing that isn't 100% is window alignment, which is a shame but with windows much bigger than TGVs it's less of an issue.

ICE 1st

ICE 2nd

 

[SHD]

German bums must have been designed by a different Almighty, I see no other explanation!

 

[tasky]

I don't really understand why people don't like the new Eurostar interior - I'm a regular user and I quite like it. The only thing I don't like is the TV screens pumping adverts at you

The ICE interior is great though. Sad that UK TOCs can't seem to manage anything like DB can - compare the wood and glass to the grey and green plastic of the GWR Class 800s

 

[Bletchleyite]

I don't really understand why people don't like the new Eurostar interior - I'm a regular user and I quite like it. The only thing I don't like is the TV screens pumping adverts at you

The seats aren't bad, but it's cheap, plasticky, the lighting is too bright, the window alignment poor, and the stupid "fancy" tables take up legroom.

 

[tasky]

The seats aren't bad, but it's cheap, plasticky, the lighting is too bright, the window alignment poor, and the stupid "fancy" tables take up legroom.

The lighting is too bright actually, you're right about that

 

[cactustwirly]

I don't really understand why people don't like the new Eurostar interior - I'm a regular user and I quite like it. The only thing I don't like is the TV screens pumping adverts at you

The ICE interior is great though. Sad that UK TOCs can't seem to manage anything like DB can - compare the wood and glass to the grey and green plastic of the GWR Class 800s

The ex GC HSTs that have been refurbished by EMT, have nice wood effect panels at the end of the coaches, and on the tables.
Shame they didn't change the carpet or the fabric panels on the walls!

 

[AlexNL]

Window alignment on the Eurostar e320 can be pretty poor, in both classes.

My personal favourites:
- LNER HST
- NS ICM
- NS FLIRT3

Least favourites:
- DB BR 42x S-Bahn/regional EMUs. Perfectly adequate for the services they work on, but very spartan.
- DSB "Dosto" coaches: while they're the same ones as used by DB Regio, somehow they felt very drab and dingy on the inside
- NS DD-AR: tired looking, cramped, garish interior

 

[anme]

I don't really understand why people don't like the new Eurostar interior - I'm a regular user and I quite like it. The only thing I don't like is the TV screens pumping adverts at you

I've come to the conclusion that people here will never like anything Eurostar do. They seem to expect the Orient Express for the price of a single to Stockport (from Manchester). I think they would be happier flying.

I regularly use the Eurostar and I also like the new trains. I like spaciousness and the high seats which give the impression of private space and make the train seem empty, even when it's full. The mis-alignment of the seats is a pity but the same is true of almost every long distance train the UK.

 

[notverydeep]

My candidate for the best looking High Speed Train is the JR500 series of West Japan Railways https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/500_Series_Shinkansen. Unfortunately after these, the designers clearly asked the computer for just a bit more aerodynamic efficiency and came up with the JR700: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/700_Series_Shinkansen - a train that looks like a duck. Japan railway were very proud of the JR500s and when I visited in 1999/2000 and Tokyo station had a platform extension specifically so that travelers could take photographs of the train (or 'selfies' with the train behind).

Eurostar on the other hand clearly employed someone to make sure that under no circumstances would there be any practical opportunity to take any kind of photos of the trains at their stations, whether rail enthusiast of tourist!

Strangely both 500 and 700 series trains are well on the way to disappearing from service after an even shorter life than the Eurostar class 373 TGV derivatives.

 

[duesselmartin]

At the risk of making myself unpopular, I also like the Corsican and Provence CP AMG units.

A dislike to Germany's ET 1440 as they are used on the NRW S -Bahn System, simply because they are unsuitable for that type of working.
Seat configuration is poor, not enough doors which operate slowly.
The S-Bahn System is in many places not usuable for the disabled with no improvement in sight.

 

[bahnause]

As a passenger:

• SBB Apm (Panoramic coaches) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SBB_IC_Panoramawagen_Olten.JPG
• DB ICE 1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICE_1
• SBB IC2000 (Double deck train) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICE_1

As a driver:

• SBB RABDe500 (ICN tilting train) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SBB-CFF-FFS_RABDe_500
• SBB RABe511 (Stadler KISS, awful thing in the rain though) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadler_KISS
• SBB Re460 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SBB-CFF-FFS_Re_460
• DB ICE-T (a long time ago...) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICE_T

 

[superalbs]

The PKP EN57 is an absolutely cursed EMU, especially the original ones without any heavy refurbishment.

I hope to never have to use one again, absolutely awful.

Here is a photo of the 'lovely' thing in action:


By the way, they're nicknamed 'Toilet', so if you thought Voyagers had a bad smell, you're in for a shock using these vile things.

I was on a bone-shaker EMU in Poland once (Katowice-Krakow EN57) which was worse than any Pacer.
Long 30km/h speed restrictions on shocking infrastructure too.

That was my journey on them too. The seats are just a piece of cloth over some metal and what I presume is cotton wool or something. Apparently some of them have plastic seats.

 

[F Great Eastern]

That's a refurbished one, although there are various levels of refurbishment,

The better ones have had an external and full internal refurbishment complete with new panels replacing the old wooden style ones, new lights, LED information displays inside and out, new seats, removed internal doors instead of those tiny sections, a full relivery and new external light clusters and front design and new windows and some even have Wifi!

This is the highest spec ones, recently refurbished, called the EN57ALC, operating for various parts of PolRegio.


However the following are more common:
- The medium refurbished ones that have had new seats, new lights, a relivery and a cheap full PIS.
- The lightly refurbished ones with new seats, new external lights and and an external PIS.
- The barely touched ones that had their old seats re-covered and a small LED display on the front.

If you fancy sampling many different micro fleets of them, go to the tricity area and take a few SKM trains between Gdansk-Gdynia-Sopot - when I was there last there was about 6 different standards of refurbishment of the EN57/EN71, from the good, the bad to the ugly and the downright wrecks that should have been turned to razor blades long ago.

These are the two most common interiors, prior to any kind of refurbishment



If you want more variety still, take a couple of PolRegio trains between the train stations and you'll see even more different versions which have a lot of 'character' as someone wisely put it.

 

[Spoorslag '70]

These Polish "things" look pretty similair to the classic NMBS/SNCB EMUs (up to 1975) on the inside. The Belgian ones have "3+2"(more like 2+1) bench seating, which is quite a change from the usual seats on local trains in the BeNeLux and Germany.

 

[superalbs]

Plastic seats. Great.

I had three rides:

Firstly I had a short journey on a SKM Trójmiasto unit, which had the seats same shape as the plastic ones, but with fabric over them, and a little padding too. It looked like this.

Secondly was the heavily refurbished one you posted. It was quite nice, and I actually enjoyed my five minute ride.

Finally, it was the one pictured above. The interior was like this:

This was by far the least comfortable journey on them, I went numb before we even set off!

Thankfully in the SKM Trójmiasto, my second journey was on one of the fantastic Newag Impuls units, as pictured below. They had level floor access, and a fantastic interior. Plus they look pretty cool too.

 

[F Great Eastern]

Thankfully in the SKM Trójmiasto, my second journey was on one of the fantastic Newag Impuls units, as pictured below. They had level floor access, and a fantastic interior. Plus they look pretty cool too.

Unfortunately they only have the two of them which were delivered in 2016 and they are always coupled together. Also PKP has a habit of borrowing them for special services or when they are short on units, so they've spent chunks of time doing different work entirely.

In comparison there are over 50 EN57 or EN71 on SKM Tricity duties and there must be at least half a dozen of different levels of refurbishment if not more as you may well have noticed.

 

[superalbs]

Unfortunately they only have the two of them which were delivered in 2016 and they are always coupled together. Also PKP has a habit of borrowing them for special services or when they are short on units, so they've spent chunks of time doing different work entirely.

In comparison there are over 50 EN57 or EN71 on SKM Tricity duties and there must be at least half a dozen of different levels of refurbishment if not more as you may well have noticed.

I hadn't realised the fleet was so small! Apparently they want to expand to ten units?

But I certainly saw a lot of types of EN57/EN71, different fronts, interiors, etc.