Quantonium
Traveller
2 comments
Posted 14 years ago
Hey! I'm gonna do an interrail travel to Nice, from Norway. I've planned my route, but I was wondering about a thing.. Are trains usually on time? For example, if my train from Copenhagen to Köln is delayed by 45 minutes, I'm pretty much stuck in Köln for a while.. So, is this just part of the package when you do longdistance train traveling?
~Mads
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
Hi Mads!
Trains in central and western Europe are usually on time - I've been travelling a lot already through Europe by train and had only a very few connections lost due to delays. And I found alternatives each time to get to where I wanted - especially with the flexibility of the InterRail pass that isnt much of a problem.
Two examples:
Night train Berlin - Paris Est was delayed about half an hour. We had reservations for the TGV from Paris Nord to Calais for the ferry to Dover. And there was only 30 minutes connection time...so we ran from Gare de l'Est to Gare du Nord (only some minutes apart) but we lost the train. However, there was a slower train running to Calais as well just some minutes later so we got on it and eventually got to Calais - about two hours later but we still got a ferry and arrived at our destination in Surrey south of London.
Four of us were travelling from Amsterdam to Kopenhagen - two of us wanted to continue to Stockholm. There train ferry to Denmark was late so they missed their train to Stockholm. As it was the last train of the day they would have been stuck in Kopenhagen but they were offered by the train company either a free cabin in the night train or a free hotel night in Kopenhagen.
Of course delays can happen and especially during a longer trip. But then again you will find alternative connections - railway staff is friendly in my experiences, they will help. Oh, and one example from my last travel:
Granada - Barcelona - Latour de Carol - Perpignan - Paris - Frankfurt - Hamburg within 48 hours - no delays, everything went nice and smooth. :)
Have a nice trip!
Flo 8)
Quantonium
Traveller
2 comments
Thanks for the informative answer! Good to know that trains usually are on time. I'm looking forward to going there with train. I was actually going to fly there, but considering the latest development in the Islandic volcano ashes, I thought to myself Why not train?. I'm sure it will be a great experience.
Thanks
Mads
Flo
Traveller
10724 comments
No problem, you're welcome. If you need any other hints just let us know. I'm sure your travel will be great experience!