thanks, sorry about that, I see now I have to “click accept” within the main article
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The trains simply cannot compete on price with the airlines. And price is what drives decisions for the vast majority of travellers. Prices on dense TGV routes to from Paris are somewhat higher than LCC pricing on routes of similar distances.
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which is the main idea behind the initiative
Highly subsidizing one or two trains while keeping more expensive trains on the same route doesn’t seem like a smart idea. The subsidized trains would become overcrowded.
Those expensive routes are used a lot by business travellers and I’m guessing they are just put on expenses. Nobody really ponders the cost of them at that level, I guess.
Lowly Joe going for a jolly to Geneva with the fam for the day just has to either pay up or not go.
So Robbing Peter to pay Paul is the solution?
I’m thinking about Zurich/Lausanne to Barcelona. It seems that one of the reasons for not reintroducing a direct train connection are the high prices for the usage of the tracks in France and Spain. I doubt that many business travellers would ever travel this route by train.
It depends on the country or countries of travel. Sometimes there are discounts for children (<15 YO), and seniors (60-65+ YO). Show me the airline that gives half-price for a 14 YO 
The direct train is expected to take around six hours which really isn’t much longer than your travel time except:
- No multiply-queuing experiences at the airport both ways.
- No liquid or other restrictions.
- No luggage restrictions.
- Good onward connections.
- No inclement weather restrictions.
- A more relaxing journey - you can walk around, go and get something to eat and so on.
- Much lower personal carbon footprint.
- You could work un-interrupted for six hours.
Given the choice, and as others have pointed out, if the cost difference isn’t too great then I’d take the train anytime over the plane for such a journey but maybe that’s just me.
I’d just add “no French air traffic controller strike”, a summer staple. But, oh wait…French railways strike. I guess it’s a tie.
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It’s all good till you hit the UK, then the wheels come off. I was in the UK a week ago, arriving by flight, but used the trains and buses to get about (both Intercity and regional services). Complete arse. Almost every train I took had some scheduling issue - either delayed or cancelled.
Travel to the UK is always going to be more efficient via air. Trains are nice if you have time on your hands, and the patience of a saint.
The famous “leaves on the line”?
You are comparing an actual door to door travel time including delays with a best case scenario from train station to train station.
I’d say that no flight delays is a best case scenario because every time I have flown recently has been subjected to delays resulting in missed connections and extra costs.
Without a breakdown of TinyK’s exact travel itinerary, I can only really say that the point about station-to-station is quite often not much less than end-point to end-point if you live, or are staying in or near either city which is quite often the case.
Unless you are taking a night-sleeper which has additional benefits over flying, with today’s technology, six hours is probably the maximum travel time where rail is comparable in time to flying.
Anyway, you’ve ignored all my other points regarding the benefits of rail over flying and just chosen the one where flying is, on some occasions, better but I’d expect nothing less here.
I doubt that a 6-hours trip by train is possible between Zurich an London.
You could have always read my post in the first place before replying.
The direct train is expected to take around six hours which really isn’t much longer than your travel time…
I can’t be more specific than that for a service which doesn’t yet exist.
From Eurostar:
The train journey from London to Zürich typically takes around 7 hours 25 minutes to 8½ hours, depending on the connection. Most routes involve:
- a Eurostar train from London St Pancras to Paris
- a transfer across Paris
- then a TGV Lyria high-speed train to Zürich
The fastest currently scheduled journeys are about 7h 55m, while average trips are roughly 8h 07m–8h 30m.
For those with reading-comprehension inadequacies, and for trolls:
A planned direct connection will enable travel times of six hours between Zurich and London, five and a half hours from Geneva and five hours from Basel, Swiss federal railways announced on Monday.
To be fair, it’s “planned” and only at the MoU stage, which is kind of irrelevant if we are comparing a train trip to London CURRENTLY vs via air from Zurich.
Nobody’s trolling, just offering different viewpoints based on lived experience.
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I’d say that no train delays in an international connection is a best case scenario. Happy to tell you about the many times I have experienced such delays. Reports of train delays are also not unknown to this forum.
I’m doing my best to focus the discussion around the most relevant aspects. Your other points are mostly valid and based on personal preference, so I have not much to add about them.
The Channel tunnel has limited capacity particularly at peak periods. While freight capacity is much lower than originally thought Eurostar and Le Shuttle Services are higher. Nobody’s talking about punching a couple more holes under the Channel.
Yes lots of capacity is available but not a peak periods which is when passengers want to travel.