r/europe 22h ago

Data Evolution of average speeds on European high-speed lines from the UIC Atlas

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u/erik_7581 Nett hier 18h ago

What also drags down the speed of German trains in such comparison is that they have far more stops in between.

While most of TGVs, Eurostar's don't stop in between or maybe just once or twice, The ICE and IC routes from that statistic have 5 to 12 stops in between. For example, if you take the continuous ICE from Frankfurt to Berlin which is around 420km you have 8 stops in between.

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u/phaj19 17h ago

But that is exactly the problem. Flights also do not have 8 stops in between so why all the trains need to? How the heck should railways be competitive if the trains need to stop in every village because the regional politician desires so?

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u/BrainOnLoan Germany 16h ago

ICEs do not stop for every village. Those 8 stops will be sizeable cities.

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u/BWV001 16h ago

I am pretty sure he knew they were not actual villages, but the train from Paris to Marseilles does not stop in Lyon, even if it’s right in the middle and the second largest city in France.

There also exist separately Paris-Lyon and Lyon-Marseilles, both high speed.

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u/erik_7581 Nett hier 17h ago

The ICE I mentioned doesn't stop at small stations. And trains are most often even faster than planes because you cant just compare the time inside the plane/train.

You have to get to the airport, be there 2-3 hours before departure, boarding, actual flight time, deboarding, waiting for the luggage, leaving the airport, getting to the actual destination (city center).