Berlin-Munich high-speed train services carry 2M passengers in first six months

Re:Berlin-Munich high-speed train services carry 2M passenge... by leifg on Sunday June 17, 2018 @07:06AM (#17331855)

Apart from the fact that being „paranoid“ or more general being afraid of something has no rational basis there are a couple of things that make me feel more comfortable going by train.

Even an inner german (or inner Schengen for that matter) flight has a lot more unknowns than a train:

1. public transport times are often a lot longer to airports. So you usually have to factor in more buffer. 2. what‘s the waiting time at luggage drop? 3. what‘s the wait at security? 4. how long do I need to go through security (I travel with lots of electronics which I usually have to take out)

If any of these things don‘t go as I expected my stress level increases because my calculated time buffer goes down. That‘s why I factor in an insane amout of time before boarding and usually end up hanging out at airports for hours.

For trains: The only unknown is the time that it takes me to get to the station. Every other time is practically zero.

And as someone else pointed out in this thread: the cost (in terms of money and time) for missing a train is a lot smaller.

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Re:Berlin-Munich high-speed train services carry 2M passenge... by harperlee on Sunday June 17, 2018 @07:37AM (#17331943)

I'll also add that flight prices fluctuate whereas train ones are fixed, which gives extra peace of mind when planning a trip.

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Re:Berlin-Munich high-speed train services carry 2M passenge... by chki on Sunday June 17, 2018 @08:05AM (#17332026)

That is actually not true, train prices (in Germany) are fluctuating based on demand as well. But you are not tracked individually and generally the prices are simply rising the closer the travel date gets. So the situation is better than with air travel.

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Re:Berlin-Munich high-speed train services carry 2M passenge... by step21 on Sunday June 17, 2018 @09:53AM (#17332363)

Except they don't fluctuate, there is just a certain amount of lower fares (going up in stages, the closer you get to the travel date and depending if all tickets of that category were booked already). This is know in advance, and the maximum price is always fixed. So quite different.

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Re:Berlin-Munich high-speed train services carry 2M passenge... by geezerjay on Sunday June 17, 2018 @10:46AM (#17332560)

> Except they don't fluctuate, there is just a certain amount of lower fares (going up in stages, the closer you get to the travel date and depending if all tickets of that category were booked already).

This isn't true, or at least that's not true in a general sense. IIRC ticket prices of all high-speed services offered by Spain's high-speed train operator, Renfe, increase as we get close to the travel day. In some cases, I assume due to low demand, sometimes prices drop a couple of weeks to the travel day. I assume all prices follow a predetermined progression accompanied by ad-hoc adjustments depending on demand levels.

Source: I've scraped price data out of Renfe's site for fun.

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Re:Berlin-Munich high-speed train services carry 2M passenge... by piva00 on Monday June 18, 2018 @07:45AM (#17337464)

But the parent comment explicitly mentioned that case, it's not fluctuation as it is implied to be quite predictable.

> there is just a certain amount of lower fares (going up in stages, the closer you get to the travel date...

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Re:Berlin-Munich high-speed train services carry 2M passenge... by harperlee on Sunday June 17, 2018 @10:18AM (#17332455)

Well I take almost every week the ICE from Frankfurt to Paris and it always costs the same: 125,40€. No matter how in advance, no matter the day I travel. Try that with a flight... Even if this is not true for all trips, for those that it is, it is another advantage.

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Re:Berlin-Munich high-speed train services carry 2M passenge... by taejo on Monday June 18, 2018 @05:20AM (#17336836)

I just searched for a random Thursday in August and found a ticket for 54,90 EUR.

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Re:Berlin-Munich high-speed train services carry 2M passenge... by harperlee on Monday June 18, 2018 @09:01AM (#17337871)

But the real question is: does a booking in that timeslot cost the same every Thursday, with a ficed price? Or does it fluctuate?

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Re:Berlin-Munich high-speed train services carry 2M passenge... by taejo on Tuesday June 19, 2018 @03:49AM (#17344544)

I don't understand how that's "the real question". It's a Sparpreis. They fluctuate. You can buy a full price ticket that doesn't fluctuate if you want to.

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Re:Berlin-Munich high-speed train services carry 2M passenge... by tauchunfall on Monday June 18, 2018 @05:46AM (#17336935)

>train prices (in Germany) are fluctuating based on demand as well

That's true for saving fares (Sparangebote). The train price for Flexpreis (an offer without a binding to a certain train) does not change that often.

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