European Railroad Discussion > Interesting commentary on European passenger trains on Trains.com

I enjoyed this commentary on European passenger trains in today's Trains magazine email. Particularly towards the end when he unloads on the Circumvesuviana railway that we covered here just over a month ago. He's not wrong but it was part of the adventure.

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/european-passenger-trains-can-dazzle-or-disappoint-analysis/?oly_enc_id=1450C4947023D4V

I last rode a train in Europe (mostly Italy, some in Germany and Austria) in 2007. Even then, most of the Italian trains I rode were rather nice, at least on the major routes. Already then you did not need a paper ticket, and if I recall that convenience came to Amtrak only several years later. Some of the local trains were not that great, but were certainly OK. I took trains from Rome to Florence several times, and they aready were truly high speed with very modern equipment.
Local train service around Rome was pretty good. I had an annual pass that cost me 250 Euro and was good for buses, streetcars, and some local trains within a certain range. That's quite a bargain. 
We had a car (a nice Ford Mondeo diesel), but in 5 years we only put about 25,000 km on it. I certainly miss the convenience of travel of those years.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/25 06:59 by colehour.

I rode Italian trains in 2005 (FS, no private trains yet).

The high speed trains linking Rome, Florence, Bologna, and Venice were nice. Comfortable seating, on-board dining car, etc.

I also took a train from Florence to Pisa. That train was ok, but not particulary fast, cars were older (reminded me a bit of Amtrak) and on-board services were provided by a pushcart.