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Passengers
take their seats awaiting departure of the
high-speed French TGV train in Luxembourg.
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LUXEMBOURG — "Where
is the fast train to Paris?" I ask the man with the
suitcase.
"Right here," he
says, pointing to the nondescript train on the track.
I have no time to lose. I
hurry to the right coach. Lift my suitcase overhead to a
shelf. Sit down at 9:53 a.m. in assigned seat No. 43.
At exactly 9:54, the train
glides away with no announcements at all.
Two hours and 11 minutes
later, we're in Paris.
Europe's fast trains are
pure pleasure.
The confusing part for
Americans is figuring out the logistics of riding them.
How do you get a ticket,
and should you buy it in advance? What's the difference
between a fast train and a regular train? How do you find
the right station and track? Where do you stand on the
platform? How do you get your ticket punched?
Your ignorance stands out
because most people riding Europe's trains already know
the ropes.
But it's not hopeless.
Learn a few insider tricks, and you'll be good to go.
There basically are two
kinds of trains in Europe — regular and high-speed.
Confusingly, each country's
high-speed service is called by a different name.
The Belgians have Thalys
(pronounced TAL-is). The British have Eurostar. The French
have TGV . The Spanish have AVE, and so on.
All of them are very, very
fast. Most speed along at 300 kilometers (186 miles) per
hour — about 100 mph faster than poky U.S. trains.
I recommend buying tickets
for fast trains before leaving the United States. Why?
Most require reserved seats. They can sell out. And the
farther in advance you book, the better the price. (For
example, a first-class, one-way Thalys ticket from
Amsterdam to Brussels was $86 booked in advance and $180
if bought the day of travel.)
I purchased three tickets
through Rail Europe (www.raileurope.com)
a month before my trip: Thalys between Amsterdam and
Brussels ($86), the Belgian Railway intercity regular
train on to Luxembourg ($50), and TGV from Luxembourg to
Paris ($86).
All of the tickets worked.
Every train was on time.
On the Amsterdam-Brussels
Thalys train, there is a slight delay mid-route.
"We are now five
minutes behind," announces the conductor in Dutch,
French and English.
Oh, no! Five minutes! What
is European train travel coming to?
Not to worry. The train
speeds up and arrives on the dot into Brussels Midi
Station at 12:08 p.m.
This train also has
high-speed Internet and is brand new. In first class, a
porter gives out free pastries and tea.
My tea barely jiggles in
the cup. The rails are as smooth and flawless as a steel
roller-coaster track.
By 2010, 25 million
international travelers will ride Europe's high-speed
trains, according to Railteam, an alliance of Europe's
high-speed railways.
More countries link to the
system every year. New Thalys service soon will link
Cologne, Germany, with Amsterdam in 3 hours, 15 minutes.
High-speed trains can take you everywhere in France these
days. Even the Czech Republic and Hungary have gotten into
the act.
With billions in
transportation subsidies, Europe's train system simply
feels — and is — more substantial than America's
rickety Amtrak service.
Fortunately, the move for
high speed rail in the United States is growing, with the
Detroit-Chicago route a leading candidate for improvement.
In fact, a September report
by French railway operator SNCF — inventor of the TGV
train — projected that a high-speed Detroit-Chicago line
would move passengers between the two cities in 1 hour, 53
minutes.
That's 4 hours faster than
today, folks.
Wouldn't that be amazing?
It would be almost like ... Europe.
———
EUROPE'S FAST TRAINS
Here are fast train lines
and the countries they serve:
Thalys: Belgium, the
Netherlands, Germany, France
TGV: France, Luxembourg,
Switzerland
Eurostar: England, Belgium,
France
Lyria: Switzerland
Eurostar Italia: Italy
AVE (plus Alaris, Altaria,
Alvia): Spain
Artesia: France, Italy
ICE: Germany, Austria,
Switzerland, Belgium
Railjet: Austria, Hungary,
Germany
Supercity: Czech Republic
Cisalpino: Switzerland,
Italy, Germany
X2000: Sweden
VR: Finland (in 2010 will
connect with Russia)
For more on these lines and
for tickets, info and rail passes:
www.raileurope.com
www.eurail.com
www.railteam.eu
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