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Austria’s trains take over short-haul flight route

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Austria’s trains take over short-haul flight route
Posted by rdamon on Monday, July 6, 2020 1:38 PM

 

"Austrian Airlines will cease operating its Vienna-Salzburg route, the flag-carrier announced on Thursday (2 July). Instead, the service will be replaced by more direct trains in an effort to honour the terms of the government’s recent bailout deal."

 

https://www.euractiv.com/section/railways/news/austrias-trains-take-over-short-haul-flight-route/

 

 

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Posted by 54light15 on Monday, July 6, 2020 3:06 PM

I've never understood why anyone would fly within Europe with the train system over there. But if I was offered a flight in say, a Supermarine Spitfire that's a different case. My parents, sisters and their respective families flew from The U.S. to Scotland for my niece's graduation at St. Andrews in 2004 and then flew to Italy. I went by train the entire way. My mother said, "My time is valuable." I said, "So is mine, that's why I'm taking the train." Once I got to Italy on a hilltop in Tuscany outside of Florence, I was bored out of my skull in about 30 minutes and the next day took an overnight train to Munich where all was well with a litre of Hofbrauhaus Munich Helles in my hand. 

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Posted by 54light15 on Monday, July 6, 2020 3:07 PM

deleted, duplicate post 

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Posted by rdamon on Monday, July 6, 2020 3:57 PM
When you are getting on/off an international flight it is much easier not to leave the airport.
 
When I went to Spain I found it much cheaper to fly into Madrid and then take a flight to Barcelona instead of going direct to BCN from the US.  The way the flight times worked it would have been about the same time to take a train from MAD to BCN, but not having to lug the bag around to change trains ended up being a lot easier.
The air and rail fares were almost identical for the MAD-BCN segment.
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Posted by Backshop on Monday, July 6, 2020 4:02 PM

When our cruise ship broke down in Barcelona last summer, we flew to our original destination of Rome. We considered the train (for about 2 seconds) but because of the geography, the plane made the most sense.

PS--The Vienna to Salzberg driving distance is only185 miles, so the train does make sense.

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Posted by 54light15 on Tuesday, July 7, 2020 8:49 AM

Fly into Frankfurt and the train is right there at the airport, that makes the most sense to me. I don't know if this is still in effect but years ago a friend had tickets through to a small town in Switzerland. He flew into Zurich, got on a train and didn't see his luggage until he got to his final destination. It was the same on his return. 

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Posted by MidlandMike on Tuesday, July 7, 2020 10:07 PM

54light15

Fly into Frankfurt and the train is right there at the airport, that makes the most sense to me. I don't know if this is still in effect but years ago a friend had tickets through to a small town in Switzerland. He flew into Zurich, got on a train and didn't see his luggage until he got to his final destination. It was the same on his return. 

 

I had that option 4 years ago when I flew into Zurich and took the train to Zermatt.  The arrangements had to be made in advance, and I think the luggage migh not be delivered to your hotel for maybe a day, so I did not use that option.

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