About a month ago I rode the Elipsos "tren-hotel" overnight train from Paris to Barcelona. I am writing to ask if anyone can tell me the route we used; I did see at one point that we passed through the station at Toulouse.
Let me say that this train ride was the smoothest I've ever experienced in decades of devoted riding. It was like floating over a glassy sea..., in other words, the opposite of the Lake Shore Limited between Cleveland and Buffalo.
This train had the best dining car, best food, best service one could want. It had the most sensible steps to help me drag my 60 year old body easily into the top bunk. Best of all, it was on time to the minute. My delight in riding this train (is it an all-room train?) is matched only by my chagrin at overnight train travel in this country.
Anyway, who can tell me more about this wonderful train and its sisters?
NKP guyAbout a month ago I rode the Elipsos "tren-hotel" overnight train from Paris to Barcelona. I am writing to ask if anyone can tell me the route we used; I did see at one point that we passed through the station at Toulouse.Let me say that this train ride was the smoothest I've ever experienced in decades of devoted riding. It was like floating over a glassy sea..., in other words, the opposite of the Lake Shore Limited between Cleveland and Buffalo.This train had the best dining car, best food, best service one could want. It had the most sensible steps to help me drag my 60 year old body easily into the top bunk. Best of all, it was on time to the minute. My delight in riding this train (is it an all-room train?) is matched only by my chagrin at overnight train travel in this country.Anyway, who can tell me more about this wonderful train and its sisters?
It should have been the Elipsos Tren-Hotel "Francisco de Goya" out of Paris Austerlitz station, thence via Orleans, Limoges, Toulouse, Perpignan, and into Spain at Port Bou. Through the gauge-changer, thence via Figueras, and Girona to Barcelona. The equipment is a mixture of Talgo 4 and 6 sleepers, sleeperettes (similar to Couchettes), and there should have been one coach. Power should have been a SNCF BB7200 to the Spanish border and then a RENFE S252 from there into Barcelona.
Elipsos Website
I am very much in your debt; I can't imagine a single thing to ask! You write with authority. But I sure as heck wish I had known about the guage-changer; where can I find good photos and info on how that happens, etc.? Thanks again for being a compendium of information!
Here is a link to a YouTube video of a RENFE S-130 Talgo trainset going through a gauge-changer from Iberian gauge to Standard-gauge.
Talgo Gauge-Changer Video
And this one also
Talgo Gauge-Changer2 Video
For trains using locomotives that cannot change gauges, the process is a bit slower as the cars are first pushed in and then pulled out but it works the same way.
I confess I am just amazed and incredulous at this technology. In my wildest dreams I couldn't have imagined it! It is awful to see these trains and this technology in daily use and action.....and then contemplate the state of passenger rail in this country. Even if we did have a guage-changer, you can bet it'd be out of service half the time ("Sorry, Ma'm, you'll have to walk to Chicago from here today."). I'm sending these clips to friends, and I sincerely thank you for your help.
But it is not just passenger rail!
RIDEWITHMEHENRY is the name for our almost monthly day of riding trains and transit in either the NYCity or Philadelphia areas including all commuter lines, Amtrak, subways, light rail and trolleys, bus and ferries when warranted. No fees, just let us know you want to join the ride and pay your fares. Ask to be on our email list or find us on FB as RIDEWITHMEHENRY (all caps) to get descriptions of each outing.
NKP guy I confess I am just amazed and incredulous at this technology. In my wildest dreams I couldn't have imagined it! It is awful to see these trains and this technology in daily use and action.....and then contemplate the state of passenger rail in this country. Even if we did have a guage-changer, you can bet it'd be out of service half the time ("Sorry, Ma'm, you'll have to walk to Chicago from here today."). I'm sending these clips to friends, and I sincerely thank you for your help.
We could have a passenger rail system similar to what they have in many European countries, as well as China and Japan, if we are willing to pay considerably higher taxes to support them. One of the reasons petrol costs so much more in Europe than in the United States is due to the tax burden. Some of these taxes are used to support passenger rail. In addition, general fund taxes (income, sales, excise, etc.) paid by Europeans are substantially higher than those paid by U.S. citizens.
The average U.S. direct tax burden, for example, is 25.4 per cent. This does not include pass through taxes, i.e. those paid by businesses and passed on to their customers in the price of goods and services. When these taxes are factored into the equation, the tax burden is between 38 and 42 per cent for a median income family. By comparison, the average French direct tax burden is 43.7 per cent. After accounting for pass through taxes, the tax burden for a median income French family is nearly 60 per cent of its income. The sources for these numbers is the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and The Tax Policy Institute.
Message to Sam1: OK.....tax me! I'd be glad to pay more taxes in order to get what Europeans do, namely, the first-class train service we all know they have and envy them for, a first-class health care system that they like and which delivers better, more efficient service than ours, a better social security net that isn't an insult to the jobless and some others, as ours is. Oh, did I mention the public parks, support for the arts, etc.? So, if increased taxes will get me all this then increase my taxes.
Why is it in America there is always money to fight unnecessary wars, to bail out the banks, or the S & L's, or some brokerage house, or to subsidize millionaires or rich agri-businesses......but never money for the items I mentioned above? Why is it whatever I want is "socialism" and will (OMG) raise taxes, but the other things are not to be questioned or ended?
When I was in Europe last month (riding trains, of course, among other things) I noticed that everywhere Europe is ready for the twenty-first century and the future. In the USA we are ready for 1965. So go ahead, raise my taxes and give me something for my money that I want and can use.
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