Originally Posted by
jilliusc
Traveling with our family of four this summer, and part of our journey from Munich to Berlin will be on CNL. We thought it would be a fun experience for our kids before it goes away. We have a Eurail Flex Pass, but it was cheaper to buy DB Sparpreis tickets than to book the sleeper supplement!
Sounds great!
Actually what you mention is to me part of the problem at hand: compared to booking a simple flight itinerary, booking trains can be ridiculously complicated, certainly for multi-country routings. Let alone the way how tickets are priced/can be booked is no match for air travel (unfortunately) on many international routes. The creation of high-speed rail and such ridiculous surcharges you mention for pass-holders (I'm positively surprised you looked into normal ticket deals! Not many people do!) are also to blane for the demise of international rail travel in (Western) Europe.
Quite sad, I have many great memories on trains! Falling asleep on a night train from Amsterdam to Warsaw, or dining on a great schnitzel paired with a Blauer Zweigelt in a restaurant car through the Austrian alps. Sure, it's still possible! But to pay the same price as a business class flight ticket for intra-European journeys??