Originally Posted by
soitgoes
That being said, second class is not bad, though the IC trains are of very variable quality, while the ICE trains are pretty uniformly nice. Some IC and RE trains have air conditioning (even in second class), it depends on the train itself. RE trains are functional trains, often serving commuters. They are not always staffed with a conductor.
My personal favourite is the "quiet section" in ICE 1st class. What a pleasure to travel with the at-seat service and no mobile terror!
But on the RE trains 1st is also nice as they tend to get fairly crowded elsewhere. On some scenic routes the upstairs view (1st class is mostly upstairs on the REs) is really enjoyable.
And as I do travel quite a lot with them when in Europe, you have conductors on all RE trains. But due to their workload they sometimes prefer to stay in their train office, IMHO.