I object to the creation of a general rail forum where all rail related questions are posted.

If the Forum gods want to create something more specific such as "UK Rail" questions sorta like the Amtrak Forum, or a EuroRail forum (Non specific to a country) then by all means.

But I don't think a new general rail forum needs to exists in the format presented:
It appears to be a UK - Europe Rail issue than it is more of a US/Asia rail issue for flyertalk.

If one wanted to make things easier then a proposed:
"UK/Europe Rail Travel (Non City/Country Specific)" or rahter InterEurope Rail Travel Forum.

ie don't put Paris Metro Questions there if there is already a Paris Travel forum, or London Tube questions there because a London Travel section exists.

I do not think US Commuter Rail needs a forum of its own, I do not think there is a demand or a need for it at the moment. Amtrak Guest Rewards couldprobably move over.

If there is a "WORLD" rail section then a notion of (Excluding Japan, China etc etc whatever needed) where rail travel questions could be directed into those appropriate travel forums.

But I do not think a WORLD section should exist, if someone did have a rail question I think they can find an appropriate travel forum to put it in. India, Russia, Austrailia, a general Western/Eastern Europe Travel section pretty much a travel section exists for almost every continent on flyertalk.

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The fundamental problem with this idea is there are not a bunch of rail threads for any given country; and every country/region is different.

The rail questions righfully beong in the regions.

My 2 farthings....

I also strongly object to a generalized rail forum. For example, in my country, named "Canada" we have one major railline named "VIA Rail" and it's used by millions of people across our pretty big country. Did you know that Canada is really big? Very big. Bigger than the United States. Of course, the top half doesn't really much of anything except for moss, rocks, seals, tundra, and water but that's not the point. Our current forum, namely "Air Canada Aeroplan" is littered here and there with VIA threads. I find these threads useful but a real pain in the butt to search for each time I have a question (rather than starting ANOTHER thread on VIA). In addition, there are very knowledgeable and experience VIA rail travellers that have alot of SPECIFIC and DETAILED information and help to offer others. Thus VIA deserves its own forum.

Thats fine; lets see if this motion passes; if so, then feel free to propose a Canadian rail forum. Personally I have no interest in this forum, I am merely going on suggestions and input from fellow members like yourself.

You recognise that there are rail-specific questions being posted in the wrong place ("littered" in the AC forum), but you don't want a rail-specific forum however you would support a country-specific rail forum? Sorry, I just don't get that. A generalised rail forum would make searching (if it were needed at all) much easier. That's the whole point: all that wonderful knowledge in one obvious place.

Some rail questions will be specific to operator and route - ticketing, times, seating, fares, stations etc. Some will be as part of a country enquiry - whether rail services exist in a specific country, how they might offer alternative to air travel in that place etc. The latter still sit logically in the destinations fora, while the former belong in a dedicated rail travel forum. If we can choose daily whether a thread is Mileage Run, UA MP, Star Alliance or TravelBuzz then we can choose as above with relative ease, IMHO.

As a regular reader of FT (I read a lot more than I post), I have used a number of the rail threads. I am currently using the threads on the shinkansen, JNR, and other rail lines I have found in the Japan forum. Even though I am a big fan of rail as a method of transportation, I agree with some of the others who are against a generic rail forum. I think that the general place for rail threads is in the country/regional forums.

For Canada, the appropriate place would be the Canada forum, not the AC forum. At least, that is where I looked for VIA info.

For the various British rail systems, the UK and Ireland forum, or if it is strictly London-based such as Tube, DLR, etc., Hex, the London forum.

The only trans-border trains that really cross between forums as well as countries is the Eurostar. Perhaps a sticky residing in London, UK, Paris, and the Europe folders could route people to one of those four fora for all Eurostar. [four fora for -- did I really right that?]

I assume that most people would look in Russia for the Trans-Siberian (even though you might use it to go to China/Mongolia and for trains which cross from Eastern Europe into Russia.

North American commuter railroads are almost always associated with a major city which would be located within one of the regional forums

I just think a generic rail forum would result in a lot of clutter and would mean that I need to go to yet another forum to find out about Japan, Canada, etc. I also think you would end up with confusion when people created posts which did not include a country in their posts, but only refer to a rail company by names such as VIA, JCR, DB, GNER, etc.

As with all posts, this is just my opinion and YMMV.

But that assumes the only people interested in rail travel are those visiting other countries. The majority of UK posters asking about UK rail travel are already in the UK.
If I want to fly a US airline, I don't visit the USA forum, I go to the Airlines section. And where would I ask about Amtrak?

Not at all. I also visit the forum about my home area all the time for tips about what is happening in my area. I can understand why you might not want to wade through the six millionth question about London hotels to find out about local trains, although you still might have to wade through six million threads about Tube vs. HEX.

That said, I think the UK posters are probably an exception here. Based on what I am reading in the Japan forum, I think most people posting queries about rail are not Japanese citizens/residents, although I am grateful that some of the responders are. This is also true of the VIA posts I have read.

I think this ties back to the basic concept that FT began and continues to have its primary focus on airline points and miles. It has branched out to cover other things which provide points and miles, such as hotels and Amtrak. I suppose one could put a forum for UK systems which provide points, and then you could add one for VIA Pr�f�rence or put it together with Amtrak. The question is then becomes where do you draw the line.

I've seen many, many threads on Eurostar in so many different forums; London, UK & Ireland, Paris, Europe, Travelbuzz, bmi, BA and Other European Frequent Flyer Programs, to name just a few - that it can be quite confusing for new members to FT to know even where to begin.

I would support the idea of a European Rail forum for such questions rather than having them posted across such a broad range of forums. Thalys is another cross-border train service which has also appeared in many different forums on many occasions.

A European Rail forum would be the perfect place for questions on these two international rail services and their individual frequent traveller programmes. German rail is another popular topic and can also be intergrated into such a forum.

With regard to UK rail travel and its complexity, a separate UK Rail sub-forum in the European Rail forum might be a good idea, otherwise just leave it where it is now - in the bmi forum.

I think much of the problem is where the people who are able to offer advice are.

If I have a query about something Australian then I really want to be asking a bunch of Australians. Where better to look that the QF forum?

I'm a Brit. I look at the BA and bmi forums. I really can't see myself looking at a European rail forum. I'm well able and happy to contribute to UK rail discussions - but why would I look in a European forum? To me it will just be cluttered with queries about domestic Spanish/French/German/etc trains, or trains from Bosnia to Bulgaria, which I know little about.

It would be even worse with a world forum.

People don't want to know where to ask questions - they want to know where to get anserws.

What about Eurostar?

It seems to me that rail travel is somewhat similar to cruise travel. While there are region specific cruises (Rhine, Mississippi River, Carribean, Mediterrean), there is a overall Cruise forum.

On 13 August 2006, the TalkBoard did not pass the following motion:

Moved by ScottC and seconded by wharvey:

recommend the creation of a new "sub forum" called "Rail Travel" which contains boards for European Rail Travel, World Rail Travel, Amtrak Guest Rewards and US commuter rail travel.

Voting for: attorney28, ScottC, Spiff, wharvey

Voting against: Cholula, doc, gleff, missydarlin, ozstamps

For those interested, I voted against this motion because I thought that it was pretty clearly overdoing it -- a 'world rail' forum for train travel outside both the US and Europe seemed destined to fail, and a non-Amtrak US commuter rail forum seemed a bit unlikely to generate sufficient traffic to be useful as well.

I'm honestly not sure how a rail forum would work out, it might or might not, but (3) new rail forums was more than I was willing to support.

Obviously disappointed, since the lack of such boards continue to make additional work for those of us in a position to answer rail travel questions, so you continue to rely on our good will to find them and respond to them in the various different boards they get posted to. OTOH, I'm not really that surprised, as it always seems more difficult to get anything passed which is not of appeal to large numbers of US based posters.

OTOOH (that third hand does come in useful ), and I console myself with this thought, our make-do solution of continuing to use the BD forum for UK rail enquiries has been better publicised, so maybe that will help?

Thanks to gleff for explaining why he voted against. I might not agree, but I appreciate he has thought about it.