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Old Dec 19, 2008, 8:46 am
  #61  
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Originally Posted by lin821
If history serves as any indication, not every TBer is expressive in the public TB Forum. Not sure if this TB will be any different though.

The motion is yet to come.
Sorry, just back from a week in Jamaica (where the former railroad is now a hiking/cultural trail) so I'm just catching up on this issue.

Given how important European rail is to TRAVEL and how passionate people are about it I'm generally in favor of giving this a shot. I've used European rail extensively (from a Eurail pass during college 15 years ago to a recent Eurostar Chunnel crossing) and I agree that the distances, complexity and population densities in Europe make European rail a unique thing, different than rail in any other region of the world. However, unlike Amtrak there is no loyalty program to hang its presence on FT on.

Even so, overall I tend to think it's worth giving it a go, unless I can be convinced otherwise.
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Old Dec 19, 2008, 8:49 am
  #62  
 
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Originally Posted by kokonutz
However, unlike Amtrak there is no loyalty program to hang its presence on FT on.
QED - we need the forum to teach kokonutz about all the loyalty programmes.
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Old Dec 19, 2008, 8:59 am
  #63  
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Originally Posted by SmilingBoy
QED - we need the forum to teach kokonutz about all the loyalty programmes.
No single loyalty program?
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Old Dec 19, 2008, 9:09 am
  #64  
 
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Originally Posted by kokonutz
No single loyalty program?
www.railteam.eu - one alliance at least!
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Old Dec 19, 2008, 9:19 am
  #65  
 
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Originally Posted by Jenbel
Well yes - but 3 out of 9 of our elected representatives is not exactly a great showing either
Well, what can I say? It's been a slow holiday season.

At least we just flushed koko out!

Originally Posted by kokonutz
No single loyalty program?
Don't you know Europeans are more "complicated" than Americans?
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Old Dec 19, 2008, 3:00 pm
  #66  
 
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I would like to see a Train forum on here - and not solely for Europe. I crossed the US by train a few years ago and it remains one of my travel highlights. Please proceed with the creation of a forum to discuss worldwide train travel.
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Old Dec 19, 2008, 3:07 pm
  #67  
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Originally Posted by Alsacienne
I crossed the US by train a few years ago and it remains one of my travel highlights.
we already have an AMTRAK forum, you better had looked there please have it for europe as the main reason why I asked for this forum is cross-border-traffic which makes it difficult to find a place.

Venice-Munich-Paris travel ... would that fit in europe forum? Italy forum? Germany forum or France forum? Eurostar from London to Brussels? would that be UK & Ireland forum, France forum, Europe forum? ....
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Old Dec 19, 2008, 3:58 pm
  #68  
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At the very least, it would be hugely useful to have a sticky about how to buy tickets online for the various European train systems. A European train forum would be the logical place for this, but even if there isn't one, there should still be such a sticky.

As a regular poster to the Japan forum, I should note that I too would recommend that the Japan forum doesn't need a separate forum or subforum for train travel since it's just one country. The situation is entirely different in Europe as numerous previous posters have pointed out.
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Old Dec 19, 2008, 6:08 pm
  #69  
 
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Please create a forum.

Having traveled on ČD, DB, Öbb, SBB, UZ, RZD, ŽSR, TCDD, BDZ, MÁV, ŽSR and UKRail, I can say that policies are very different, tickets from point A to point B don't cost the same as point B to point A. In some places time also matters, and having a dedicated forum for this would be quite helpful.

Last edited by Palal; Dec 19, 2008 at 6:30 pm
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Old Dec 19, 2008, 6:08 pm
  #70  
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Originally Posted by RichardInSF
At the very least, it would be hugely useful to have a sticky about how to buy tickets online for the various European train systems.
And if you're lucky enough to attend one of the OP's (chrissxb) Tour de France DO's, he'll send you detailed instructions. Plus e-mail you a picture of the ticket validator machine and visually show you which end of the ticket goes in what part of the machine. And he'll most likely even mail you the tickets he bought for you online at a very nice discount.

It's especially informative/helpful for those of us lame-o's who are not familiar with the European rail system.

All others could certainly benefit from a forum with the ability to display graphics.
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Old Dec 19, 2008, 6:22 pm
  #71  
 
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Lightbulb

Sounds good. How about a VIA Canadian Rail forum as well--or include it in the Amtrak forum?

BTW, Via Preference points will soon be usable on the French SNCF! Details R2B announced in mid-January!
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Old Dec 19, 2008, 10:40 pm
  #72  
 
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+1 interested in the creation of such a forum.

(Long-distance European rail O&D cities I have known: London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt, Munich.)
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Old Dec 19, 2008, 10:55 pm
  #73  
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Another FTer in support of the forum.

I'll leave the details of where to put it to be sorted out by others and the TB (though as someone who enjoys train travel, I would not be opposed to a specific Rail Travel forum as proposed by AZ Travels the World ), but regardless, it would be tremendously useful. I recently traveled by TGV and TER in France, and a place to unravel the mysteries of booking tickets (especially from the U.S. while bypassing that silly raileurope.com site) would have been most welcome (fortunately, I found some great Web sites and blog posts that helped, but it was scary venturing off FT! ). Yes, I know I could have posted it in the France forum, but I wasn't sure if it would have been a welcome post there--on reflection, it probably would have been, but still, having a place to discuss just trains without cluttering up the discussions on French wines in the France forum would be nice!
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Old Dec 20, 2008, 2:19 am
  #74  
 
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As a regular poster on various European forums I must say I'm in two minds about the idea.

On the plus side it would be good to have all European rail travel threads in one place.

On the minus side a rail-only forum would take traffic away from the Europe forum and the various country forums.

I don't have strong views either way, but think that perhaps the effect on existing forums needs to be considered before a final decision is made.
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Old Dec 20, 2008, 3:12 am
  #75  
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Originally Posted by Aviatrix
but think that perhaps the effect on existing forums needs to be considered before a final decision is made.
as moderator in most of the forums you mentionned, I think that would bring additional value and traffic. the rail forum could generate threads in the destination forums as well as existing threads like the Bahn thread in the Germany forum can be moved. finding a thread, knowing where to search - this will help alot of FTer
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