Irish rail vs FS (Italian Rail)

Stephen15

Have been travelling around italy by rail for quite a while by contrast it makes Irish Rail look dreadful even with they're with new trains.

Reliabilty
Italian trains tend to be nearly always on time not as exact as the germans but generally good.

Trains
FS has far better rolling stock they're older intercity rolling stock seems to have got a lovely overhaul recently does ie realise it's not acceptable to run dmus on main intercity routes they are only fit for short haul services. emus and dmus are only starting to come to prominence lately on some regional lines but most regional trains are push pull operated.

Age
Trains and stations have got a lovely overhaul through eu funds and I have to say the newly renovated stations are much better than the new ones in ireland as they look they have a bit more of a built to last feel than the irish ones.

Security
All italian trains have a guard on board which should be the case in ireland but isint. No need for annoying ticket barriers in italian stations as you a 99 percent your ticket will be checked although you must validate your ticket unless you've a reservation. Stations and trains are very well policed by both police and private security who look more like police than private security rather than dressing like a clad in black thug.

Use of technology
Ticket inspectors don't need to punch your ticket as they can check your reservation on a tablet. Irish rail really need to adopt an everyone must a reservation policy on longer distance trains

Stations
While most italian stations are quite shabby apart the really big which have a lovely renovation job on event he bad don't come close to hell on earth aka limerick station I don't mind paying a small charge for toilets as long as they're clean. Ticket barriers are ok for mass transport systems but should not be acceptable for disembarking as it causes unessacary stress and this buisness of checking coming off trains is just plain and utter laziness you should be free to throw your ticket out once your journey is completed

testicles

This post has been deleted.

Stephen15

testicles wrote: »

You've obviously been on different Italian trains than I have. Trenitalia is the Italian railroad company by the way, FS is gone nearly 20 years.

FS is still the parent company of trenitalia. FS still owns the infustructure under another company name while trenitalia runs the trains. It's like saying db, be and ie aren't cie.

BeardySi

On my last trip to Italy only one of the trains we took was not "retardo", though in fairness we were using the more local trains and not the high speed services.

twohalfnines

FS was an Anorak's wet dream up until the late 1990's

E636 locomotives which dated back to the war draped in military green were popular hauling passenger and freight

devnull

To be fair it depends on mentality of people as well in the country as to what setups are used.

In Germany for instance there are no barriers anywhere, you can show tickets on your phone or on a sheet of paper or on your tablet and as soon as you walk out of a train you're hearing an announcement about connecting services in a lot of the main stations that are nice and clear. For more short journeys you buy a ticket and punch it on entrance to the platform.

That is before you start even taking about 14 car ICE formations running at 300km/h which have better standard class than most operators have for First Class. The ticket machines are leagues ahead as well as anything I have seen elsewhere and the standard of information is normally good with almost everything bilingual and the stations are huge, well laid out and make good use of space.

Although I noticed that DB are not the most punctual of operators, there are around the same amount of delays as Irish Rail if not a little more, and sometimes fares "feel" expensive because the trains are so fast, but the same length journey on IR may take 3 hours and for example on DB the same distance will take less than 1.5hrs. People link journey time with cost to some degree.

The ICE generally in Germany is more than just a train, it's a national icon of the country.

Stephen15

Oh and I forgot to mention their fares are far cheaper than the ones irish rail which is completely overpriced for a **** service.

Stephen15

Treadhead wrote: »

On my last trip to Italy only one of the trains we took was not "retardo", though in fairness we were using the more local trains and not the high speed services.

Delays can be bad on the regional trains but they are cheap and cheerful and still generally better than ie nicer trains in don't mind the lack of WiFi. I don't understand why ie have septic on board trains what a waste of money when passing directly on the tracks is perfectly acceptable imo.

tabbey

Italian trains are sometimes late, only Mussolini could make them run on time, but they are generally a pleasure to use, comfortable, spacious.

Whenever I was in Italy I usually had some sort of rambler or Inter Rail ticket. Buying a ticket or reservation was a nightmare in Milano Centrale, go to this window, no, that one, all the while watching the clock moving towards departure time.

Italian trains are cheap and frequent, with plenty of staff, but come at a high price to the exchequer.

BonkeyDonker

tabbey wrote: »

Italian trains are cheap and frequent, with plenty of staff, but come at a high price to the exchequer.

This is the key point - they have a better system, but pay a lot more for it.

Stephen15

BonkeyDonker wrote: »

This is the key point - they have a better system, but pay a lot more for it.

In a country tax evasion is rife I reckon it's something the eu is completely and totally funding these trains. Mind you in italy petrol is taxed to the shíts is not uncommon to see petrol prices above the €2 a litre mark.