Hi!

[whole diary]

[bobg]

Hi all!
I've been reading these forums for a few months, and thought it was about time I contributed!
I used to travel regularly on FGW^▸ (First Great Western) trains, from Hereford to/Reading, as well as from Hereford to/from Portsmouth.
I'm currently living in Austria, and have previously lived in Germany too, and I have had quite a few experiences of European Railways!
Cheers
bobg

[johoare]

Welcome to the Coffee shop bobg 

[JayMac]

Welcome......As you have probably read, services on the Cotswold line from Hereford get quite a bit of coverage here! How does it compare to your European journeys? 

[ReWind]

Greetings.

[bobg]

I've never really had any major problems when travelling on the Cotswold Line, nor had issues finding a seat as far as I can remember. HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) are much more comfortable for travelling on compared with the Turbos, and I found the Adelantes OK, apart from perhaps the lack of luggage space.

On my journeys across Germany and Austria, I thought that the trains were comfortable with a lot more leg room, even on Regional services, than trains in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom). Except when travelling on very busy trains, when I had to sit in corridors or vestibules (When you look up trains on the bahn.de or bahn.at website, they usually recommend reservations on such services)

There was a definite difference between travelling on an ICE or RailJet, and the Inter- and Euro-City Trains compared with the Regional Trains, but in Germany at least, there is a difference in price. It's not that cheap to travel across Germany, but you do travel on very quick, tidy comfortable trains (most of the time).

Obviously problems occur on any railway system, but in my opinion, the communication from DB^» (Deutsche Bahn - German State Railway - about) or the ^BB is far better than anything I have received in the UK, and the train staff seem to try to help with connections, etc!

Sorry for the long post!