With Paris closed this vacation season for the Olympics, what could be more fun for a train-lover like me than riding Europe’s reliable high-speed trains across the rest of the continent?
Instead of enjoying spontaneous, easy travel, though, I’m getting an education.
It turns out, one reason high-speed rail “works” in Europe is that its customers will put up with inconvenience and uncertainty that Americans would never tolerate.
Germany’s Deutsche Bahn ICE — intercity express — trains seemed like a great place to start: The country has several cities a few hours away from each other, and a short ride from other European capitals as well.
And the Germans must apply their world-famous precision to DB, the largest global railway, no?
The German system, more than three decades old, rivals France’s high-speed lines for global status among railfans.
The first ICE trip I take — a two-hour jaunt from Brussels to Cologne — goes well enough, although not without an ominous sign: It’s 10 minutes late departing and a few minutes late arriving, with no explanation.
Continue reading the entire piece here at the New York Post
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Nicole Gelinas is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and contributing editor at City Journal. Follow her on Twitter here.
Photo by Javier Mostacero Carrera/Getty Images
