LIn August, I took a train from Trieste to Ljubljana, following the route once used by the Orient Express. Along the way, we admire the Adriatic coast, discover the Prosecco station, built in 1857 and now abandoned, and witness the changing geography as the train climbs towards Villa Opicina on the Italian-Slovenian border. I felt it. Crossing the border into Slovenia now means little more than a crew change.
I had Federica Manzon’s novel Alma, set in Trieste and the former Yugoslavia, which explores the strong and complex connections in a region frozen by the Cold War and disrupted by the Balkan Wars. . As the train entered Slovenia, I thought about the common history and geography of two places that have been separated for decades.
The trip cost around 12 euros and took just over two and a half hours. It was not a high-speed train, but a small Austrian train with a few cars, and we had to bring our own food (a good opportunity to have a picnic while eating Trieste’s delicious food). Still, I was happy. This applies to many train trips around Europe. This is becoming more and more popular not just for leisure purposes, but as a way to rediscover space and history in a less stressful, less polluting and more convenient way.
Trains can take you to places you would normally pass by. Between Barcelona and London I enjoyed Nimes. The tree-lined avenue leading from the station provides a model for a welcoming arrival experience, rediscovering Paul Valéry’s overlooked seaside town of Sète. It has now been renovated for bicycles and pedestrians. While exploring Switzerland’s near-perfect railway network, I stumbled upon one of the best outdoor swimming spots I’ve ever been to. A public pool on the shores of Lake Thun, just 1 stop from Bern. Over the past few months, I have enjoyed smooth train journeys from Brussels to Berlin, with delays of just a few minutes, in contrast to the frequent complaints of delays by German passengers.
For certain trips in Europe, flying doesn’t save you time when you factor in security lines and delays. And with reducing emissions from air and road transport an ongoing challenge, traveling by rail is clearly far more sustainable. As a mode of transportation, trains have the lightest carbon footprint. The report says that for medium distances, using trains instead of cars can reduce carbon emissions by around 80%, and using trains instead of domestic flights can reduce emissions by 86%. Hannah Ritchie, climate and data researcher.
In 2023, the last year for which complete data are available, Europe’s railways have recovered from the effects of the pandemic and become popular again, with passenger kilometers totaling 429 billion (429 billion passenger kilometers multiplied by the number of rail passengers multiplied by kilometers traveled). A record was recorded. Around 8 billion rail journeys were made within the EU, with the biggest year-on-year increases being in Croatia, Luxembourg, Ireland, Spain, Italy and Slovenia.
As rail lines continue to expand, rail passenger numbers are expected to reach a record high in 2025. The new year brings new connections between Paris and Berlin, Barcelona and Toulouse, Amsterdam and London, Budapest and Kiev, according to Mark Smith, the man on seat 61, perhaps Europe’s best source of train news. . Mr Smith is a former British Rail employee and provides the most reliable information on connections, timetables, trains and routes from the Buckinghamshire village. This reflects the lack of a comprehensive and integrated platform for rail travel in Europe.
As Smith says, traveling by train in mainland Europe, even from the UK, is a much more practical option than most people imagine. But finding it can be frustratingly difficult. Exceptions such as the Austrian rail app ÖBB Scotty show what is possible, but there is still much work to be done.
Competition has also led to lower fares on some routes, particularly in Spain, Sweden, Austria and France. The UK remains an outlier, with rail fares among the highest in Europe and services often unreliable. Continental travel from the UK costs extra on Eurostar and will become even more expensive and time-consuming post-Brexit.
Cross-border rail connections remain slower than they should be, and cooperation between countries is fraught with disputes. For example, the governments of Spain and France blame each other for delays on the Madrid-Paris line.
The European Commission is investing billions of euros in expanding high-speed rail connections and aims to double high-speed rail use by the end of the century. A new, more integrated European rail transport system is planned to phase out the current patchwork of national rail transport systems. However, connections with local trains have often been neglected in favor of high-speed rail. It needs to be improved.
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Affordability must also be addressed if rail is to compete with low-cost, often subsidized air travel. Services need to be more competitive, not just in price, but also for families. Swiss railways, for example, strive to welcome children with colorful, spacious carriages, which are rare in other countries.
The government must also continue to invest in basic infrastructure, with support from EU funds, to prevent system obsolescence. Track maintenance may not be as glamorous to politicians as opening high-speed rail, but as underfunded systems like Britain’s have painfully shown, it is the backbone of reliable services.
If you love trains as much as I do, there’s a lot to look forward to. We can’t wait for the Frecciarossa project to connect Milan and Ljubljana, a high-speed project involving Trenitalia and Slovenian Railways. Still, I have no intention of stopping in Trieste.
