They are still more expensive than planes and there are fewer connections available, often not everyday of the week or only during certain times of year. But my biggest issue is that train companies don’t work together internationally so that there are no “official” connecting trains. You basically need to book them separately and if one is late you are screwed…
Don’t get me wrong, I like night trains and I use them, but there is still a long way to go to make them competitive against planes.
As someone who traveled from Germany to Italy by train and had a delayed austrian train:
There is an agreement between most european rail companies, that the next company will update your ticket if your previous one was delayed.
And the italian train company updated our ticket to a later one, because the austrian train was delayed by an hour and it was all booked online with DB. (the german train company)
That‘s cool! I had the issue come up multiple times. Once booking a DB -> ÖBB night train through DB, which they didn’t “view” as one ticket although it was one purchase. Eventually (7 month after the trip) I got compensated for the DB ticket I had to buy, because I missed my night train. But there are also private night train providers like European Sleeper, where you can only book tickets through their website. I don’t think that DB cares about them.
When we missed our italian train, it was up to trenitalia to uphold the agreement.and move our ticket, not DB/ÖBB.
So I your case, ÖBB should have moved you to the next nighttrain (if it exists, I guess). We didn’t apply for compensation, so idk who would have to pay for what in that case.
They are still more expensive than planes and there are fewer connections available, often not everyday of the week or only during certain times of year. But my biggest issue is that train companies don’t work together internationally so that there are no “official” connecting trains. You basically need to book them separately and if one is late you are screwed…
Don’t get me wrong, I like night trains and I use them, but there is still a long way to go to make them competitive against planes.
As someone who traveled from Germany to Italy by train and had a delayed austrian train:
There is an agreement between most european rail companies, that the next company will update your ticket if your previous one was delayed.
And the italian train company updated our ticket to a later one, because the austrian train was delayed by an hour and it was all booked online with DB. (the german train company)
That‘s cool! I had the issue come up multiple times. Once booking a DB -> ÖBB night train through DB, which they didn’t “view” as one ticket although it was one purchase. Eventually (7 month after the trip) I got compensated for the DB ticket I had to buy, because I missed my night train. But there are also private night train providers like European Sleeper, where you can only book tickets through their website. I don’t think that DB cares about them.
Was that trip before 2017? The agreement was created on that year an only includes the public companies: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agreement_on_Journey_Continuation So DB doesn’t care about European Sleeper, because they’re not part of the agreement.
It was last year… Probably the person at the counter of DB just didn’t care. Thanks for the info!
When we missed our italian train, it was up to trenitalia to uphold the agreement.and move our ticket, not DB/ÖBB.
So I your case, ÖBB should have moved you to the next nighttrain (if it exists, I guess). We didn’t apply for compensation, so idk who would have to pay for what in that case.