[melx]

I don't travel for work by train but for fun, so my experience is probably different to yours.

Some EU countries (Greece, Poland, Portugal) still have terrible, slow trains. Paris-Berlin takes 8h (fastest one) for about 877 km. Berlin-Gdansk takes 8h for about 400 km (!!).

I last traveled by night train about 20 years ago throughout Germany and Poland. It was terrible experience. But great if I was looking for a companion to beer, or surprise sex with random folk.

Also night trains are non-existent in some countries. For example in the UK, most trains run from 6am onwards on week days. Forget if you need to travel from York and be in London for 8am. We have some night services[0] that go out of London to Scotland/Cornwall but I see them more like touristic offer than for any economic reason.

[0] https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/on-the-train/sleeper-trains/

[chroma]

Considering the size of the cities and how close they are, I'm surprised train transportation is so slow. Paris has 11 million people (comparable to Los Angeles). Berlin has 6 million people (comparable to Philadelphia). As the crow flies, they are 545 miles apart. By road the distance is 650 miles. Assuming you average 60mph, that's 11 hours by car. And when you get to your destination you have a car, so you can easily travel outside the main city. Using a car also means you don't have to worry about transportation to/from the train stations, nor do you have to do anything special to transport bulky items such as bicycles.

Some of my friends have greatly praised European trains, so I thought they'd be far more compelling.

[nicoburns]

Europe's train network is often excellent within a country, but lacking when it comes to crossing country borders. That's starting to be addressed now, but it will take some time for the effects to be seen.