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One of the great pleasures of a recent trip to Europe was the quality of the trains services.
I caught several trains in Italy - across both commuter and long-distance routes - and the trains were on time, clean and efficient. And cheap.
At peak times they were close to being over-subscribed, but the quality of the service puts Australian trains to shame.
Australians, of course, always prefer to drive. Sad.
Spain - another country with an efficient train service - has announced it will soon make some short- and medium-length train journeys completely free.
The move comes into effect on September 1, allowing free rides on certain routes run by state-owned operator Renfe.
The free rides will be on regional lines for journeys of fewer than 300km, and on commuter lines.
Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez said it is a response to help alleviate the impact of the cost-of-living crisis, Travel Mole reported.
Spain has also reduced fares on other state-owned public transport by half.
HI Winsor - agree, the trains across are an excellent service, although must disagree on the term "free" - its simply the taxpayers are paying for the "free" trips. Also having a population of 300 million people the EU has the base to ensure rail services are well patronised (and petrol ot AUD$4 a litre certainly assists in a desire to use trains vs cars.
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