The European Union for Transport and the Environment ranked European train companies – see how VR fared | News in brief

The report shows where the best and worst train traffic is. The best train connections can be found in Italy and Switzerland. Finnish VR did well in comparison.

The British Eurostar is the worst railway company in Europe, according to the European Union for Transport and the Environment from the report.

The association ranked 27 European train companies. Both national and private railway companies participated.

Criteria were, for example, ticket prices, discounts for special groups, punctuality of schedules, compensation in case of problems, bicycle policy and passenger experiences.

It turned out that only 11 of the 27 companies stayed on schedule most of the time, i.e. 80 percent of the time.

One of the most imprecise train companies in Europe is the German Deutsche Bahn.

Based on customer experience, the best train companies were the Italian Trenitalia, the Swiss SBB and the Czech Regio Jet.

The worst customer scores went to Ouigo, the low-cost train company of the French national railway company, the private Greek train company Hellenic Train and Eurostar, which operates high-speed trains between London and Paris, among others.

Eurostar was particularly criticized for its high prices. The company charges almost double the price compared to the European average on comparable routes, the report shows.

Finnish VR ranked ninth in the list.

The total score of VR was 6.4, while the maximum score was ten.

VR got the best score (8.3) for the passenger experience. The worst score (4.8) for the possibility to transport a bicycle on the train.

VR received six points for punctuality of schedules. That is more than the corresponding score of many other European railway companies.

There are still many problems with train travel

The authors of the report point out that train travel causes less climate-warming carbon dioxide emissions than air or car travel. However, many Europeans still choose an airplane or a car as their means of transportation.

Rail transport expert and main author of the report Victor Thévenet estimates that people would like to travel more often by train, but many do not choose the train because of the price or the inaccuracy of the schedules.

According to the authors of the report, the results show that all railway companies have room for improvement. The authors encouraged governments to help train companies improve services.

For example, Thévenet believes that Italy and Switzerland scored highly because both countries have made significant investments in their rail infrastructure.

Europe has an extensive rail network, but passengers are often frustrated when traveling between countries due to a fragmented ticketing system.

European Commission has suggested ten ways to improve train traffic. One of the proposals is to simplify the ticketing system.

See below Sunna Kokkonen’s tips for traveling overland, who lived in Central Europe for six years.