So back in Russia a trip from my home town to Moscow on a plane takes about 6 hours in total.
- get to the airport about 1 hour in advance - about 1.5 hour drive
- The flight with all the procedures takes about 2 hours
- All the exit procedures can take up to 0.5 hours easily if no longer
- Wait for a train and ride to the city on the train - about 1 hour.
- Once in the city get on subway and ride to destination - usually 1 hours as well.
Compare it to the train, the fastest one is 14 hours:
- 0.5 hours to get to the trains station in the middle of my hometown. (or less than 0.5 hours if you live near by)
- 14 hours laying down on a relatively ok bed with clean sheets
- BOOM! you're in the middle of Moscow
No check-ins, luggage management, no nothing.
6pm you lay down on a bed, have a much, read a book, go to sleep and next morning you wake up at 7 am, do your morning rooting and at 8 am you're almost in the middle of the city.
I take this train over a plane any day. The only problem with that is that it twice or more as expensive compared to plane tickets.
When I was a wee lad, we used to go to St. Petersburg for several weeks every summer, and one of the things I was most excited for was the train rides from/to Moscow. It was quite fun, since it meant that I got to stay up somewhat late (we'd usually take the last train in the evening) and got to see all the sights of the railroad and whatnot. Early next morning, we'd be pulling into St. Petersburg, and it meant that I had the whole day left to do stuff.
I also remember that it was always a painless experience. My mother, who is usually rather anxious, never really worried about the train rides, whereas airplane trips now freak her out because of all the crap that surrounds them.
I miss that sort of access to train transport in the US. It just doesnt feel as good to travel by train in California as it did in Russia.
In this case, the trainride IS the vacation. You don't take the Trans-Siberian primarily to get from Moscow to Vladivostok / Beijing, but to check out everything else along the way.
I've taken the TransSib (or TransMongolian, in this case) from Ulaanbaatar to Moscow. It's pretty much 4 days, just short of 100 hours. No showers, and the restaurant car was so-so; I mostly ate nuts and snacks: the train would stop some 10 minutes or so at stations, and there were kiosks on the platform to stock up. You really need to take some good books or good friends.
- get to the airport about 1 hour in advance - about 1.5 hour drive - The flight with all the procedures takes about 2 hours - All the exit procedures can take up to 0.5 hours easily if no longer - Wait for a train and ride to the city on the train - about 1 hour. - Once in the city get on subway and ride to destination - usually 1 hours as well.
Compare it to the train, the fastest one is 14 hours:
- 0.5 hours to get to the trains station in the middle of my hometown. (or less than 0.5 hours if you live near by) - 14 hours laying down on a relatively ok bed with clean sheets - BOOM! you're in the middle of Moscow
No check-ins, luggage management, no nothing.
6pm you lay down on a bed, have a much, read a book, go to sleep and next morning you wake up at 7 am, do your morning rooting and at 8 am you're almost in the middle of the city.
I take this train over a plane any day. The only problem with that is that it twice or more as expensive compared to plane tickets.