YOUR OPINION: What's your ranking of continental European train operators and why?

[renegademaster]

through a long undersea tunnel, 800 or so passengers at a time along high speed lines, without Government subsidy.

How many 50 million big, well off and friendly countries are either side of a hard border. The best analogues would be the Singapore Malaysia and Hong Kong- Mainland PRC border services. Singapore and Malaysia have a relatively short and frequent line between eacother for connections onwards at either end.but Hong Kong has quite good service but the international trains don't run far into Hong Kong but instead terminate just inside, it a huge processing terminal with good metro links with the rest of Hong Kong.

 

[JonasB]

I'd strongly disagree on SJ. […] and the regional trains they run are generally pretty tatty with nasty 3+2 seating and can be extremely full.

You are of course entitled to your opinion, but SJ has no trains with 3+2 seating so you can't blame them for that

The people I'd nominate as worse than SJ are SJ Nord, whose dreadful efforts at train services are a stain on Norway. A single engine breakdown caused them to bus-replace the 10 hour Bodø to Trondheim and vv day services for 7 days in a row earlier in the month, and even then only managed to stagger back to a service with 2 trains and a bus section in the middle.

Good information is always needed, I agree with that. But what are they supposed to do when the loco that was supposed to haul the train isn't working?

 

[RT4038]

How many 50 million big, well off and friendly countries are either side of a hard border.

Not many, and that is exactly the point - E* does not bear comparison with anywhere else in Europe, for reasons almost entirely out of E* control. I suppose the USA and Canada have similarish border conditions. Very few International train services [nearly as many in a week that E* run in a day], which are slow and have relatively few passengers on those that do run.

The best analogues would be the Singapore Malaysia and Hong Kong- Mainland PRC border services. Singapore and Malaysia have a relatively short and frequent line between eacother for connections onwards at either end.but Hong Kong has quite good service but the international trains don't run far into Hong Kong but instead terminate just inside, it a huge processing terminal with good metro links with the rest of Hong Kong.

Yes, but they are not that similar to E*, using cramped historic City Centre terminals. Not sure I would want to trade the inconvenience to use huge suburban terminals/processing centres, for much more space while awaiting departure. Of course both Hong Kong and Singapore are final terminals, with no long distance connections to be made anywhere. However both Paris and London are awkward in that there is no central Hbf, and it is awkward to transfer between many of the lines, but that is hardly an E* failing. As said in post #25, the inadequacies of the infrastructure configuration is a political (funding) issue, which cannot really be resolved from the fare revenue of the train operators

 

[Gordon]

Switzerland has to be top of the list, but not specifically 'SBB'. Switzerland is IMHO unusual in respect of the thread title in that you really have to take the 'Swiss Travel System' as a whole rather than an individual operator. Integrated, multi-mode (everything from marked walking paths to water transport to high mountain top cable transport to high speed line trains is connected) and multi-company operation, frequently on or close to right time, taktfahrplan system with 3 - 6 minute official connections so no hanging around (and services frequent enough that even if they have to break an 'official' connection 'there'll be another one along in a minute'.
Add to that the 'route' fares system whereby (with a very small number of specialist exceptions) a normal ticket is valid for a route not a type of train or specific railway operator.

In Switzerland it matters not one jot what type of transport turns up to take you from A to B. For example on Zurich to Chur you can get on an SBB Intercity hauled train, SBB double deck semi-fast EMU, SOB Traverso EMU, DB ICE set etc to undertake the same journey. Even where trains have been replaced by buses, the buses line up right outside a station, or even adjacent to station platforms in some rural places.

If something untoward happens, 'the system will get you there', for example a while ago a cable railway to a mountain town was under repair and a replacement helicopter service was provided for residents. Following the recent flooding, the only links completely broken are those where the parallel road has also been washed away.