Took a train from NYC to Chicago and it was so nice. Similar amount of time, about two days I think all in all. And just rolling on the plains, got myself a bunk, was more expensive than the plane ride home but 25 times more enjoyable and fulfilling.

Ditching my phone as much as possible has been the best decision I've ever made. Life always feels a little slower when you're not constantly inundated with outside noise.

I still pay attention, but instead of constantly paying attention and doing nothing, I pay attention a good amount, and do things instead.

Can only agree on that: took 5 ferries this summer from 5 to 18 hours, and it's almost always a very nice experience. You have to be ready for "rough" seas though, may be a problem for some. Even the wait time before getting on the ship can be a good time to chat with other travellers. And you see things you wouldn't see from land.

What you described reminds me that travel isn't just about the destination, it is the time in between

I've done a number of long distance walking holidays now. Weeks straight of walking every day. Pilgrims walk ~800km in ~6 weeks on the Camino de Santiago in Spain throughout the year. I've done shorter routes both in Spain and elsewhere. It's really a great way to switch off. Your whole life becomes the Way. How far do you have to walk? Where are you going to eat? Do you need to carry food? What's the weather looking like? Going back to being stationary afterwards is quite jarring actually.

As a sort of counter anecdote - we took a ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao once, it was also just over 2 days on the sea. But oh boy, I regularly take ferries from UK to Netherlands, but I've never seen sea as rough as this. We were pretty much stuck in the cabin, sea sick, for the entire two days. I decided to brave the neausea and attempt to go for some food, but in the main buffet plates were literally sliding off the tables.

On the way back we decided to drive through france and skip the ferry.

But yes, on the Newcastle to Amsterdam crossing my favourite thing is being completely cut off from the internet, can finally sit down with a book without the compulsive need to check my phone every 5 minutes.

This summer I did Paris to Istanbul by train, through Vienna and Bucharest, it was wonderful!

Prince Edward Island had a century-old plan that was finally executed in the 1990s to build a bridge to connect to mainland Canada (1).

This is the same debate that happens each time there’s a fixed connection to an island until the damn thing opens and people grow to love it.

It’s a pain in the arse to have to wait for the ferry, to sync your travel plans to ferry times, only to have to change plans again when the ferries break down.

(1) https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-isla...

> when the topic comes out it's as they're basically stuck in a time loop.

Fellow Italian here. The whole country is stuck in a time loop. Have you noticed that even the crime pages of the newspapers are filled with articles about investigations on murders of twenty or thirty or even forty years ago? And that on tv, people debate furiously terrorist acts that took place almost 50 years ago- when they also don't get updates from eternally ongoing investigations and trials? In politics, the same reforms that were proposed at the beginning of the '90s are brought up by each new government, generating new controversy and division, until they're forgotten or, sometimes, rolled back by Italy's supreme court. These days there's even a debate going on about the opportunity of introducing sexual education in schools for 6-8 graders, when I remember we had it already in the late '80s.

It's quite interesting for southern Italians to claim that a bridge will be detrimental to the ecology of the region, when in Sicily people routinely burn their trash on the street because the mafia controls the garbage disposal apparently.

2025. In Europe. They burn. Their trash. On the street.

Feels like no one really wants a solution

Sounds very similar to HS2 in the UK

Honest question. Is Sicily actually economically important enough for such an expensive mega bridge? To my mind it would make more sense to invest that money in Milan.

It was trains from Hamburg to Copenhagen used to run on the Fehmarn Ferry until the line was shut for reconstruction, they now run via Padborg.

The Snalltaget sleeper train from Berlin to Malmo used to run on the ferry from Sassnitz to Trelleborg avoiding Denmark altogether, that stopped because the ferries don't run on that route any more, and the train also runs via Padborg.

In the case of the Fehmarn belt it's an underwater bridge though.

> I doubt that they carry the engine across by ferry?

I don't know about this specific instance, but the Germany-Denmark train-on-a-ferry carried the whole Diesel-powered train, engine and all. It drove onto the ferry on its own, and left it on its own as well.

That would be much worse for passengers who can normally just sleep through the whole thing, it would take much longer to do the transfer, you'd need a larger and more complex ferry with bathrooms, seating, luggage storage, and more staff to deal with the guests, you'd need to deal with scheduling issues (what if you get to the other side and the train isn't there yet?).

I have taken this train and it would have been a nightmare to wake up everyone at like 3am, get them and all their stuff out and onto the ferry, and then do it all in reverse on the other side. It would add at least an hour to the trip if not more.

It will be by far the longest span of a suspension bridge at 3300 meter.

The current longest is in Turkey at 2023 meter.

Each of the pylons of the Messina Bridge will be around 400 meters tall. Which is taller than the Empire State Building.

The strait is too deep, with too much current and seismic activity to place the pylons in the water. So they have to be on the shore, as I understand it.

it's geologically and seismically challenging. The project is a single span for 3300 meters, which would make it one of the longest in the world of the kind.

The strong presence of organized crime in the area also makes a lot of people uneasy about the whole deal, but that's not a technical issue.

If you sort the list on Wikipedia by "main span length" rather than overall bridge length then the longest span is just over 2km?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_bridges

I don't really know but looking at a depth map at the narrowest part it's pretty deep at 200+ meters. At another section where it's wider it's about 100m. Not sure where they're planning to build it.

A tunnel would be massively easier to build, but there's strong political hubris and greed in keeping the original single-span bridge project from the early '60s.

Shortest summary I could quickly find:

> "...building a suspension bridge of this scale poses significant engineering challenges. The Strait of Messina is known for strong winds, seismic activity, and deep waters, all of which complicate construction and long-term stability. Engineers will need to ensure the structure can withstand earthquakes, which aren't unheard of in the region, while addressing corrosion from the salty marine environment."

-- https://www.iflscience.com/worlds-longest-suspension-bridge-...

I remember reading an article, posted here on HN, that went into much more depth about why this was all unusually challenging, but I haven't found it again.

There might have been occasions where a train ferry transported one of those train that carry cars onboard. I like that thought.

You board a train in Milan and wake up in Sicily without ever having to drag your luggage across terminals, onto buses, or through port checkpoints. Especially for night trains, that seamlessness adds a kind of magic

Passengers are more time-sensitive than freight. For a 20 minute ferry crossing, having everyone and their luggage disembark the train, go on a ferry, disembark the ferry and board a train would easily double the travel time of the crossing. It would also be far less convenient

Passengers have luggage, you don't need a second train on the other side.

They’re no more.

...

This is also a great way to randomly arrive in Siracusa wondering how did you end up there, in some sort of re-enactment of the last Indiana Jones movie.

Denmark had an unfortunate situation about 13 years ago, where the only rail bridge to the northern part of the country was hit by a ship, cutting rail network in two. Some trains where stuck in the north and had to be ferried to Sweden and the take the trip down from Gotenburg, via Malmö and then across the bridge to Copenhagen, because those trains where needed to maintain the service level.

Since then I've been wary of dismantling too much backup infrastructure. The rail tracks to the ferry terminal was still in place in this case, because they are listed as NATO infrastructure, still they where barely maintained.

It used be one between Denmark and Germany. Likely that one you are thinking about. Canceled due to the Fehmarn Belt bridge construction.

In 1989 I took the rail/ferry link traveling from Germany to Copenhagen (and back)... It's faster now, but not as "cool"

There's a bridge between Denmark and Sweden.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Øresund_Bridge

We just took the train to get from Berlin to Sicily for our holiday and will take it back on Sunday. There’s no one forcing you to take the train - there’s plenty of airports around here. But night trains are - at least for some - a great way to travel. You boards the train a 8pm in Milano, and by the time you had breakfast, you’re almost in Messina. Now, I wish that they’d refurbish the rolling stock and make the train run faster on the last legs, but that’s fundamentally a maintenance and upkeep issue. The technology is perfectly fine.

"These people" just dont have the same grindset as you sadly.

They will never know the joy of a 4am ice water facial followed by 21 hours of grinding before 3 hours of sleep before another 4am ice water facial.

As the article states, they’re planning to build a bridge. You can have an efficient option and a scenic/nostalgic option on the same route. This is just a bit of sentimentality about a cool train journey that might be replaced, not “anti-modernity sentiment.”

Is continuous hurry your ideal state of civilization?

You should read the whole article before claiming things.

> After the 2019 closure of the Puttgarden-Rødby service between Germany and Denmark and the seasonal Sassnitz-Trelleborg route linking Germany and Sweden in 2020, the Intercity is now the last one running. All the rest were replaced by bridges or tunnels, or proved too expensive to maintain as demand fell in favour of air travel.

The line you mention doesn't run anymore, and hasn't since 2019.