Recently I had to travel from Berlin to Salzburg – and after not living in Europe for some time now, I booked a flight, not really thinking about the distance, simply having the “vague feeling” that it is quite a distance and visiting a gateway site, scanning hundreds of connections.
After booking the flight – Berlin to Cologne/Duesseldorf, waiting for hours and connecting to Salzburg – I talked to a colleague, en passant mentioning the journey. He mentioned that the train journey is very convenient, which meant not least: very fast and direct …. — ooooooh what did I do? why did I torture myself this way? Actually I like travelling by train – and I frequently faced the problem that booking online, using for instance one of those “gateway sites” – scanning hundreds of connections – or when using a travel agency the options are limited, for instance combining flight- and rail-options (later I thought even flying from Berlin -Munich and going by train would habe been more convenient), not making non-locals aware of traveling by train being a feasible alternative etc. – there is also the point that we frequently hear others talking about “this one option”, then not considering that there may be other ways … .
- Perhaps a challenge for somebody who wants t0 develop a new APPS?
- Perhaps something for politicians that can push services to collaborate – in several cases even the cooperation between cross-border railway services is limited, data on prices,booking options are not available online …
- Perhaps something for politicians pushing “price setters” towards environmentally responsible anti-dumping considerations (n other words: not allowing airlines to undercut priced for train-journeys …
- Perhaps something we all can take on board, thinking not only on the big-data-solution offered on the web, but being more conscious and referring to the big-eceprience-option offered by out brain …
Much to do …, we all are challenged …
COMMEDIA DELLA VITA OR PÁNTA RÊI'S FIRM GROUND 