Traveling Second-Class in Europe

1907

What It Means to Ride Second Class on the Railroads

A delusion of the guidebooks is the advice to ride second class on the railroads of Europe. It is often pointed out that first class and second class are frequently but divisions of the same car, and this makes a great impression on the inexperienced traveler, particularly if his purse is limited.

Lauding at Plymouth, Southampton, Havre, Cherbourg, Liverpool, you are at once conveyed to London or Paris on "steamer trains," under the same excellent conditions that have prevailed on your trip, but thereafter you are at your own resources, and if you are wise you will not only travel first class, but you will see to it that your seat is always engaged well ahead.

If you travel second class between cities that correspond to New York and Philadelphia, say where intercourse is frequent and numerous, you will most likely have to stand up in all second class compartments. To get a second class seat between Vienna and Budapest, for example, is about like boarding a train for Coney Island at Brooklyn bridge on a summer Sunday afternoon, and if you do get a seat somebody else sandwiches and sausages on your lap.

Another point to be remembered is that in Europe you cannot engage a whole sleeping compartment for yourself, as you can here. You have to show a ticket for each berth. Therefore it behooves the person traveling alone at night to seek out before arranging the trip some suitable companion or for parties of three or five or any odd number to make similar provisions. — Travel Magazine.