I also have found seat61.com (the man in seat 61) to be informative when helping myself and others to plan long distance journeys in and beyond Europe.

SNCF and DB have a lot to learn, never mind Railteam.

As for a single booking system, they quietly dropped that last year on grounds of cost and complexity, although it was one of their initial promises. Such a system is on the Commission’s radar, and would presumably cover all international services not just high-speed ones. But it’s not clear to what extent they can act in this field, since they’re not likely to set it up themselves. Airline CRSs already existed, and the Commission acted to ensure each one treated all services fairly, not favouring those of its owner airlines. Here there is very little by way of competition between services, so little by way of a competiton issue in respect of booking systems. So it may require a lot of carrots.

Of course it’s worth remembering that computerisation has made the rail ticket system much worse for international journeys. Not so long ago, one could purchase a rail ticket, and seat reservations, for pretty much any journey in western Europe from many stations or travel agents. Now, where that is still possible, one can generally only get the more expensive fares, with the cheap ones restricted to the system of the company concerned. And more often than not, it’s not possible.

two add-ons to your article:

Firstly, your criticism of the terrible international performance of Deutsche Bahn and the SNCF is also reflected in this (German) piece by Deutsche Welle radio: http://bit.ly/7EwJwC (unfortunately, since Germany passed a law against online storage of audio and video material, it will expire tomorrow)

Secondly, two journalists published a “black book” on Deutsche Bahn on Monday, claiming among others that the company employed cheap workers from Eastern Europe who were forced to work eleven hours a day, seven days a week for months. In some cases, they apparently only paid the workers 1,50 EUR per hour for their work. More info is here: http://bit.ly/4uZj93 (also in German).

On the FR-IT thing – the same has happened for the use of the LGV Est line towards Strasbourg and then on into Germany. SNCF and DB split things on those routes – SNCF runs the Stuttgart and München high speed services, while DB runs the ones to Frankfurt. Same looks like it might happen for Eurostar where DB might take a share in Eurostar rather than running competing services.

Quite frankly I don’t know what SNCF is worrying about so much. They have plenty of know how – why don’t they expand internationally, run in other markets, while accepting that nationally they are not going to be able to maintain 100% share?

I actually prefer taking the train to driving or to flying. But, as you note, the rail companies (and/or their governmental masters) do their best to make it as difficult as possible. SNCF, here in France, are said to be “really worried” about DB gaining competitive access to certain lines in France. But they’ve ensured that the competition from Italy will be nil – by entering into a “partnership” deal. Exactly what the EU hoped wouldn’t happen, Ho-ho.