Ok, apart from the biased article, the price (that sometimes is a bit more for trains than flights) isn’t as much of a problem as the mix and match of railway systems across europe which makes it awfully difficult to get from here to there fast and without a lot of changing trains. Each change is a risk of being late once your train is delayed and then your whole journey is off.

For the love of God, I really tried to find a train connection to Pula from Munich. I really tried. Even thought going through Italy, and taking a ferry from Venice. But it would have required changing trains 6 times or so and would have taken approx. 24 hours, whilst being indeed more expensive - as far as I could tell, since I cannot buy all the tickets at one place. I still feel horrible but I ended up flying there. If I was by myself I would have taken on the trip with the changes. Or considered a coach although all my experiences with coaches sucked so hard. But with a one year old it was just not feasible.

Adam Something has a great video on why trains in Europe are… Not as simple.