Regional vs Express Trains: Speed, Cost & Scenery

Two Different Experiences on the Same Rail Network

European rail networks are not monolithic. Every major rail country operates at least two distinct layers of service: the fast express trains that dominate the timetable for intercity journeys and receive the marketing budgets, and the regional trains that serve as the capillary network connecting smaller towns, villages, and rural areas to the wider system. Choosing between them is not always obvious, and sometimes — for reasons of cost, scenery, flexibility, or simple connectivity — the slower train is genuinely the better choice.

Speed: The Most Obvious Difference

Regional trains — called RE (Regionalexpress) or RB (Regionalbahn) in Germany, TER in France, Regionale in Italy, Cercanías in Spain, or regional equivalents across Europe — typically travel at 80 to 130 km/h on older mixed-use track that is shared with freight trains and operates with signalling systems designed for lower speeds. They stop at every station along their route, which might mean 8 to 20 intermediate stops on a 120-km corridor. The cumulative effect of these stops — decelerating, waiting, accelerating — adds significant time even to short distances.

High-speed and express intercity trains travel at 200 to 320 km/h on dedicated infrastructure, stopping only at major population centres. The speed difference is dramatic: not marginal but a multiple. Frankfurt to Koblenz takes around 1h30 on a regional train; a non-stop ICE covers equivalent distance in 40 minutes. Munich to Augsburg — only 58 km — takes 28 minutes by regional S-Bahn versus 13 minutes by ICE when a direct service runs.

For any journey over 150 km between major cities served by both train types, the express is almost always faster by a margin that renders the regional option impractical unless cost or scenery specifically justifies the choice.

Cost: The Regional Advantage Is Real and Substantial

Germany's Deutschlandticket — at €58 per month since its price adjustment — includes all regional trains (RE, RB, S-Bahn, U-Bahn, trams, and buses) across the entire country. ICE, IC, and EC long-distance express trains require a separate ticket. For Deutschlandticket holders, every regional journey is effectively free at the margin of cost. The same Munich to Nuremberg journey that costs €49 on a flexible ICE fare costs nothing extra on the regional train taking 2h30 versus 1h08 by ICE. For many journeys of 50 to 150 km, the 60 to 90 minutes of additional travel time is simply not worth €40 in savings — particularly for leisure travellers without time pressure.

On Eurail and Interrail passes, regional trains are universally included without reservation fees in all 33 countries covered. High-speed trains on the same routes require mandatory paid reservations of €6 to €35. A pass holder making a 5-train trip through France would pay €0 extra on regional trains versus potentially €80 in TGV reservation fees — a saving that significantly changes the pass economics. See our Eurail pass guide for how reservation fees affect pass value on different route types.

Scenery: The Case for Going Slow

One of the most underappreciated advantages of regional trains is their routing philosophy. High-speed lines are designed to minimise journey time by cutting through mountains in tunnels, bypassing river bends via elevated viaducts, and routing away from population centres to allow higher speeds. The result is functionally efficient but scenically impoverished — you spend much of a TGV journey in tunnels or on elevated concrete structures far from interesting landscape.

Regional trains follow the older, pre-HSR routes along valley floors, beside rivers, through village centres, and across terrain that the high-speed engineers wanted to avoid. The Rhine Gorge between Koblenz and Bingen — a UNESCO World Heritage Site of medieval castles, vineyards, and dramatic river scenery — is served by the regional Rhine left-bank and right-bank lines. The ICE bypasses this gorge entirely through a newer alignment. The Black Forest, the Mosel Valley, the Austrian Alpine foothills: these landscapes exist only on regional routes, inaccessible to passengers who take only the fast trains.

For travel where the journey itself is part of the experience — photography, scenery appreciation, relaxed rural exploration — regional trains frequently deliver a superior experience that no express train can replicate, regardless of comfort tier.

Flexibility: Open Boarding Changes the Travel Experience

Regional trains across most of Europe operate on a pure open-boarding basis: purchase a ticket or show a pass, walk to the platform, board any train. No seat reservation exists or is required. This means you can change plans without penalty — miss one train and catch the next, decide at the last minute to stop in a village, or simply take the first departure without planning your journey in advance.

High-speed trains increasingly require or strongly encourage advance reservations, and on some services a reservation is mandatory. The administrative discipline of booking ICE or TGV seats in advance is not onerous for planned travel, but it is a constraint. Regional trains remove this constraint entirely.

Practical Sweet Spots for Regional Trains

• Day trips from major cities to smaller towns: Regional trains excel for reaching destinations within 50 to 120 km. The Bamberg day trip from Nuremberg (54 minutes regional), Heidelberg from Frankfurt (via Mannheim, regional connection), or Chartres from Paris (80 minutes on TER) are natural regional train territory with no express alternative needed.
• Budget travel with Deutschlandticket or pass: The cost advantage is too large to ignore for flexible travellers.
• Scenic and leisurely travel: Any time the landscape between A and B is worth seeing, verify whether a regional route offers superior views to the express alignment.
• Smaller destinations without express service: Many attractive towns and most villages have no express rail service at all. Regional trains are the only rail option, period.

The express train wins decisively on speed for major city pairs over 150 km. The regional train wins on cost for pass holders and Deutschlandticket users, on booking flexibility, and often substantially on scenic value. Both have essential roles in a well-planned European rail itinerary.

Cross-Country Regional Train Highlights

Beyond Germany, several regional rail routes across Europe deserve specific mention for the experiences they offer that no express train can replicate. France's TER network includes the Ligne des Cévennes from Paris to Clermont-Ferrand and down through the Massif Central — a route of extraordinary geological drama that no TGV touches. The Côte d'Azur coastal route between Nice and Ventimiglia in Italy runs literally metres from the Mediterranean, with views of sea, yachts, and ochre clifftops that no motorway approach can match.

In Switzerland — where even regional trains are punctual, clean, and comfortable — the Voralpen-Express connecting St Gallen and Luzern traverses rolling pre-Alpine countryside on a route that the country's main intercity axis bypasses entirely. Austria's Semmeringbahn — the world's first mountain railway and a UNESCO World Heritage Site — is operated by regional services between Vienna and Graz; the high-speed Railjet takes a different, faster routing through tunnels. To see the Semmering viaducts and mountain landscapes, the regional train is the only option.

Building at least one deliberate regional train journey into any extended European rail itinerary is not compromising on quality — it is accessing a layer of the continent that the high-speed network was specifically designed to bypass.