Just wish they’d make these things a bit more affordable. Taking the train to Paris or London with my family is literally twice the price of flying and god knows how many times driving. I’d much rather take the train.
That, and reliability and schedules.
If I want/need to to arrive at a certain time, having to add an hour because their schedule doesn’t match my schedule, and then two hours because their schedules usually doesn’t match reality (especially since Deutsche Bahn is involved here), means the 30 minutes doesn’t help much.
Add to it the fact that you need to book a month in advance to avoid the worst part of rip-off you mentioned, but a month in advance you do not know if they will be on strike for a few days or not, and it stops being a viable option, even if you’d prefer it.
Planes are heavily subsidized in particular by tax exemptions on kerosene fuel.
