High speed trains versus local trains

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At the tunnel between Vienna and Sankt Pölten

Today I took the high speed train from Zurich to Budapest passing the new 13 km long tunnel (Wienerwaldtunnel) between Sankt Pölten and Vienna which had been opened the day before. So what was my first impression? Ok, the train was fast but as you can imagine there is nothing to see in such a tunnel. Which brought an interesting question to me…

Railway station of Bad Mitterndorf, Austria

Is taking a high speed train really a good idea if you would love to learn more about a country? Or should we curious minds prefer the local trains? E.g. such a local train I took some years ago at the Salzkammergut area in Austria and from which I took this photo above. Well, what is your opinion?