Thread by @jonworth

OK, so the challenge is Köln - Canet de Mar by train

Here's how to do it - a 🧵

(sorry Rüdiger - alles ist auf englisch - hoffentlich OK, ist meine Muttersprache, und ich erreiche mehr Leute!)

First, let's start at the end.

Where is Canet de Mar?

It's north along the coast from Barcelona on the Rodalies R1 commuter line (bottom right)

Integration of suburban rail into Spanish timetables is awful, but this site has the timetables for the Rodalies lines in the Barcelona area
rodalies.gencat.cat/en/horaris/

Latest departure: 22:54, arrives Canet de Mar at 23:56

So we need to get to Barcelona Sants from Köln Hbf, and arrive latest at 22:30 or so

There are 2 solid connections
- with 2 changes (in Bruxelles-Midi and Valence)
- with 1 change (but transit across Paris)

How do we book these?

(note I don't know what date we're doing this, but am putting in 18 August)

@trainline_eu gives us prices

The 1 change via Paris option is cheaper

For a comparison, RailEurope gives us the latter route, and some extra early one that makes no sense... But it is bookable here too

Unsurprisingly @OmioGlobal makes a complete mess of the routing, so gives a route with 2 changes - although it too can allow us to book

And @NS_Int can give times, but doesn't allow bookings (which is weird - does NS Int not have access to the SNCF-Renfe trains...?)

DB's international portal also can't give us prices international-bahn.de/de/ (some data it can't get from the French or SNCF-Renfe)

And @ouisncf gives prices, but massively higher than Trainline's

So the conclusion:
- get the times from DB
- book this one with @trainline_eu
- and the last bit to Canet de Mar book on the spot (because no one has integrated that properly)

/ends