So, our journey from Rome to Paris begins... With the 62 bus, and its total lack of suspension. My spine has popped up into my brain and is giving me a headache.
We're catching the Turin train from Tiburtina station which is a striking enough edifice... Though I must say for a ten year old station its fabric hasn't aged well.
IT'S A TRAIN.
Thanks Alan Wickens for giving us all high speed trains operating today...
...seriously!
IT'S ANOTHER TRAIN.
Here's ours. Nice advert on the front.
We're whizzing along now, though only at around 220km/h...
...as evidenced by this nice screen on the ceiling:
We're on the 10:35 train, reaching Torino Porta Susa at 14:59 and taking 4hr24min, at an average speed of around 150km/h (a bit slower than the average speed from York to London, oddly enough).
Bit faster now... 250km/h is a good old lick!
Italian high speed rail designers like their viaducts... and tunnels! Difficult to avoid given the topography when tickling through the foothills of the Apennines.
Bye cars, you suck 👋
Took a bad photo of a good signal box for @MrTimDunn:
It must be said that this train spends a lot of time *not* going very fast, and given that we're keeping to time that means there must be *a lot* of fat in the timetable. It's quite a different way of running a railway compared to GB.
Anyway, we're in Firenze/Florence.
(All the fun stuff seems to be out the other window - the one on the right hand side of the train going northwards, that is.)
Also also also station dwell times are loooooooooong.
Please, for the love of all that is good in the world, close your mouth between bites when you are chewing. This isn't up for debate. I don't want to hear yapping like a wet sock being slapped by a toddler for twenty minutes straight, and neither does anyone else.
Anyway, these are pretty spartan units in terms of their interior, but they are nice enough! Big bonus: manual toilet door lock. Just like the #Azuma.
Took me a minute to work out that you had to press the button for water...
Reason it has the same door fixture is that the Frecciarossa 1000s are a Hitachi/Alstom (well, actually AnsaldoBreda/Bombardier, but times change!) joint venture... AnsaldoBreda clearly got to do the toilet doors!
Anyway, the section between Firenze and Bologna is mostly in a big tunnel. As is Bologna Centrale.
As some of you have pointed out already, Italy make extensive use of white paint on rails to reduce how much heat they absorb from the sun.
This can make a pretty notable difference to rail temperatures, and thus reduces the risk of a buckle in ballasted track.
These high parapet viaducts are popular north of Bologna... Lots of other noise barriers too.
Reggio Emilia AV Mediopadana looks jazzy...
...ah. **shakes fist at Calatrava**
See also:
300km/h! High speed by any standards at this point!
186mph Regional Railways selfie! Ta @Masquettes!
"but Britain is too small for high speed rail" 🙃
Oh, I forgot to post this nice video of Moar Tren from departing Firenze...
Look, they've got steam in action! And many heritage coaches hiding in the background...
Here's the approach to Milan Centrale, with many trains and also many different signal boxes (including one over the tracks that looked fab):
Milan Centrale is nice...
...useless PTI though.
Just remembered I've actually been here, and caught a train to Genova too... Plus it was covered in #TheArchitectureTheRailwaysBuilt:
This train has reversed twice now. Terminal stations are a curse.
300km/h again. We needed this in the UK at least twenty years ago.
This whole "obliterating cars" thing never gets old:
Oh what a stunning vi... Oh.
(this will be the whole experience for HS2 travelers, sadly)
Torino Porta Susa gives me the sense that the concourse is in the former train shed and the new platforms have been put underneath the big highway thing outside.
It sort of works, even if the road ought not to be that big!
Running to time, so far so good.
It's a 90s-built French classic, mildly refurbished!
See! 1994!
It's a TGV Réseau, not so different to the original Sud-Est that used to pass along the line we are traveling over later... Which itself was the first LGV opened pretty much exactly 40 years ago!
Well this is a thing... Also, the train is going at Belgrade-Bar speeds now, which I guess it does until we get onto the French LGV network?
It's nice up here.
Very nice indeed.
Snowblower and de-icer?
If you want some insights into the (admittedly much better ignored) groups opposing rail upgrades on the European mainland, then look no further than the line being built to bypass the one we are on now: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turin%E2%…
Not least the list of reasons given for opposition... Look familiar?
And yet, all the way up the valley from Susa is the A32 autostrada... Developed through the 90s and 00s without nearly the same fuss despite quite significantly greater impacts on the area.
Anyway, enough of that... We're in France!
**stands up and sings L'Internationale**
The trains speak a different language here, don't you know.
Oh, for those who've been following - hi 👋 - this is part of our return trip from Belgrade to York...
What was I saying a minute ago?
Pretty spectacular views once you're into France, it turns out.
Glimpses of the base tunnel construction here and there, plus there's freight stuff (wagons/sidings/receptors) everywhere...
One more for good measure... This time with snowy bits.
I have comments on the toilet... They might look superficially snazzier than the Frecciarossa 1000, but the Italian train:
💦 did not spray my leg with toilet flush that had completed a half-circuit of the bowl
👴 provided more than a geriatric's flow rate from the tap
Whilst I'm grumbling, it's worth saying that both of these trains have been rammed and slightly uncomfortable as a result. They certainly don't run frequently enough, given that this is way off peak time given COVID and everything else.
What's more - and this is something for the "table seats are great" brigade - table seats are awful for long journeys that are crush loaded as there's nowhere to stretch your legs.
Plus what on earth is this thing that I've painfully bashed my calf on several times?
We were both more comfortable on the 11hr Belgrade to Bar train, and that is a pretty poor reflection on the standard offering of rail services Western Europe has to offer.
Slow-mo Pandrol fastclips!
It's all a bit dark for photos now, but here's a rather reflecty view of Lyon's airport station before we joined the LGV network proper, and began our trip along a 40 year old high speed line!
I have to say - and this might annoy any Italians reading this - that the Frecciarossa felt very German when getting up to speed.
The TGV: well, you could really feel it getting up to pace... It feels like a Ferrari!
This leg of our trip really shows what high speed rail does to journey times (and the sense of progress as well)...
First 300km, 4hrs, ~75km/h average 🐢
Second 500km, 2hrs, ~250km/h average 🚀
DANGIT CALATRAVA 😖
Alas, the nippiest and most historically significant section of the journey ends at Paris' Gare du Lyon station:
Thus this day of travels ends with me looking down at my feet and up above my head on both the M1 and M5 metro lines...
Always remember to check out those platform-train and customer information interfaces!
**Paris intensifies**
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