Thread by @jonworth

#CrossBorderRail welcome to Day 11 twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1…

This is today’s route map - just 1 train from Warszawa to Berlin!

Today the Birdy is the postman’s bike! 🙂 Postcards from yesterday and today off to @AdinaValean

😍

Live stream of this morning’s event started - we begin in a few minutes!



Any questions: pose them on Twitter and @ronpatz here in the room will ask them here!

The Warszawa-Berlin EuroCity is pretty packed! And I’m the only one wearing a mask…

#CrossBorderRail Train 38
EC 44 12:15 Warszawa Centralna - Berlin Hbf 18:26 (retimetabled, was 11:50 dep)
Ave speed: 86 km/h
Operator: PKP InterCity

Train type: Taurus loco & carriages
⚡️
🚲: ✅ (many on board)
🦽: ✅ (with a ramp, not step free)
📶: ❓ (not working)
🍽: ✅

Agh, sod… now there are at least 3 passengers coughing a lot, and 1 even looks rather ill. And my previous tweet was incorrect - there is 1 other passenger in this carriage of 70 odd people who has a mask

And I have a few spare masks in my bag… should I even give them out? I have to be in this carriage for 5 hours, and there’s nowhere else to go because - as far as Poznan - it’s packed.

I suppose it’d be too impolite to do that?

Also time for a few thanks here

Firstly to the Heinrich Böll Stiftung in Warszawa for hosting this morning’s event (and thanks @marc_o_berthold for the contact!)

Second it was super to meet @lukasz_janeczko in person. Lukasz has helped me *so much* with all kinds of things to do with rail in Poland over a long period - and it was great to finally meet not just over Zoom

And in particular thanks @ronpatz - travelling with me on and off since Copenhagen - he’s been on buses across the borders while I’ve taken the bike. It’s been a blast travelling with you, Ronny, and I hope you’ll be in for further railway adventures in the future too!

🤬 Aaaggghhh. More than 2500ppm in here!

By contrast: yesterday’s train where you can open the windows…

Older air conditioned trains are the absolute worst.

In this train it feels like we’ve learned nothing from the pandemic. Sure I’ll do all I can to protect *myself* - my mask is fitted tight, worn at all times. But if one of these coughing people does indeed have COVID… and the aircon is struggling… then many maskless will get it

And sure I get that wearing a mask 6 hours isn’t pleasant. But *for everyone’s benefit* in situations like this a mask rule makes sense! There is *no way* to make a full train with bad aircon safe

And people getting infected over and over is no good *either*

Now stuck between Kutno and Konin. Apparently there’s an accident of some sort? (According to passengers translating the announcements here)

Some dude has got the doors to open. We have air! That’s a live running track out there, but tbh I don’t care. I’m not going out. But I can breathe.

PKP InterCity #TuerenAuf version 🙃

Now there are people taking selfies down on the line! 🤯

To much hilarity the train manager just said “no one is telling me anything” over the tannoy. And everyone laughed! (As translated by fellow passengers)

Stuck at Koło now. So I’ve taken some pics of the PKP IC loco opposite. Brand new. Built by NEWAG. And EU funded… but only able to operate in Poland

Would a rule where the EU funds a rolling stock acquisition is connected with operation to neighbouring countries make sense? 🤔

Still stuck. And information provision is… minimal! Earlier there was an explanation of when things might change. Now there is not…

Poznań 220 minutes delayed… I will get to Berlin tonight, all being well. If the German police *also* delay things further with a border con… sorry, ID control, at Frankfurt then I am not going to be happy! Maybe they’re off duty by 21:00?

No we weren’t meant to stop at Nowy Tomyśl. Why we are here, and when we’ll move 🤷‍♂️ PKP InterCity is totally failing at information provision here…

Aaaand we’re stuck. We don’t know why. But the light is nice.

And the Bundespolizei controls at Frankfurt (Oder) added an *extra 45 minutes* to the already massive delay. Documented in this thread:

And there won’t be a #CrossBorderRail summary video today. I’m going to get to Berlin with a delay of over 4 hours. I’m tired. I’m angry. I’m sad. I’ve been given implausible shit excuses by unpleasant German policemen exceeding their powers. No good for a summary of rail stuff.

And hey @db_bahn EC 44 is 4 hours delayed. And your staff haven’t made an announcement about connections or passed through the train. Not good!

Home just after midnight. #CrossBorderRail is now on pause until Tuesday morning…

I made it around the Baltic by train and bus and it was mostly fun!