So @OceanKnigge asked me if I could help @OceanUnger get from Berlin to Lisbon for the UN Ocean conference there, and to arrive on 26 June - this challenge is called #TrainToUNOcean
Here is how I would do it. There may be other ways, and #BahnBubble might help further!
🧵
First take the @unsereOebb#NightJet 471 Berlin-Zürich and get out in either Offenburg (for possibly safer connections) or Basel SBB (for more sleep - I'd go for that)
D. 20:54, 24 June - Berlin Hbf
Book this one on the ÖBB site
Then switch to @SNCFConnect and search Offenburg to Barcelona Sants, or Basel SBB to Barcelona Sants - these are the options
For some reason you can't buy the Offenburg-Strasbourg part on the SNCF site, so buy that from DB. Basel-Barcelona you can buy on SNCF
Then you need to switch to the third site - @thetrainline - to check all providers for BCN-Madrid
There is no late Renfe train (hence why DB's site shows no connections) but there are late OUIGO and Avlo trains
Welcome to liberalisation and bad data! 🎉 But it's cheap
The problem of course with all of these steps so far is the absence of passenger rights
If the #NightJet to Basel is >90 mins delayed, connection missed in France, and no right to compensation or be re-booked
Same FR-ES - miss the last Avlo to Madrid and you're screwed
Anyway, with enough padding in the timetables this all ought to work to get to Madrid, and then spend a night in a hotel there
But @OceanUnger you thought this was hard? Wait for the next bit!
The main line into Portugal is at Badajoz (which is actually still on the Spanish side) - but no trains on the Renfe site 🤪
You can only book 60 days ahead, and we're further ahead that that still... But even under 60 days it looks hopeless - the train is too late!
But there is a solution
Renfe's website - for reasons that are beyond me - assumes passengers don't want to change
If you search Madrid-Puertollano, and then Puertollano-Badajoz you get a workable connection (note I am searching a generic Sunday here)
And then the last bit - Badajoz to Lisboa Santa Apolonia, changing in Entroncamento - that's with CP
A. 20:20 (or 21:20 CET), 26 June - Lisboa Santa Apolonia
Total number of trains: 9
Total websites used: 6 (DB for timetables only, 5 more for bookings)
Total bookings needed: 6 (or 7 if via Offenburg not Basel)
Total trip time: 48 hours 26 minutes
On the upside: it'd be an epic trip! 😜
And I am doing some of the parts of this on my own #CrossBorderRail trip in June-July too... but not in one go!
/ends
P.S. @moritzkraehe asked me why I didn't use Omio or Trainline for more of this. I tried if Basel-Madrid would work... but even though Trainline can sell all the tickets for this route, it can't combine them 🤦♂️
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This morning I’m one of the first new regional trains Maubeuge 🇫🇷 - Charleroi Central 🇧🇪 #CrossBorderRail
It was a bit of a #fail at the station. I needed a ticket to Erquelinnes, the first station in Belgium. But prior to today trains from Maubeuge didn’t stop there!
Ticket machine ⛔️
Ask at the ticket office. “Le train ne s’arrête pas à Erquelinnes!” I politely told the SNCF employee that yes, it did stop at Erquelinnes. I explained the situation to the SNCB train manager and he laughed, confirmed it did stop there, and I bought the ticket online!
Delays in my favour. Maybe? S-Bahn to FFM Flughafen. Get a late running ICE to Köln Messe/Deutz there. Then try to blag my way onto a Thalys Köln Hbf to Bruxelles? It’s a long shot but it might work…
ICE 612 Frankfurt Flughafen to Köln Messe/Deutz.
This is why accurate live running data in apps matters. Were this not running 10 min late I’d not have caught it… but live data allowed me to plan a connection that’d otherwise not work
Already on the 2nd train of the day: TGV Montbard - Paris. All being well I’ll be in Denmark tonight… but that feels a long way off just now! #EGPCongress#crossborderrail
Across Paris RER Gare de Lyon to Gare du Nord, walk to Gare de l’Est (faster than changing into a Métro to Est) and it’s onto the TGV to Mannheim. So far so good, but I banked on this bit working 🙂 #EGPCongress#CrossBorderRail
Franco-German train service. Very French prices! And no, it’s too early (and expensive) for #beerontrains 😉
Jeez. It could take until 2025 until TGVs are approved for the line.
And the whole effing point of Stuttgart21 - of which this line is a part - was to create a Paris-München high speed corridor!
Really, how can everyone mess up *so badly*?
And to those going “yeah but there are few TGVs anyway” true, but so it goes on and on. International services are the lowest priority - even when *they were the stated rationale for building the line*