That bridge again. Oh and the sign showing the electrification Polish side was EU financed. Zgorzelec (this side) - Görlitz (in the distance)
Postamt Görlitz
Also I’m optimistic about today. Re-connecting Seifhennersdorf 🇩🇪 to Varnsdorf 🇨🇿 and then through to Zittau 🇩🇪 is very easy. It’s 4km of track, replacement of one level crossing. No more staff or trains needed. Was useful to go!
This was not pleasant at the road border Rumburk 🇨🇿 - Seifhennersdorf 🇩🇪 earlier!
#CrossBorderRail Train 186 (of 186!)
RE 1 (3198) 21:09 Cottbus - Berlin Hbf 23:27
Ave speed: 76 km/h
Operator: @db_bahn
(Not my train, but why the HELL are EuroCity trains from Warsaw still being delayed by the Bundespolizei?)
The Ostkreuz problem is going to delay me though…
And *after* boarding the RE1 Cottbus - Berlin @db_bahn chooses to re-route it. Had this decision been made before I could have gone via Königs Wusterhausen and a bus
So diffusing the WWII bomb at Ostkreuz means a diversion via Hohenschönhausen and Pankow to Gesundbrunnen… it’s going to be late in Berlin tonight! After midnight at Hbf… then cycling home 9km with 2 folding bikes in the trailer
The re-routing also changes the total stats for the project…
186 trains
95 border crossings
34 main bike legs
5 scheduled buses
8 rail replacement buses
3 ferries
1 taxi
1 rail replacement Tesla
30175 km 🚆
956 km 🚲
1562 km ⛴ 🚕 🚌
I’ll re-check all this, and re-do the map, tomorrow!
A reminder that in 10 days I’ll be presenting the first conclusions of the #CrossBorderRail project - an in person event in Berlin, accompanied with a live stream
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*