Thread by @jonworth

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 😉

A very grey Forbach 🇫🇷 - about to cross the first border of the day to Saarbrücken 🇩🇪 #EGPCongress

+5 currently, delayed by a works train ahead of us. Not nervous yet 🙂 #CrossBorderRail

German Bundespolizei controlling passports of all passengers between Forbach 🇫🇷 and Saarbrücken 🇩🇪. And Germany has no #Schengen suspension… but I can’t today prove the controls are systematic. Anyone else en route to #EGPCongress faced the same? (Denmark DOES have a suspension)

Here’s a piece where I contributed - explaining the mess investigate-europe.eu/en/2022/disman…

And here’s my own investigation at another border - Frankfurt (Oder) #EGPCongress #CrossBorderRail jonworth.eu/illegal-and-sy…

And in the end I just ought to give up on this one. No one gives a 💩 about the future of #Schengen at internal borders. @YlvaJohansson doesn’t care. Macron the ‘great European’ is a hypocrite, keeps controls going. Even pretty much all MEPs don’t care either.

This stuff *ought* to matter - making crossing borders easy, and without controls. Being able to take reliable trains across borders too. The EU should be about this practical stuff. But for political decision makers it’s not. #CrossBorderRail #EGPCongress

Take me to Neumünster!

This ICE will at least get me close-ish to 🇩🇰. But with the bottlenecks of the Riedbahn, Frankfurt Hbf and Hamburg Hbf ahead… fingers crossed! #CrossBorderRail #EGPCongress

A typical day on DB ICEs. A bunch of small things go wrong - trespassers on track means 10 min delay. Train doesn’t get right path into Frankfurt (Main) - adds 5 more mins. Stuck behind a stopping train approaching Hamburg… so 10 min more. So I’ll miss connection in Neumünster.

It’s #beerontrains time of day. RE Neumünster - Flensburg. Looks like I’m going to get to København H tonight… barring any unexpected mishaps in the next hour! #egpcongress

Rendsburg. The craziest and most brilliant bridge in all of Germany. Pity it’s dark… de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendsburg… maps.apple.com/?ll=54.293483,…

Never have I been so happy to see a Danish train! Connection onwards to Fredericia was waiting in Flensburg

The train manager informs us the toilets are only open from Padborg 🇩🇰 though 🤯 #EGPcongress

Under the lights at Tinglev some IC4 trains stand unused, gathering graffiti. Testimony to Denmark’s botched railway policy in the late 1990s/early 2000s

Høje Taastrup, edge of København. 15 min to go.

Can you do Bourgogne (Nuits sous Ravières) to København in a day? Yes

Would I recommend it? No

A tiring and tricky journey, that could have gone wrong and numerous points, but thankfully didn’t!

18 hours 45 mins. 8 trains today. Oh for a night train between France and Denmark instead!