Lmst

Good morning from Budapest Keleti station! A building in excellent condition that constrats from the previous countries I've crossed in the Balkans.

Luggage storage is available with card payment options. 💯

As previously posted (https://mastodon.social/@cycling_on_rails/114256002817878136), most trains are new with good support for #CyclingOnRails 🚂🚲 Overall the best railways on this trip so far.

Train turning left under a bridge next to 4 tracks.

Keleti station building seen from outside. Magestic old building, with white/grey stones in the middle part, and yellow for the sides. An opening leads to the underground & metro network.

Breakfast is not included, but there is a bar in the seating area, with a few snacks (and a wide selection of alcohol as far as I could tell). The attendant offered me coffee, but it ended up being cash only. He accepted euros though.

There was also a #CyclingOnRails practitioner on board! With the wheels removed and a DIY cover on top. In the seating area, but a couchette would have worked that day (my compartment was half empty).

5 bar stools next to their tables. The other half of the carriage is a seating area.

Partly disassembled bicycle between seats and a small luggage shelf.

Luggage rack at the end of a seating carriage.

I'm getting a bit ahead of the main Balkans by rail thread (https://mastodon.social/@cycling_on_rails/114190930710671776), but just sharing my Monday enthusiasm: some really good #CyclingOnRails material here in Budapest! 🥳 Some of the best I've seen in Europe.

Inside: a room with 6 vertical hooks on one side facing foldable seats.

Inside: downstairs room is 5 window long. First 2.5 windows: right half made of seats and left half free to put bicycles, strollers, etc. Last 2.5 windows: same with left & right mirrored.

So at first it all didn't look promising for practical #CyclingOnRails. However, I noticed a cyclist in the station building, whom I asked about his experience. Turns out that Bob is a local who has ran a cycling website for decades! It's a gold mine for fellow adventurers visiting Bulgaria, go check it out! http://bgbybike.we.bs/090introduction.htm

Here is his cycling on trains guide: http://bgbybike.we.bs/035Trains&roads%20in%20BG.htm

Bob, smiling, and his mountain bicycle full of panniers in the station building.

Old steam locomotive painted green, red and black in front of the train station.

Poster map of all railway routes in Bulgaria in the station building. The distance in kilometers between each pair of stations is indicated.

Stack of concrete railway sleepers (the beam between rails) after the last tracks. The Sofia thermal power plant is visible immediately behind, with 4 cooling towers, a handful of chimneys, and a couple of buildings in construction.

Intercity services appear to use conventional locomotive-hauled carriages. The most modern ones were purchased from Deutsche Bahn, the logo was replaced but the "Ride only with a valid ticket" sticker in German is still there. I didn't see any dedicated bicycle spots from the sample I saw. #CyclingOnRails

Old-looking diesel locomotive. It wasn't smelling good.

Carriage with doors in the middle. Red and white paint, covered in graffiti.

Deutsche Bahn sticker: "Mitfahrt nur mit gültiger Fahrkarte / Ride only with a valid ticket".

So I ended up doing a quick #CyclingOnRails assessment from the Serbian trains I saw passing by. From what I can tell from this sample, one positive thing about this new railway project is the order of Stadler trains. The older suburban trains showed no bicycle spots nor any sort of cleaning. The new trains for high-speed (Soko, double-decker KISS design) and regional services (FLIRT design) all featured decent bicycle spots, Swiss-style.

Old train covered in graffiti (windows included) with a mountain biker bording with his bike on the shoulder.

New regional train (EMU, 4 carriages, 3 bicycle spots).

Vertical hooks next to the doors in the regional train.

New SOKO train (EMU, 4 double-deck carriages, 2 bicycle spots per carriage).

Bicycle support for #CrossBorderRail trains is much more variable. Refer to the website. Some examples:
- the midday service to Ljubljana-Villach had two compartments for bicycles in a slovenian carriage,
- the afternoon service to Budapest didn't have any spot,
- night trains you already saw earlier in this thread (no spots).

#Croatia #CyclingOnRails

Two windows for the bicycle space in a slovenian carriage. This shows that the platform is more or less at track level.

MAV (Hungarian railways) carriage to Budapest.

The good news: most suburban & regional services are using new EMUs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C5%BD_series_6112). Bicycle spaces are on folded seats along the windows, but a bit squeezed with the bathroom opposite. Should work.

Starting with suburban trains in blue livery. #CyclingOnRails

4-carriages EMU with blue lines and yellow front on a platform.

Row of 9 foldable seats along 3 windows with straps to attach bicycles.

One row of seats in each direction, lots of standing space in the middle.

I don't think this train ever went to Munich, but "Vlakom u München" written on the train windows.

I also did some scouting of trains for my cycling-on-trains guide (https://cycling-on-rails.com/train-bicycle-guide/). For a start, the official HŽPP website has clear information in English, and the page doesn't take 5 minutes to load with 1 million cookie banners. Simple and straightforward: https://www.hzpp.hr/en/bicycle-transport

#Croatia #HZPP #CyclingOnRails

Will the real #CyclingOnRails please stand up? Selection of the anti-jaywalking artwork that everybody ignores. At least now you know the Croatian railways are electrified with 25kV. #Zagreb

Drawing of a bicycle crossing the tracks too close to a train.

Drawing of a person with hearphones walking on/along a rail in front of a train.

Drawing of a red person surrounded by railway electric devices of various voltage.

Boring drawing of a person with a backpack crossing tracks just in front of a train.

Looks like the next TGV-M will have 8 bicycle spots. That would be the first TGV to have a bicycle/seat ratio above 1% (still not much, but a clear progress from the current 0 or 2 spots).

Let's see how this pans out, based on these videos there will be at least pairs of spots in a 1st class carriage.

#MonVéloDansLeTrain #CyclingOnRails

Sources:
- https://youtube.com/watch?v=yjxaci5c5nE
- https://youtube.com/watch?v=EDqIPfuGF8U

Video screenshot of a bicycle in upright position (both wheels on the ground) along a window behind a red seat. Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=yjxaci5c5nE at 2 minutes.

Video screenshot of a first-class area with 2 bicycles behind the column of single seats at the carriage entrance. Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=EDqIPfuGF8U at 24 seconds.

@nassigny Excellent article!

Combien de personnes disent "on ne peut pas faire sans voiture ici" mais habitent à 10-20km d'une gare? En organisant vélo et train comme un tout, oui c'est possible!

> Côté modalités d’accès : les premières 24h sont en règle générale gratuites, quel que soit le type de parking.

👏👏👏

#MonVéloDansLeTrain #CyclingOnRails

🇬🇧 Press release: https://monvelodansletrain.fr/documents/2025-01-10-CP-Livre_Blanc-EN.pdf
🇫🇷 Livre blanc: https://www.fnaut.fr/uploads/2025/01/LIVRE-BLANC-Mon-velo-dans-le-train_BasseDef-WEB-light.pdf

Definitely good stuff, I'll take a closer read! #MonVéloDansLeTrain #CyclingOnRails #CrossBorderRail

Screenshot of the report with lots of bicycles in French trains.

Screenshot of the report with bicycles in trains across Europe.

However:

🚫🚲 SBB still doesn't sell international bicycle tickets and reservations. "Please contact our partners." 🤷‍♂️ #CyclingOnRails

😴🚂 New "night train" services... 🥁 to the airports. One might think that it's good as it shifts passengers from cars to trains to reach the airport. But I see induced demand for air travel, and increased noise levels at night around the airports. This alone probably more than nullifies the decarbonation effects of a couple true cross-border night trains.

The summer cycling season 2024 is getting to an end in the Northern hemisphere, so it's a great time to unpack pictures and memories. 📸

To help you prepare the next season, I've just released the first version of my guide to bring bicycles on trains! https://cycling-on-rails.com/blog/2024/11/05/train-bicycle-guide-started.html

#CyclingOnRails

Secret bicycle room hypothesis confirmed! Proof that it's possible to take the outdoor of a TGV and make an indoor experience that isn't crap 👌

In 2nd class the secret room is bicycles + trash bags, in 1st class it's an (unused) executive meeting room.

#CyclingOnRails #MonVéloDansLeTrain #BicicletaEnElTren

Open door to a technical room with a handful of bicycles.

Door with a "sala executive" label and large opaque stripes.

4 executive-looking seats along the sides of the train.

It's in fact a fully-themed #CyclingOnRails train, with an exhibition of Tour de France pictures up to the early 2000s (celebrating spanish cyclists). With the motto: "objective Paris", Renfe isn't planning to stop in Lyon (when their new trains get approved).

Pictures of Samuel Sanchez & Fernando Escartin.

Label with the exhibition title: "Queen stage, objective Paris".

Spotted a few #CyclingOnRails practitioners (a couple with packed bicycles & someone with an assembled mountain bike). They got sent by Renfe staff to the end of the train, and must have put the bicycles in a secret room (unless they already got off in Valence TGV 🤔) as I didn't see bicycles anywhere. #BicicletaEnElTren

People on the platform carrying packed bicycles to the end of the train.

Packed bicycles on the platform (front wheel removed I'd say), with the saddles overflowing.

Entrance luggage space space, with staff checking tickets and a bicycle wheel visible on the platform.

Last door of the train, with a no-way door towards the driving car. Empty small luggage rack. Tour de France picture exhibition.

Allons tester la précision de nos applications météo en conditions réelles à la capitale.
Et rincer le vélo.
J'ai pris une recharge de squirt pour la chaîne.

#velotaf #MonVéloDansLeTrain
#cyclingonrails

Un vélo pliant équipé d'un sac à l'avant, devant la porte d'un TGV, prêt à embarquer

For assembled bicycles, booking a spot seems rather straightforward with the DB Navigator app. For #Interrail users, it's possible to book a standalone bicycle ticket, cancellable until the day before 👌

#CyclingOnRails #FahrradImZug

#CyclingOnRails

Client Info