Why do people even produce long distance trains without beds ? Like, WTF, trains were never supposed to be used all seating. This is so uncomfortable.
#TeamNightTrain
Good morning Fedi ๐ !
I had an excellent night and my :srt: sleeper arrived in ๐น๐ญ Nong Khai on time.
Despite amenities on the train, I was too sleepy and my bed was too cuddly to motivate myself to have a shower before arriving.
The morning arrival of the :srt: Special Express 25 in the morning always is a spectacle : All passenger leave and jointly walk to the ticket office, queue up and all request the same, a connecting ticket to ๐ฑ๐ฆ Vientianne. The queue dissolves quickly, not even 10 minutes after the arrival all passengers were issued their connecting ticket for the :srt: Rapid 133.
Why all of this ? I have no clue. The ticket office in Bangkok could also issue the tickets and you can buy them online. Maybe all the Lao people are fond of paper tickets as much as I am ๐ค ? Who knows ๐คช. Anyways, I now obtained my connecting ticket and will hopefully also be able to purchase a ticket for my :lcr: train once arriving in ๐ฑ๐ฆ Vientianne later.
Now I have two hours in ๐น๐ญ Nong Khai waiting for my connecting train. The station is very comfortable, with a minimart, toilets, even showers and some little cafรฉs.
My train was meanwhile shunted over to platform 2 where it's waiting for its departure back to ๐น๐ญ Bangkok in the evening.
While there are minibuses and tuck-tucks to ๐ฑ๐ฆ Vientianne every few minutes which would allow me to take an earlier :lcr: LCR train to ๐จ๐ณ Kunming, my inner purism wants me to wait for two hours to actually travel every little bit possible by rail.
At least I will spend the two hours looking for some breakfast !
๐โ๐ฝ
My first train : The comfortable :srt: Special Express 25 will bring me over night to ๐น๐ญ Nong Khai, the border town of ๐ฑ๐ฆ Vientianne.
The train consists of 13 carriages, sleeper wagons of different classes and a @diningcar .
While there is a direct :srt: train from ๐น๐ญ Bangkok across the border to ๐ฑ๐ฆ Vientianne, this train only consists of a couple of old carriages of third class and couchette spots ready for the scrapyard. Instead, the transfer in ๐น๐ญ Nong Khai is an excellent opportunity to grab some breakfast before crossing the border into ๐ฑ๐ฆ Laos.
Sweet dreams everyone ๐ด !
๐โ๐ฝ
Today, my railway journey from ๐น๐ญ Bangkok back to ๐ซ๐ท Alsace finally begins.
Marking the start of my trip, I visited the Hua Lamphong railway station. The beautiful building with a huge departure hall, flowers and fountains is sadly only served by :srt: commuter trains and the :bangkok_mrt: subway in present times since the mainline operations were completely moved to the new Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Terminal in 2016.
Nevertheless, the railway station nowadays hosting a museum with beautiful old Thai trains serves as an excellent location to start my trip : I will spend the next two weeks all on trains : Sleeper trains, high-speed trains and adorable regional trains will hopefully safely guide me for 17.000 km on rails spanning from Thailand via China, Siberia and the Ural to Europe.
Follow #FOSSRail or this account to travel along with me in this thread !
๐โ๐ฝ
Today it's getting serious again : In a couple of hours I'll be leaving ๐น๐ญ #Bangkok by :srt: night train to start my 15 days journey bringing me back to ๐ซ๐ท #Alsace traveling 100 % by train ๐.
๐๐น๐ญ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐จ๐ณ๐ท๐บ๐ช๐ช๐ฑ๐ป๐ฑ๐น๐ต๐ฑ๐จ๐ฟ๐ฆ๐น๐ฉ๐ช๐ฑ๐ฎ๐จ๐ญ๐ซ๐ท
TIL : The longest leg on the Ukrainian railway network is the train pair 39/40 from Solotvyno to Zaporizhzhia with a travel time of 26h30 on a journey of 1.600 km.
:cr: sleeper booking noises ...
I got :
- One New Soft Sleeper, a high-speed train with berths inside
- One Superior Soft Sleeper, a classic train with private sleeper compartments
- One Soft Sleeper, the regular sleeper carriages
Thereby all Chinese trains covered (apart from the :lcr: one but I'll just buy the ticket at the counter).
Looks like #FOSSRail homebound will slowly work out ๐ !
Be prepared for an exciting travel report for traveling from ๐น๐ญ Bangkok to ๐ซ๐ท Alsace by using trains only ๐ !
TIL : The ะคะะ (Federal Passenger Company) of the :rzd: have pretty much :oebb: DANI style ะะปะฐััะบะฐััะฝั carriages with their new designs from 2019 ...
https://www.railvolution.net/news/new-concept-of-fpk-carriages
I just wish the Ukrainians were ordering more new carriages especially with RIC profile and SUW 2000 boogies. We need more of this in Europe. Long-haul, Soviet-style sleepers are a much underrated thing. We need through-carriages from Kyiv to Barcellone again, from Stockholm to Rome, from Athens to Vienna and from Tallinn to Budapest - and while in former Soviet countries, it's normal to have sleeper careiages serving in day time traffic as well, Europeans still wonder how to form a night train that's attractive at day time as well.
We need more ะัะฟะต & ะะปะฐััะบะฐััะฝั in western Europe !
Another notable train is the :uz: ะจ 140ะ Hortobagy from Chop to Wien.
The train is most famously know to carry the traditional :kb_kurswagen: through carriages from Kyiv to Wien but also provides the earliest day-time (okay, controversial at that time of the day) connection from Chop across the Hungarian border to Zahony. The train hauls two :mav: seating carriages and the two or three :uz: sleeper carriages. Ridiculously, the seating carriages end in Zahony - while the remaining sleeper carriages are unified with the day time :kb_ec: 140 from Zahony to Wien.
It's thereby possible to travel using the train no. 140 in seating carriages from Chop to Wien - but you need to get off in Zahony and enter the same train again.
This once again might be useful when the :kb_kurswagen: sleeper carriages are booked up, so that you can travel on :uz: Sleeper, Kupe or Platzkartny carriages from Kyiv or Lviv to Chop, where you change on the same train into the new seating carriages and change a second time in Zahony to the same train's new seating carriages.
Changing twice but always boarding the same train again - isn't it magic (and stupid) ๐ช ?
Btw. the :kb_en: Chopin :kb_kurswagen: Carpatia through carriages are really cool when traveling from western Europe to Ukraine :
Usually, the solution would be day-time travels from Berlin to Przemysl or to Vienna/Budapest whereas now you can just take the :kb_en: 416 from Munich or Praha to Przemysl with a comfortable transfer on the :uz: ะจ 64 to Lviv, Kyiv and Charkiv.
This is particularly useful when the :kb_kurswagen: D 40347 through carriages are fully booked from Vienna to Kyiv and you're not in mood to travel up to Budapest or Przemysl at day time.
... random afternoon thoughts, sorry ...
โ :lesbian_uz:
A last glance at the ice sculpture park in Chelyabinsk and ready to board my train to Petropavl in Kazakhstan.
Petropavl is an interesting railway station since it's served by inner-Russian trains following the south junction of the Trans Siberian Railway. While passengers leaving the train there are formally leaving Russia in Petukhovo, passengers traveling onwards to Omsk and further east remain in Russia as transit traffic - a new visa for foreigners is thereby not necessary.
I'm happy to finally be in the train to :ktz: Kazakhstan for my part and will enjoy the next 8 hours in a comfy old ะัะฟะต /Kupe/ upper berth getting gently shaken into sweet dreams.
Stay strong โ๐ฝ๐ !
Good morning ! It's 6 a.m. and after round about 32 hours, my comfortable :rzd: sleeper is slowly approaching in Chelyabinsk next to the Kazakh border.
The ride was fading in time, it feels like I just boarded despite spending two days in the train ๐ฅฐ.
We arrived in Moscow late in the evening. I had an excellent night and slept like a baby until 11 a.m. - after a shower it's now time to grab some late breakfast in the @diningcar : fresh potato wedges with mushrooms and the mandatory black tea.
Side note : The :rzd: have amazing chocolate onboard, I enjoyed already the second bar ๐.
Day six of my journey will be all trains : I woke up in the train and since my sleeper is only going to arrive tomorrow morning, I will spend the next night in my comfortable :rzd: compartment as well.
It's 10 p.m. local time in Chelyabinsk, my meal from @diningcar was just served : Grilled vegetables and buckwheat with mushrooms along with some beautifully packaged dark chocolate and juice.
The food served in the trains was far too much - good that it's sleeping time so that I can curl up under the comfy blanket and digest my amazing food.
The train is very suitable for working and as a bonus for tomorrow and Sunday morning, we have showers in the carriage.
Dream well and stay strong โ๐ฝ๐ !
My sleeper arrived : I got a single ะกะ compartment for the next 32 hours bringing me via Moscow to the Asian part of Russia in the Ural district, right to the Kazakh border.
The train is comfortable, food is provided (vegan again) and I will already switch my clock to Ural time adjusting my day-night rhythm ๐ด.
Second sleeper train of my trip completed on day five. Now waiting for 15 minutes for my connecting train from Bologoe to Chelyibinsk. I booked a comfortable sleeper compartmznt for the 32 hours trip over two nights.
The :rzd: ะะฒัะพัะฐ service was definitely a luxury experience, the staff was very helpful with my spontaneous reschedule and helped me with everything despite no common language.
The railway station in Bologoe has a weird layout : The station building is located in the middle of a field of tracks, there are two main tracks where most trains depart and the other platforms are scrambled over the area. Access via a tunnel only.
I'm looking forwards for a comfy sleeper and finally some time to rest without any hurry for two days.
Enjoying dinner in the :rzd: @diningcar service onboard of the :rzd: 743ะฃ "ะะฒัะพัะฐ" inter-city service on my way from Sankt Petersburg to Bologoe during my #FOSSRail trip from Brussels to Bangkok.
The three course menu includes some fresh salad with grilled vegetables, a tasty bulgur dish and some fruit pastry, served along with juice, tea, fruits and snacks.
While enjoying the tasty dinner, winter landscapes of Leningrad Oblast are passing by at -20 ยฐC.
Stay safe, warm and take care โ๐ฝ๐ !
Whereas the :cff: :kb_en: "Aurora" did not happen for this year, the :rzd: still operate their 743ะฃ "ะะฒัะพัะฐ" running from St. Petersburg to Moscow as a daytime inter-city train - in good Soviet manner featuring 1st class sleeper compartments for sure.
I'm taking this train for two hours to Bologoe-Moskolkoe where I'm going to catch my long distance sleeper to the Kazakh border - further away from scary western Russia.
Surprise to my vegan soul : The menu of the first class catering includes an entire page dedicated to plant-based food and I'm looking forwards to some dinner in a moment.
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