Anyway, if I was looking for a clickbait title to write a piece on night trains, I could go with "Night trains in Europe, the hangover?" or "the morning after".
But more pragmatically if you care about these issues, go support the likes of @backontrack and @jon's #CrossBorderRail work!
Reliable delay data is super important for:
- Having a proof to claim compensation (when the rules grant you any).
- Accountability of railway companies.
- Having historic data to plan journeys effectively. The likes of Zugfinder and @chuuchuu are centralizing historical delay data from various sources, and @stefanlindbohm's Railfinder has heuristics to propose achievable connection times. None of this is possible with unreliable sources.
But reliable data is hard to find with #CrossBorderRail.
Good morning from Warsa... Hum... Katowice!?
Yes it's one of those nights where the lottery assigns you a random 2h delay. Since I now have plenty of time to spare, it's a good segway to talk about reliability of night trains, and reliability of #CrossBorderRail delay data. More below 👇
@Gurre #CrossBorderRail as a board game @jon @mejs
Unplanned overnight in Brussels thanks to #eurostar shambles but eventually made it to London. Bring on #ChannelTunnel competition, I say.
Welcome on board the brand-new Railjet Express from Zurich to Bratislava.
Yes it's not quite your regular Railjet, the previous incoming one was too much delayed so they made it turn around at the Swiss border & SBB organized a replacement regional train to avoid cascading delays. It's packed and not as comfortable as the original for the first hour, but I bet passengers will appreciate being on schedule. 💯
The kind of thing the SNCF mind cannot comprehend. #CrossBorderRail #OBBahned
Very interesting: :sncb: announces 3.5 million passengers took EuroCity and Eurocity Direct between BE and NL since their introduction in December 2024, but doesn't split it between EC and ECD. Why would that be :blobcatSip:
https://press.sncb.be/apres-un-an-de-circulation-les-trains-ouigo-eurocity-et-eurocity-direct-ont-seduit-plus-de-45-millions-de-voyageurs-dy39o9 #CrossBorderRail
Leg 7: Mannheim Hauptbanhof → Hamburg Hauptbanhof
Almost at #39C3! Anyone on ICE 574? Come say hi in coach 4, seat 88, I have a free spot next to me!
Disclaimer: I am not in top shape, I will be wearing a mask.
https://traewelling.de/status/6647249
#Winterrail #Winterrail2526 #Träwelling #Träwelldroid #CrossBorderRail #rail #train #Interrail
Leg 6: Milano Centrale → Mannheim Hauptbanhof
Continuing the trip to #39C3. Again: Trenitalia is terribile with open data, so the Intercity I am on does not exist on Träwelling in the Italian side 😑
#Winterrail #Winterrail2526 #Träwelling #Träwelldroid #CrossBorderRail #rail #train #Interrail
Leg 5: Genova Piazza Principe → Milano Centrale
Continuing the trip to #39C3. Again: Trenitalia is terribile with open data, so the Intercity I am on does not exist on Träwelling 😑
I had a bit of time, so I ran to Via Balbi, where there is one of my favourite focacceria in Genova. It was closed 😢
#Winterrail #Winterrail2526 #Träwelling #Träwelldroid #CrossBorderRail #rail #train #Interrail #Genova #focaccia #fugassa
Leg 4: Taggia Arma → Genova Piazza Principe
Back on the train, on my way to #39C3. Trenitalia is terribile with open data, so the Intercity I am on does not exist on Träwelling 😑
In the picture: isola Gallinara, SV, Italy (island)
#Winterrail #Winterrail2526 #Träwelling #Träwelldroid #CrossBorderRail #rail #train #Interrail
In these few days I got a short but good impression of these heavy-industry areas of ÄŒesko and Slovensko, definitely very interesting and intriguing for future hiking holidays in the nearby mountains.
Travelling was easy and comfortable, can't complain at all, even after the initial Interrail scare.
Speaking of, here are the #Interrail statistics:
* 5 Countries
* 11 Places
* 14 Trains
* 2487 Kilometers
* 1 day, 8 hours, 54 minutes
Still a lot of places left to see .. 👀
10/10
ČernáŠedáZlatá - day 9 - travel day back home
The night in the 4-person couchette room was quite good (despite a bit of rough maneuvering in Villach), pretty much what I've come to expect from a NightJet. In Trevisio the train was running about 15 minutes delayed, which surprisingly got compensated completely until Venice, prompting some travelers to miss their stop and take a detour onto the island 🙃
Initially I was thinking about another 2-night stay or so in Verona or Brescia, but since I didn't really feel like it anymore that day, the plan now was to finish the trip this evening. It was another gray day on the trip with dense fog, pretty much as described in the song "Venedig" by 🇨🇠band #StillerHas.
The benefit of this was a pretty empty city between 09:00 and 11:00, where I could take my first short impression of Venice. It is a very interesting place, but as the crowds started to appear more and more, even on a day like this, I was glad to get back on the tracks again.
The journey back home via Frecciarossa to Milano was fast, functional and uneventful. A visit to the diningcar in Brig concluded the trip.
🚂🇨ðŸ‡ðŸ‡±ðŸ‡® 🇦🇹 🇨🇿 🇸🇰 🇦🇹 🇮🇹🇨ðŸ‡
9/10
ČernáŠedáZlatá - day 8 - travel day to Vienna - travel night to Venice
Without a lot of plans, I started the day slowly in and around the old town. I found the excellent Caffe and Restaurant "La Famille" which serves very good homemade, local food, for lunch without a menu but only the recommendations of the chef. In the golden afternoon sunlight, a quick regional train trip to Vrútky fueled my interest in the region with its hills, gorges and mountains even more - I'll definitely come back for longer and warmer days.
But for now I took an express train to Bratislava, the surroundings already well dark and therefore not a lot to see.. 😞
In Bratislava a quick transfer to the connection to Vienna was very easy, the bit older wagons felt very luxurious in comparison to the modern (and also comfortable) train before.
After a short visit to a nearby pub, I took the OEBB NightJet to Venice, another split-up-connection of the Vienna - Zurich line.
🚂🇨ðŸ‡ðŸ‡±ðŸ‡® 🇦🇹 🇨🇿 🇸🇰 🇦🇹 🇮🇹
8/10
do you even do #CrossBorderRail if you don't get fucked by :db:​ at least during one stage of your trip?
Every #CrossBorderRail adventure from France starts... with waiting in the cold for SNCF to check your ticket before accessing the platform. Merry Christmas to everyone except SNCF!
So.. Ich hab grad Zugtickets gebucht. - Ticket von der ZSSK - Fahrradplatz von der MAV - Reservierung von der CD So viel zu OSDM oder grenzüberschreitendem Ticketkauf. 🙄 #CrossBorderRail 👀 @jonworth.eu@bsky.brid.gy
Today I've booked my #CrossBorderRail travel to Lisbon in January, for a work meeting. Surprisingly fiddly to get to by train these days!
ČernáŠedáZlatá - day 6 - travel day to Žilina
After a nice few days in Ostrava I decided to move on to the south and visit the 4th largest city in neighboring Slovakia. To save a day on my interrail pass, I bought a regular ticket online while taking the tram to the train station, a easy and quick process.
The train line goes along what seemed to be mines or quarries and the region gets more and more hilly. After a few gray days the sun was out soon after leaving Ostrava and right up until the border. On the Slovak side, sadly the clouds / high fog were back.
Being more east and north than I'm used to - plus the gray weather and nearing the shortest day of the year - I kept being surprised about the early nightfall, at 17:00 already well dark. Perfect however for tea and the special pastry named TrdelnÃk in a café, then some more food later at the christmas market.
🚂🇨ðŸ‡ðŸ‡±ðŸ‡® 🇦🇹 🇨🇿 🇸🇰
6/10
Oh boy, now I've encountered new timetable weirdness on the Ostbahn. The Polish timetables, including online on Portal Pasażera, say all the Kostrzyn trains have been extended to Ostkreuz. So do DB's station posters you can download from bahnhof.de. However, German-side live running data, VBB and MERITS all say things are as they were - Kostrzyn trains running to/from Lichtenberg, workday Verstärker running Ostkreuz-Müncheberg (Mark). (And also apprently NEB is having problems today and running all the Kostrzyn trains with single units rather than the usual doubles)
And there I was initially pleasantly surprised…
cc @jon
