Immigration in 🇨🇳 Mohan went smoothly, now waiting for my train to continue its journey through the 🇨🇳 Yunnan province to 🇨🇳 Kunming.
#crossborderrail
Can anyone explain me why the :lcr: is only served by Dongche (second-tier high-speed EMU) trains across the border while Kuaisu (classic fast trains) trains operate on each side of the border domestically. Considering how many people use the Dongche trains and how poor most people are in Laos, a Zhida (classic higher-speed train) or Kuaisu train over night or from the early morning to the evening would likely be celebrated - at least the domestic Kuaisu train pair is the absolute burner.
Is this just slow development and will happen in future ? Or is that not done due to the prestige of having a high-speed only cross-border link ?
Traveling from 🇹🇭 Bangkok to 🇫🇷 Alsace, day 3 :
I had a relaxed morning, good breakfast and arrived at the immigration checkpoint before the arrival of the passengers from 🇱🇦 Vientianne so that the passport check went smoothly without any queue.
My destination for today is 🇨🇳 Kunming, the city of spring. I'm looking forwards to discover the beautiful sides of the city after @iamejp warmly recommended to to give the city center another try - because so far I had only seen the ugly new development district south of the city on my outbound journey.
The journey by :lcr: D88 train takes about 5h30 even though one hours comes to the border check in 🇨🇳 Mohan.
After the border check in 🇱🇦 Vientianne Khamsavath railway station took 2 hours, I sadly missed my :lcr: train to 🇨🇳 Kunming - the last one of the day. Without train timetable, internet or language knowledge I decided to at least travel as far as still possible today.
In particular, that means I bought a new ticket for the :lcr: C82 train ending in somewhere in the Lao mountains close to the border to 🇨🇳 China. To be honest, I don't understand why this train doesn't proceed to 🇨🇳 Kunming : The later of the second train across the border arrives there at 9 p.m. - this one arriving at 10:30 p.m. would be a good addition to the chronically overcrowded trains between the two People's Republics.
Arriving in in the middle of nowhere around 5 p.m. was definitely an experience : Neither do I speak Lao and Mandarin, nor did I have Lao kips to pay or internet. Internet could be arranged after buying a SIM card at a kiosk, but when I tried to buy a connecting train ticket for tomorrow I sadly had to realize how Alipay didn't want to work. All the currency exchanges only did Yuan to Kip, whereas I could not exchange any Thai bath anywhere.
I finally discovered an ATM and could get my train ticket to 🇨🇳 China for tomorrow.
After all, I also found a hotel, got some food and could rebook my remaining journey to match my delay.
🌈✊🏽
Definitely not on my bucket list for today : I won an overnight stay in 🇱🇦 Boten, the special economic zone right at the border to 🇨🇳 China.
🇱🇦 Laos, or as I call it : Difficult border crossing 🙃.
Not that anything could ever go wrong here but it's slow, chaotic and random. Always plan two hours of buffer. Train arrival at 9 a.m. and connecting train at 11.30 a.m. can end up in a speed run.
Good morning Fedi 🌄 !
I had an excellent night and my :srt: sleeper arrived in 🇹🇭 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 🇱🇦 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 🤓 ? Who knows 🤪. Anyways, I now obtained my connecting ticket and will hopefully also be able to purchase a ticket for my :lcr: train once arriving in 🇱🇦 Vientianne later.
Now I have two hours in 🇹🇭 Nong Khai waiting for my connecting train. The station is very comfortable, with a minimart, toilets, even showers and some little cafés.
My train was meanwhile shunted over to platform 2 where it's waiting for its departure back to 🇹🇭 Bangkok in the evening.
While there are minibuses and tuck-tucks to 🇱🇦 Vientianne every few minutes which would allow me to take an earlier :lcr: LCR train to 🇨🇳 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 !
🌈✊🏽
Safely arrived at Centraal. Pretty decent #CrossBorderRail day, would do again with more time in Antwerp.
My first train : The comfortable :srt: Special Express 25 will bring me over night to 🇹🇭 Nong Khai, the border town of 🇱🇦 Vientianne.
The train consists of 13 carriages, sleeper wagons of different classes and a @diningcar .
While there is a direct :srt: train from 🇹🇭 Bangkok across the border to 🇱🇦 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 🇹🇭 Nong Khai is an excellent opportunity to grab some breakfast before crossing the border into 🇱🇦 Laos.
Sweet dreams everyone 😴 !
🌈✊🏽
Today, my railway journey from 🇹🇭 Bangkok back to 🇫🇷 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 !
🌈✊🏽
The rain means there are no crowds round the sculpture outside Lille-Flandres station. Today's destination is Amsterdam, sans supplément. #CrossBorderRail
It looks like the Espresso Riviera, a night train service from Rome to Marseille and vice versa, passing through the best of the Italian and French Rivieras, is not running this year because of “unavailability of the operating conditions necessary for cross-border circulation.” (Machine translated)
Bah. @darkphoenix and I were hoping to take that this year as the culmination of a particularly fun August trip…
I wonder which four-letter government-owned railway group buggered up this popular route, and how… #CrossBorderRail
Link to the original page: https://www.fstrenituristici.it/it/viaggi-e-cultura/espresso-riviera.html
Back home after the latest #CrossBorderRail tour to 🇳🇱 🇷🇸 🇭🇷 🇭🇺 🇸🇮 🇮🇹 (mainly) A write up of my current impressions of railways in Slovenia is in my newsletter going out later today - signup at jonworth.eu
@rom4n @Andres4NY @mejs it sort of evolved a bit. When I started #CrossBorderRail the bike was an add-on, the way to get places the train didn’t go. A folding bike made sense for this. As the project has gone on the bike has become more important - as the borders I’m missing are increasingly remote!
Jetzt gleich: #CrossBorderRail mit #ICE10 Richtung Lüttich
Someone has clearly been short of head butts since I departed on #CrossBorderRail
And here's today's #CrossBorderRail summary video
https://peertube.netzbegruenung.de/w/e5gukMp9rCa417De1epZ6H
#CrossBorderRail returns on 3rd April when I am going to Bouzonville!
#CrossBorderRail 2026 Spring Tour Train 41 of 87
TER 91358
18:33 Dijon Ville - Nuits-sous-Ravières 19:19
SNCF for TER Mobigo
Train type: Bombardier AGC bi-mode MU, short carriages
⚡️ (1.5kV dc)
🚲: ✅
🦽: ✅ (step free if platform allows)
🛜: ⛔️
🍽️: ⛔️
🧳: 🙂
🧽: ☹️ (it’s covered in grime, and the seats are knackered too)
Interrail: 🙂 (accepted)
TER 91358
18:33 Dijon Ville - Nuits-sous-Ravières 19:19
Distance: 89.4km
Average speed: 117km/h
3 stops:
Les Laumes-Alesia
Montbard
Nuits-sous-Ravieres
This train, mapped: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-2026-spring-tour_1361108#11/47.525316/4.619064
Client Info
Server: https://mastodon.social
Version: 2025.07
Repository: https://github.com/cyevgeniy/lmst