Jon WorthWelcome to #CrossBorderRail Day 14
The final day of the Germany borders project
Today I’m off to Guben, Żary and Forst (Lausitz)
Here’s todays intro video https://urbanists.video/w/5JESqCiQPYnJPqPCV2NB5d
PeerTube
#CrossBorderRail Train 63
RE 1 (91762)
09:29 Berlin Ostbahnhof - Frankfurt (Oder) Hbf 10:30
Ostdeutsche Eisenbahn GmbH
Average speed 80 km/h
Distance 81 km
Train type: Siemens Desiro HC mixed single and double deck EMU, 6 carriages
⚡️
🚲: ✅
🦽: ✅ (step free if platform allows)
🛜: ✅
🧳: 🙂 (lots of multi use spaces, overhead racks good, space under seats)
🧽: 🤔 (not cleaned inside since at least yesterday)
Here’s today’s route map
And the full zoomable map
https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-de-2023_835860#7/49.088/10.371
Today I’m following the route of the Niederschlesisch-Märkische Eisenbahn that used to be the main line Berlin - Wrocław. It opened in 1846.
Today Berlin-Frankfurt(Oder)-Guben, and Żary-Wrocław still run, but the section between Guben and Żary has been dismantled. That’s where I’ll take to my bike today…
Here’s Wikipedia about the line: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niederschlesisch-M%C3%A4rkische_Eisenbahn?wprov=sfti1
Grumpy old Berliner dude has just given a passenger who’s coughing here a look of death. She deserved it. And my 😷 is on tight here!
Today I’ll go to the only 🇵🇱 🇩🇪 active railway line I’ve not yet visited (Żary - Forst (Lausitz))
Next week I’ll manage the same for the 🇨🇿 🇩🇪 border (Kraslice - Klingenthal)
I’ve been to all the 🇩🇰 🇩🇪, 🇧🇪 🇩🇪, 🇳🇱 🇩🇪, 🇱🇺 🇩🇪, 🇫🇷 🇩🇪 and 🇨🇭 🇩🇪 lines
Which means I’m only missing a few 🇦🇹 🇩🇪. But Mittenwald and Reutte (Tirol) have rail replacement buses at the moment…
#CrossBorderRail Train 64
RB 43 (18187)
10:36 Frankfurt (Oder) Hbf - Guben 11:17
DB Regio AG Nordost
Average speed 71 km/h
Distance 49 km
Train type: Siemens Mireo EMU, 3 carriages
⚡️
🚲: ✅
🦽: ✅ (step free if platform allows)
🛜: ✅
🧳: 🙂 (overhead racks small, but otherwise excellent)
🧽: 🙂 (it’s brand new and is spotless)
Credit to Siemens
These Mireo trains are *almost* as good as Stadler single deck EMUs
Quiet. Well designed. Decent seats. Good acceleration. The only downside: steps to the higher floor sections over the wheels, rather than the sloping floors in a Stadler design, and overhead racks for bags a little small…
But in the regional EMU market it strikes me Siemens and Stadler are ahead of the rest
I have this kind of melancholy in Guben/Gubin. It’s great that this is pretty much one town in 2 countries. But the German side in particular is very empty, lacking vitality. Although it’s impeccably looked after.
The Neiße rail bridge south of Guben
The Berlin - Wrocław main line used this until 1945…
Pics tricky with the drone today - windy…
A modern and desolate border, south of Guben. The bridge is new. They built new border posts. And hectares of concrete. Then came Schengen and now it’s empty… except for a Go-Kart track
Żary. An orderly station, quite retro feeling, and a place that feels rather oversized for the number of trains that now use it!
🤦♂️
No ticket office open in Żary, so I try to get an online ticket to Forst (Lausitz)
It’s in Germany. So it doesn’t work.
But to Zasieski it *does* work online.
It’s a couple of km more!
Online tickets beyond Forst I don’t expect. But to Forst is surely possible? #CrossBorderRail
And really I get that international through ticketing is complex
But *just put the first station after the border in your national ticketing system*. Job done
Koleje Dolnośląskie should be able to sell me a ticket to Forst. They run the train
Same at Aachen-Hergenrath 🇧🇪 and Weener-Bad Nieuweschans 🇳🇱 - the few km across the border are a mess…
#CrossBorderRail Train 65
RB 93 (67003)
17:36 Zary - Forst (Lausitz) 18:10
Polregio for Koleje Dolnośląskie
Average speed 66 km/h
Distance 37 km
Train type: Pesa Link DMU 🦈
⛽️
🚲: ✅ (but space quite limited)
🦽: ✅ (but Żary Station not accessible)
🛜: ⛔️
🧳: 🙂
🧽: 🙂
But ❄️ broken. It’s baking!
Brought my own #BeerOnTrains and then got told off by the guard - that it’s not allowed…
One final border marker
Now back to Forst station by 🚲 and then trains via Cottbus to Berlin - and the trips for #CrossBorderRail Germany’s borders 2023 are done
#CrossBorderRail Train 66
RB 46 (68911)
19:33 Forst (Lausitz) - Cottbus Hbf 19:51
Ostdeutsche Eisenbahn GmbH
Average speed 74 km/h
Distance 22 km
Train type: Siemens Desiro Classic DMU, 2 carriages
⛽️
🚲: ✅
🦽: ✅ (step free)
🛜: ⛔️
🧳: 🙂 (Siemens Desiro - the best designed small DMU!)
🧽: 🤔 (It’s been in service all day I assume. Bit grimy inside)
#CrossBorderRail Train 67
RE 2 (95104)
20:04 Cottbus Hbf - Berlin - Ostbahnhof 21:23
DB Regio AG Nordost
Average speed 89 km/h
Distance 117 km
Train type: Taurus electric locomotive and 5 double deck carriages
⚡️
🚲: ✅
🦽: ✅ (step free if platform allows)
🛜: ✅
🧳: 🙂 (double deck, but plenty of multi use areas)
🧽: 🤔 (in service all day, by now not super clean inside)
Also I’m going to have cycled more than 80km today, after the 90km or so on Thursday. This #CrossBorderRail project keeps me fit (over and above the political purpose of it!)
Here are the stats, roughly. Need to recalculate a few
Biggest delay: 17 mins (in Czechia)
Connections missed: 1, in NRW (but next train was there in 15 mins)
More than 4000km travelled on more than 60 trains… for €49! I’ve made good use of my #DeutschlandTicket
And here’s today’s summary video
#CrossBorderRail Day 14 Summary
🇺🇦🇪🇺 cweickhmann
Trevin "TJ" Ward 🚲🚇
tops@jon BIG UP
Deutscher Bahnkunden-Verband@jon Eingleisig seit 1945. Weil ja Autobahn viel wichtiger ist.
@bahnkundenv Right. There’s so much was-once-much-better infra around here!
Quixoticgeek@jon Sx and Sw still to be visited ?
Did you start at Å? Or Aa?
Stephen Drennan@jon
I’m minded of the guy in ‘Hitchhikers…’ who, having been accidentally immortalised, makes it his mission to insult everyone who has ever lived - in alphabetical order.
I’m minded of the guy in ‘Hitchhikers…’ who, having been accidentally immortalised, makes it his mission to insult everyone who has ever lived - in alphabetical order.
@AVO8OHM if I’m to do a wacky non- #CrossBorderRail tour then it’ll be to visit every replica Eiffel Tower. No to go to all the shortest place names! 😜
Tor Lillqvist
Martin Hoffmann
🌺 Cat Pöñíçkøvā@jon silly Polish thing, you didn’t know that? (Not that it seems to have done anything with the amount of visible drunk people around.)
Gustav Lindqvist
Szymon Nowicki
Indra Kupferschmid 💙💛
AlisonW ♿🏳️🌈♾️@jon
Better drink it quickly and hide the evidence then!
Better drink it quickly and hide the evidence then!
Jens Kutílek@jenskutilek @yanone ah that’s a cool connection! Thank you Jens! It was a good beer too, although sadly not as cold as it needed to be today!
Beluga@jon
Haldema Waldemar! Are those three the same guy? Darn, those Europeans all look the same! 🤭
Haldema Waldemar! Are those three the same guy? Darn, those Europeans all look the same! 🤭
ralf tauscher 
@jon vor gaaanz langer zeit war ich da in der naehe im ferienlager ;)
Lukas 🎢🇨🇭@jon Stadler 🥰
And yes ramps > steps!
And yes ramps > steps!
Braid in trains 
- solidarity with 
@K1ngdaKa88 I think it’s because Mireo is designed to have powered axels in the middle of the EMU as well. Stadler powers only the end bogies of single deck EMUs
@jon hmm, but I feel it’s the same height difference in a Flirt and a Mireo. 🤔
@K1ngdaKa88 I think the middle high floor sections in Mireo are higher. The wheels in the middle are definitely larger.
Schleifleistenbruch@jon @K1ngdaKa88 As of now, there isn't any Mireo having powered axles in the middle of the train. Stadler had also no powered axles in the middle of the train for a long time, but the FLIRT 4 (e.g. for 
) could come with powered axles in the middle of the train.
Siemens can also build ramps, for instance in the Mireos delivered to Go-Ahead Bayern.
The decision ramp or steps heavily depends on the floor height (600 mm in the Mireo you used today vs. 800 mm in most of the Stadler FLIRT in Germany) and the specifications of the customer.
) could come with powered axles in the middle of the train. Siemens can also build ramps, for instance in the Mireos delivered to Go-Ahead Bayern.
The decision ramp or steps heavily depends on the floor height (600 mm in the Mireo you used today vs. 800 mm in most of the Stadler FLIRT in Germany) and the specifications of the customer.
@Schleifleistenbruch @K1ngdaKa88 But Stadler manages step free inside for 55cm platforms. Siemens doesn’t.