Jon WorthHere we go again!
#CrossBorderRail Extra Day 04
Heading to Basel SBB first, then onwards to Paris via Nuits-sous-Ravières and then onto a night train to Latour du Carol
Here’s today’s intro video
https://urbanists.video/w/sTWxEETdNaCbdR2jTRsHcM
PeerTube
First trip with the new (secondhand) Birdy Green - that also has different panniers
There was a little glitch with the front brake this morning (I’d accidentally dislodged a brake pad) so I had to pedal manically to Südkreuz
The massive rucksack is getting dropped off in Nuits-sous-Ravières today 😊
SNCF!
Let's build high speed lines all over!
Also SNCF!
Let's put ridiculously long dwell times at our stations!
TGV INOUI 2239 I am taking later
Do I understand it that you cannot buy tickets online for Rodalies Catalunya? There are no sales in the app, and no sales on the Generalitat de Catalunya or the Renfe sites
And I wonder what there is in Latour de Carol-Entveitg (or La Tor de Querol-Enveig as Rodalies calls it) - because as it’s in France will there be a machine there?
Anyway as the timetable is so damned bad I have 2 hours there tomorrow morning to figure it out :-)
#CrossBorderRail Extra Days Train 25
ICE 71
05:33 Berlin Südkreuz - Basel SBB 13:10
Deutsche Bahn
Distance: 874 km
Average speed: 115 km/h
Train type: ICE4 long version, 13 carriages
⚡️
🚲: ✅ (needs reservation)
🦽: ✅ (needs lift on platform or on board electric lift - not step free)
🛜: ✅
🍽️: ✅
🧳: 🙂 (ICE4 is well designed)
🧽: 😡 (wasn’t cleaned overnight inside, bit grimy outside too)
👍 DB
Got me to Basel on time. Train quiet and calm on board. Working wifi throughout the whole trip.
Next: onwards to France
#CrossBorderRail Extra Days Train 26
TER96226
13:21 Basel SBB - Mulhouse Ville 13:46
SNCF for TER Grand Est
Distance: 34 km
Average speed: 88 km/h
Train type: BB26000 locomotive, 8 Corail carriages, driving control car
⚡️
🚲: ✅ (steep steps and you hang the bikes up)
🦽: ✅ (lift on platform)
🛜: ⛔️
🍽️: ⛔️
🧳: 😡 (not a suitable design for a regional train - too narrow, too high steps)
🧽: 🤔 (ok inside, grimy outside - it’s a French regional train 🤷♂️)
I’ve also just cancelled a TGV reservation for later in my Interrail trip
Took 30 seconds… at a SNCF ticket machine. You get a receipt, and an email
The whole Interrail reservation process for TGVs is digital - QR codes. BUT they never built a web front end for it 🤦♂️ So you have to be in France at a long distance station to make it work
If you’re not you have to arse around with Trainplanet or SNCB’s suboptimal alternatives…
To recap
- If you’re on Interrail, reservations are compulsory on TGVs
- They’re €10 or €20 each, depending on how much of the contingent is used up
- You can get them online from SNCB International (yeah, B is for 🇧🇪 there!) or Trainplanet or via Interrail directly - but you pay a booking fee in addition of €2-€4
- You can get the reservations at SNCF ticket machines (and cancel them) and it works *impeccably* and digitally, but you have to be in France to do that 🤦♂️
- If you’re on Interrail, reservations are compulsory on TGVs
- They’re €10 or €20 each, depending on how much of the contingent is used up
- You can get them online from SNCB International (yeah, B is for 🇧🇪 there!) or Trainplanet or via Interrail directly - but you pay a booking fee in addition of €2-€4
- You can get the reservations at SNCF ticket machines (and cancel them) and it works *impeccably* and digitally, but you have to be in France to do that 🤦♂️
#CrossBorderRail Extra Days Train 27
TGV 5537
14:40 Mulhouse - Dijon Ville 16:04
SNCF Voyageurs
Distance: 204 km
Average speed: 146 km/h
Train type: TGV Réseau Single Deck, 2 x 8 carriages
⚡️
🚲: ✅ (3 per train, so just 6 total)
🦽: ✅ (lift on platform)
🛜: ✅
🍽️: ✅
🧳: 🙂 (single deck so it’s ok)
🧽: 🙂
#CrossBorderRail Extra Days Train 28
TER891356
16:33 Dijon Ville - Nuits-sous-Ravières 17:21
SNCF for TER Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
Distance: 89 km
Average speed: 112 km/h
Train type: AGC bimode 4 carriages, running only electric here
⚡️
🚲: ✅
🦽: ✅ (step free)
🛜: ⛔️
🍽️: ⛔️
🧳: 🙂 (good layout, good racks)
🧽: 🙂 (one of the cleanest TERs I’ve ever been on - outside. Ok inside)
Also @tops asked me why these AGC trains are so bumpy
It’s because for some reason they removed the suspension dampeners from all of them
This shows where that would be mounted
My pics from the AGC I’m on right now
And I’m stopping in Nuits-sous-Ravières for just an hour (to drop off things) - so no time to go to the house or pet Josette. Who’s probably enjoying a day in the sun on top of the cat bunker…
Onwards! Towards Barcelona via Paris and Latour de Carol
#CrossBorderRail Extra Days Train 29
TER17762
18:21 Nuits-sous-Ravières - Paris Bercy 20:25
SNCF for TER Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
Distance: 225 km
Average speed: 109 km/h
Train type: Alstom (now CAF) Régiolis, 2 x 6 carriages
⚡️
🚲: ✅ (well designed space)
🦽: ✅ (step free if platform allows)
🛜: ⛔️ (train built in 2021, but 🤷♂️)
🍽️: ⛔️
🧳: 🙂 (sensible design, good multi use space)
🧽: 🤔 (grimy outside, ok inside)
#CrossBorderRail Extra Days Train 30
IC 3971
21:13 Paris Austerlitz - Latour de Carol-Entveitg 08:46
SNCF Voyageurs
Distance: 998 km
Average speed: 87 km/h
Train type: BB22200 locomotive and Corail couchette carriages (3 to Latour, 6 to Lourdes)
⚡️
🚲: ✅ (not sure where - but officially it’s allowed)
🦽: ❓ (not obvious how it’s possible - will try to check later)
🛜: ⛔️
🍽️: ✅ (you can get a snack)
🧳: 🙂 (if everyone is collaborative it’s ok)
🧽: 🙂 (spotless)
This is funny
Four friends of mine are also all tonight on different night trains
So we’re musing who gets the biggest delay, and tracking it via GPS 🤓
I’m currently on time departing Les Aubrais, heading for Latour de Carol
There are 3 carriages to Latour de Carol. I’m in the 2nd class couchette - 6 beds per compartment, 4 filled tonight
This is one of the un renovated carriages. No wifi. Power only if you stand by the mirror, and 💩 goes on the tracks loo
The bed - by couchette standards - is comfortable and I can lie straight (just) - I’m 1m83 tall
There’s 1 seater (2+1 arrangement, open plan) - would be nice daytime, but the seats don’t recline much. And 1 renovated 1st class couchette with 4 beds per compartment. The other carriages have wifi too.
And to Latour there’s space for 2 bikes. And no disabled access as far as I can tell.
I can’t film a summary video here
So to close the day here’s some soothing back window view at sunset, approaching Les Aubrais
#CrossBorderRail Extra Day 04 Back Window
Good morning from the Ariège valley. Climbing steadily towards Latour de Carol. 30 mins delayed. And I managed a solid 6 hours of sleep in the train
Jan-Peter Siedentopf@jon There are trains from epochs where it is an advantage they have never been renovated. Fondly remembering a night train ride in Zimbabwe. Managed to have a 2h delay on a ~200 km trip starting at 8 p.m . sheduled arrival at 8 a.m. All brass and mahogany…
@jpsied you get some 1960s gems in Bulgaria too - for this sort of reason. Never renovated, but charming.
BoxOfRain@jon pretty
Edmund Lauterbach@jon I can counter with Munich kitsch. https://muenchen.social/@elba013/110465039805840530
Edmund Lauterbach (@[email protected])
Angehängt: 1 Bild Gut besucht war der erste PRO BAHN Stammtisch im Garten des Braunauer Hofs am ...
Quixoticgeek
Kristian Skjellum Aas@jon Have a nice trip! Greetings from Karl-Liebknecht-Straße in Leipzig!
@kristianaas I’m looking forward to this. First SNCF night train for me since - I think - 2000 (to go see a solar eclipse, bizarrely). And I’ve been meaning to go to Latour de Carol for years…
And enjoy Leipzig. Complex and sort of mixed up city, but with so many interesting things to discover!
@jon Looking very good so far! Alas, it's just a short stop, tomorrow I have to be at the pre-party for the Commodore 64-gathering in the Netherlands. So off to Amsterdam tomorrow morning!
Urs Lesse 🇪🇺🇺🇳@jon Ah, that boarding photo came just right ... was already on the brink of asking if you travel with a sherpa 😉 after noticing you mentioned using both a drone and a bicycle on your travels. Quite a load! 👍
@jon I only realized late that for most of the time, the bike is a carrier of weight rather than a weight to carry! 😀 👍
Stripymoggie@jon We spent a week in Cry, and cycled to Ravières for ice cream. Nice part of the world, and I wouldn't mind heading back.
@Stripymoggie I’m in Ravières a few months each year. My partner and I are renovating an old house there - about 200m from where you took that pic! Say hello if you’re passing again!
Katja
Tristram Gräbener@jon @tops apparently it was to save some money in the maintenance 🤷 http://transportrail.canalblog.com/archives/2016/06/24/33956694.html
Siège avec vue@jon You can also call the #SNCF and speak to someone in English to make an #interrail reservation. Check the seating plan on the website first (sorry) to identify where you'd like to sit, then ask nicely. Worked for my Lille-Angoulême. Do the guichets let you choose where you sit when you make the reservation?
@siegeavecvue how do they then send you the reservation? By email?
@jon Yes. They send you to a voice assistant to pay, then the operator gave me the reference number so I could import the ticket into the app. I got everything by email as well.
@siegeavecvue Grrrh. Why don’t they build a web interface on it?!?
@jon voyages-sncf.com used to allow you do book #Interrail passes. It's been missing for a few iterations since.
@siegeavecvue when it became SNCF Connect
@jon I think oui.sncf
Niklas @ EH23 🐰@jon There was a web frontend from SNCF for Interrail reservations back in 2020 if I remember that correctly - I‘ve done some reservations for a trip there which has been cancelled later on by myself for obvious reasons.
@niklas_net they ditched it when they launched SNCF Connect. To combat fraud, they said. It’s because SNCF hates Interrail I think in reality.
@jon And it’s absolutely true, sadly :(
But that’s a behavior I‘ve expected from SNCF.
Kostropak@Kostropak not very easily, because it’s all eTickets. PDFs mostly, with QR codes. But I then need to anonymise it all!
@jon Ok, I understand thanks 🙂
Sebastian Tobie@jon and i thought that they use Aztec for everything.
@Sebastian Maybe. But they still have to make a (public) web interface available, and they don’t.
@jon You can also cancel TGV reservations made through interrail, but I somehow only got 6 euros back on a 10 euro + 2 euro service cost reservation
David Linssen@jon wouldn’t be surprised if there’s still a working Minitel service for this ;-)
Markus Fink@jon did you cross a timezone?
@Znexhf_Svax oops. Correcting.
@jon I'm not a wheelchair user, but I thought the 4 _didn't_ need a lift on the platform, it brings its own lift with it?
Caledonia 🏴@jon That’s some window cleaning nightmare.
@Caledonia @jon not so much. Think about the person that has to clean up the dead birds in front of it.
@Sebastian @jon It was tongue in cheek. Not meant as a list of all the drawbacks to a glass building.