Martin Hoffmann“It’s not cities that are loud, it’s cars that are loud.”
“What?”
“IT’S NOT C… ach, never mind.”
And today’s map. We started at nearly sea level, climbed up past Ragusa – a breathtaking section with gorgeous gorges*, then went down again to sea level at Gela, along the coast to Licata, then way up again to Caltanisetta, and from there down via Xirbi to sea level. Spectacular tour, this! The difference between the very dry south coast and the fertile north is markable.
* Oh, yes, he did!
G’day! Today I am trying something completely new: I will be using only one train for the entire day. It’s still a nine hour ride, mind.
But first, have a picture of a man on a horse.
Don’t underestimate the size of Sicily. The express train takes three hours from Palermo to Messina.
The plod is checking everyone’s documents. Like, properly, with scanning and typing names into phones and waiting around while we’re in a tunnel without coverage.
We’re going on a boat trip!
For the day Intercitys, they now just keep the locomotives on with the trains which speeds up operations quite a bit. Once your train has been pushed onto the boat, you can leave and wander around. Or not. Up to you, really.
Each four carriage plus locomotive half of the train (one from Palermo, one from Siracusa) fits exactly into one track.
How long does an iPhone last on a video call? Asking for the Australian lady across the aisle who’s been going on for an hour at least and won’t shut up.
Complaining to her friend on the speakerphone that people here are rude.
We’ve arrived in Villa San Giovanni exactly one minute early. Now just five more hours mostly north.
(The chatty Australians are going to Salerno. Guess it’s going to be a headphone afternoon.)
Twenty minutes past departure time in Villa and our driver just got bored and left the locomotive.
In many European countries you will find a white line going up and down in tunnels. They aren’t decoration but rather lead to a rescue alcove in the tunnel wall where you could hide from a train. The line is at the floor at an alcove and at its highest half way to the next one. Thus, wherever you are, you just need to follow the white line downwards to get to the nearest point of safety.
I miss my one hour breaks to take a walk through some small town. This is no way to travel!
The railway up the southern Tyrrhenian coast quite spectacular. Glad the night trains were all sold out.
(The sun is too low for train window photos, so you’ve got to go see it for yourself.)
Battipaglia, where the loop through the south closes. The end is getting nearer …
Almost on time in Napoli Centrale. We were a couple minutes early but got held up entering the station.
No map today since it is all very straightforward: Along the north coast of Sicily from Palermo to Messina and then along the west coast of the mainland from Villa San Giovanni to Napoli.
Good morning! The breakfast room was busy, so I went for a morning stroll through the old town of Naples instead. Much as expected, it is delightful, crumbling chaos.
Let’s do a bit of a train test this morning as these things are likely to appear in more places in Europe.
First issue: my seat is double booked. No, really. I checked. One reservation from a Trenitalia counter, one from ÖBB, both for the same day, train, carriage, seat. Let’s see what the conductor’s pad has to say.
Aha. So my question “Is that actually a 5?” was correct. The other reservation wasn’t for 5A but for 6A.
The ride quality of the train is as you would expect from a train designed jointly by Bombardier and Ansaldo-Breda. The suspension is very rough, lot of jittering and bumping and there’s a rather loud drone from the rolling of the wheels.
I guess the rule still stands: if you want smooth trains, go for Siemens or original Alstom.
The high-speed line between Rome and Florence has a top speed of 250 kph and still is electrified with 3000 V DC. Took them quite some to make that work as there are all sorts of unexpected physics things going on. By the looks of it, the wires are about twice as thick as normal, too. Should probably go and look up what the current limits are.
Look, if you fly over all the way from America, get on a train from Rome north and immediately get your iPads out, close the window blinds and watch some TV series, I’ll judge you. Sorry, can’t help it.
Past Firenze and right into the tunnels completing the full set of three of lines between Firenze and Bologna. (It really is a lot of tunnels, this.)
Ten minutes early in Bologna. This new underground high-speed station is a rather soulcrushing place. But at least it is right under the real station.
Regionale Veloce (what once was an Espresso) from Bologna all the way to Brennero at the Austrian border. I’d rather have a half hour, one hour transfer in Verona, but it is what it is.
Darn. Too slow to take a picture of the Bologna Gadgetbahn, a single carriage monorail complete with advertised-over windows connecting central station and the airport.
“We inform passengers that a check by railway police is now in progress.”
Trenitalia surely is pulling out all the stops on this last train. We left Bologna 10 minutes late, had a long slow order, had to step aside for an Italo train, arrived in Verona 33 minutes late, and are now standing here.
Aaand we are off 36 minutes late. Transfer time in Brennero is 37 minutes.
Half an hour later is the Eurocity which I assume I can use without surcharge from Brennero?
New development. They will turn the train early in Vipiteno (two stops before Brennero) but are holding the regional that was supposed to run behind us and is now ahead. Or that’s their plan at least. Let’s hope it works.
This would all be kind of fun, but it is getting dark and therefore boring.
Oh goody. They didn’t hold the train, they just made it sound like it in the announcement. 45 minutes wait now.
I mean, I kind of asked for an hour to walk around. But it is dark and raining. (Rain. I forgot about rain.)
Be careful what you ask for.
This gives me time to talk about the bell.
In many Italian stations, a bell starts ringing a while before a train is due to arrive. It’ll keep ringing for ages and then suddenly stops and seconds later (or longer, depending on the station) the train will come around the corner. Which is quite practical if you want to photograph the train but that’s probably not the purpose.
My theory is that the bell is ringing while an entry signal is green and thus stops when the train passes the signal.
Oh, good. The next train is ten minutes late and I bet ÖBB won’t wait in Brennero.
Brennero/Brenner … and that’s kind of it. But I’ll be back, Italy, if you promise to return trains to some of those lines with bus replacement. (And probably even if not.)
And never mind the connection, the Austrians are as late as the Italians.
Good morning from a world where there are self-service coffee machines in hotel breakfast rooms.
Today’s adventure: get back home. Let’s see if I make it or give up somewhere, spend another night, and roll directly into the office tomorrow morning.
Sighs and closes the ViaggaTreno tabs. The what, you ask? http://viaggiatreno.it/ has all of Trenitalia’s real-time information. It shows current and upcoming disruptions, station departure and arrival boards, and delay information for trains. The latter is automatically updated whenever a train passes a scheduled point (including junctions and such) and is thus quite accurate.
Disclaimer: Only works for Trenitalia, Trenord, and Trenitalia TPER trains on state railway infrastructure.
“Information for ICE 1218 to Hamburg-Altona. This train is delayed indefinitely. The reason for this delay is still unknown.” Going great.
Half an hour after departure they now updated the delay prognosis to 30 to 40 minutes. I guess they now start playing the game where they increase the delay by ten minutes every ten minutes.
Screw this. I’ll take the Railjet to Salzburg and then take it from there.
Oh, there the ICE is. I can still change my mind in Jenbach or Wörgl. But I kind of don’t want to. I’d miss my connection in Munich and could only get home by way of a boring direct route. Better to go to Salzburg and travel some new lines.
The train just passed through Bergen (Oberbay). There’s an idea for a theme for an Interrail trip in this.
Next we are going to Braunau am Inn and don’t you dare make any jokes.
These Desiro trains used on the Salzburg to Braunau line are a long way from home!
Ach, #CrossBorderRail. Coming from Salzburg, your train ends in Braunau. You have to go through a tunnel to connect to the train from Linz which then goes one stop further to Simbach in Germany, where you have to run through tunnel to make the train to Mühldorf, half an hour away. Maybe at least have the German train go to
Braunau if you absolutely can’t make a through train Linz – Mühldorf?
Braunau if you absolutely can’t make a through train Linz – Mühldorf?
Mühldorf is a great big hub where eight trains meet. It is also one of the very few regions where you can still see the old class 628, affectionally known as “wanderdüne” (wandering dune) for its lack of power and the resulting perceived acceleration.
All the food options at Nuremberg central station are either meh, closed, have no food, or feature an endless queue (the one from Lidl goes across the entire station hall). Let’s try the dining car. Wanna bet it doesn’t have any food either?
Haha.
(“Dear guests, due to technical
limitations … we can only offer this limited selection.”)
They have the chili and beer, though, so I’m okay.
Always lovely if the train manager responds to your ticket with “Oh, Interrail, nice,” curiously peeks at the travel diary, and we get to discuss destinations for a bit.
(See, paper Interrail passes are just better.)
Calling it a day in Frankfurt. While the area around central station isn’t exactly top notch, there’s a surprisingly large amount of hotels of all couleurs within a couple minutes walk, so Frankfurt is a really good overnight stop for train travellers.
Good early morning from a compartment in ICE 222, serving as today’s breakfast room. Final journey of the trip.
Stopped on the Rhine bridge in Cologne, time for some “art.” (Yeah, the quote marks do a lot of heavy lifting.)
There goes the final train of the journey.
This was a ridiculous amount of fun! Thank you for following along and for all the likes and boosts!
Andrew Price@partim
And their high floors and steep steps if you were attempting to clamber aboard with a bicycle...
And their high floors and steep steps if you were attempting to clamber aboard with a bicycle...
@andrewprice I am also ever increasingly missing power outlets.
Daniel@partim but who broke it? 😏
@wanisbunes Fair point.
Helge Wilker@partim Train delay information is like the interrogation of a suspect who only gives up those bits of the case that the detective knows already anyway…