Mastodawn

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

Welcome to today's thread - #CrossBorderRail South East Europe Day 28 29 Jun 2024 - Tirana - Shkodër – Podgorica, onto night train

Crossing these borders:
Tuzi 🇲🇪 - Vukpalaj-Bajze 🇦🇱
Bijelo Polje 🇲🇪 - Kumanica 🇷🇸

These borders on the borders map:
https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-all-the-borders_935041#9/42.7359/19.5502

Today's routes on the routes map:
https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-all-the-borders_935041#9/42.7359/19.5502

#CrossBorderRail All The Borders

All of Europe's rail borders - categorised by type, and whether I (Jon Worth) have been to the location. KEY Black - #000000: visited in 2022 during #CrossBorderRail Project Dark grey - #222222: visited in since the 2022 project Mid grey - #555555: tramways and narrow gauge lines, visited Light grey - #999999: not yet visited Very light grey - #BBBBBB: used for tramways and narrow gauge lines ICONS Track with cross - track is missing or out of use Train with cross, and track - track is useable but no passenger trains Train and track - passenger trains run Map developed as part of my #CrossBorderRail project http://crossborderrail.trainsforeurope.eu/

uMap

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

Here’s this morning’s thread as I start the long trip home. With some investigation en route 🙂 https://peertube.netzbegruenung.de/w/ieWSGmewQqVfxdPV8p7Kai

#CrossBorderRail South East Europe 2024 - 6/29/2024, 5:37:41 AM

PeerTube

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

I’ve found it! The new Tiranë central station. This is so badly located it’s almost as if they took consultancy advice from SNCF.

Oh and it’s meant to open “in 2025”

#CrossBorderRail South East Europe 2024 Bus 18 of 20

09:00 Tirana - Shkodër 11:00
No idea

Distance: 92.7km
Average speed: 46km/h

Bus type: Oldish Neoplan coach, used to run in Hohenstein Germany
⛽️
🚲: ✅ (driver offered to take my bike before I folded it)
🦽: ⛔️
🛜: ⛔️
🍽️: ⛔️
🧳: 🙂 (large-ish hold)
🧽: 😐 (seats worn and knackered)

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

And I was laughing about Tony Blair street in Pejë

Imagine living on felony street! 🤯

Kamëz 🇦🇱

(I was too slow to photograph it, but the map tells the story)

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

And Hamburgers - remember those three section buses you used to have that clogged up your intersections?

They now ply the route Kamëz - Tiranë (they painted them white but the seats still say Hochbahn)

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

Shkodër is chaos. No bus station. Buses to different places just leave from different street corners. And as my bus from Tiranë was late time was tight. But with 2 mins to spare I’m on to the bus to Koplik, close to the border to Montenegro.

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

#CrossBorderRail South East Europe 2024 Bus 19 of 20

11:30 Shkodër - Kaplik 12:00
Velipoja

Distance: 20km
Average speed: 40km/h

Bus type: No idea what sort this even is!
⛽️
🚲: ⛔️ (hold too small)
🦽: ⛔️
🛜: ⛔️
🍽️: ⛔️
🧳: 🙂 (enough space for luggage)
🧽: ☹️ (falling apart and totally grimy inside)

Friendly driver though, has family living in München!

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

Got talking to a guy at Shkodër. “How many people live here?”
“150000. But twenty years ago it was 250000. There’s nothing to do here!”
He then proceeded into a rant about political corruption and Edi Rama and that Tiranë gets all the money… 🤔
#CrossBorderRail

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

Let’s do this! Last major bike stage of #CrossBorderRail

#CrossBorderRail South East Europe 2024 Bike 30 of 30
Kaplik - Podgorica

Distance: 38.6km
Est. duration: 3:00

This bike route, mapped on Komoot: https://www.komoot.com/tour/1383691090

#CrossBorderRail Kaplik - Podgorica | bike Tour | Komoot

Jon Worth planned an outdoor adventure with komoot! Distance: 40.8 km | Duration: 02:28 h

komoot

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

Podgorica

That was 🥵

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

I’ve once passed through Podgorica by car and assumed I’d missed the centre / the life

Now I’ve cycled all around it, and I’ve still found nothing

Is there a square with a load of cafes anywhere? If so where is it?

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

Ok, today’s #CrossBorderRail peculiarity

Tuzi 🇲🇪 - Vukpalaj-Bajze 🇦🇱

I started at Koplik, Albania side
https://maps.app.goo.gl/XujpwFKWCFXdp9zD8

This was the track. Nothing has run in ages

Bevor Sie zu Google Maps weitergehen

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

Then 14km north - here
https://maps.app.goo.gl/tjD5LHKj8kC2GkRGA

This is how it looked - still knackered but in use

Bevor Sie zu Google Maps weitergehen

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

The only thing in between in Bajzë https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bajz%C3%AB_railway_station?wprov=sfti1

So I presume some freight is shipped cross border and put on trucks there?

Bajzë railway station - Wikipedia

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

Montenegro side everything is orderly (tunnel built in 1984) and obviously in use

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

So…

I asked some members of the Green Party I know here in Montenegro to get me the tickets for the night train

Specific instructions:
Carriage 465 (the Tito carriage)
A compartment only for me, whatever it costs

Ah this stuff is fine to do a week ahead. They did. And then 1) I’m not in the Tito carriage, and 2) am sharing with 2 others, because they waited too long!

This was meant to be the only bit of luxury in this whole trip and it’s f***ed up. Annoying

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

(And yes, needless to say, there’s no way to book this online - you need someone local to do it for you)

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

New or old trains, train windows get broken

Kosovo (ex-DB) and Albania (ex-DR/DB), second hand - in those cases smashed panes are left in place

Romania (new, Siemens) and here too ŽPCG (new, CAF) it’s a problem too - hard to see in the pic, but poorly replaced with Perspex

When you buy trains *also buy spares*

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

WiFi too slow here at Podgorica. Nothing but text will upload. And there’ll be no WiFi on board.

Summaries, assessments etc will have to wait for tomorrow once I’m in Serbia!

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

Want to know the carriages in a train in this region? Vagonweb has you covered https://www.vagonweb.cz/razeni/vlak.php?zeme=SV&kategorie=&cislo=432&nazev=Lov%C4%87en&rok=2024

I’m on 462, an old French or Italian sleeping car

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

Timetables, ŽPCG style

There’s one line in the *entire country* that the Bar-Beograd train doesn’t serve. It’s Nikšić - Podgorica

Do they run a Nikšić-Podgorica to connect with Bar-Beograd

No of course they don’t 🤦‍♂️ From Nikšić it arrives in Podgorica half an hour after the Beograd train leaves

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

(And please don’t try trainsplaining me “oh but maybe they use the same route” (they don’t - apart from a few hundred metres entering Podgorica), “there’s not platform capacity” (there is - I’m at Podgorica right now), or “they use the same rolling stock” (they don’t) - this is incompetence plain and simple)

Jon Worth Jun 30, 2024

#CrossBorderRail South East Europe 2024 Train 60 of 64
432
20:45 Podgorica - Beograd Centar 06:19
ŽPCG

Train type: Electroputere 461 (Podgorica-Bijelo Polje), Končar, TŽV Janko Gredelj, Đuro Đaković, MIN Niš 441 locomotive (Bijelo Polje-Beograd), 4 sleeping cars, 4 couchettes, 3 seating cars, 1 dining car, 3 car transport waggons
⚡️
🚲: ✅ (attendant told me there was space)
🦽: ⛔️
🛜: ⛔️
🍽️: ✅
🧳: 😐 (narrow doors, high steps)
🧽: 🙂

Pepijn Jun 29, 2024

@jon heh 🙂

Maybe they do this on purpose to create organic social media chatter and thus promote the service? :-D

Vor-Ort-Anleiter 🇺🇦 📯Jun 29, 2024

@jon After re-opening the line to Nikšić there used to be a direct Beograd - Nikšić sleeping car, I took it in october 2012. It ceased to exist after some months, as far as I remember.

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

Ah that’s good ☺️

Water fountain to wash a bit on the platform at Podgorica

And yes I’ve got a funny suntan. That’s what happens when you’ve cycled a lot and worn shorts and closed shoes 99% of the time!

Martha Jun 29, 2024

@jon
Somehow prophetic ending to this train trawl through this complicated and damaged region.
Sorry you have to deal with this. Did you ever find an open cafe/bar?

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

@Island_Martha yes. Two. But both non descript!

Martha Jun 29, 2024

@jon
Null points Podgorica!

Tim Richards Jul 1, 2024

@jon I showed up at Bar by bus from Dubrovnik last year and hoped for a private compartment that night to Beograd, but nope - scored a couchette for €8 supplement on my Eurail pass. Only had to share it with two others though, so wasn't too bad. Wish it could be booked online!

Jon Worth Jul 1, 2024

@timrichards last night you’d have got a sleeper berth too - if you’d pushed it. But getting ŽPCG staff to be helpful isn’t always simple!

Tim Richards Jul 1, 2024

@jon The lady behind the desk at Bar station was nice but had zero English - I'd composed my questions in Google Translate first, so at least that was helpful.

How was Beograd Centar station, have they finished building the top section?

Jon Worth Jul 2, 2024

@timrichards it’s ok. Bit bland, but useable. The bus connections are still poor into the city though.

CGdoppelpunkt Jun 29, 2024

Der Balkan. Symbolbild.

Vor-Ort-Anleiter 🇺🇦 📯Jun 29, 2024

@jon Back in 2016 the line must have been still in use.
Otherwise I wouln't have seen ÖBB freight cars attached to the Durres - Shkoder passenger train on their way back from Tirana to Stadlau.

Poupou Jun 29, 2024

@jon I remember something like an old town Center with restaurants with a lot of outdoor seating, can’t remember the name of that area though

Martha Jun 29, 2024

@jon
I took a quick look a Trip Advisor. They seem to show a number of cafes and bars in and around Independence square and near the ginormous Orthodox Cathedral. Happy hunting.

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

@Island_Martha I was one block from the cathedral and it’s quiet even there!

Martha Jun 29, 2024

@jon
Saturday afternoon in the summer. Maybe everyone is sleeping. That really seems weird.

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

@Island_Martha even the cafes there were looked rather unimpressive. In the Balkans there are always loads of people hanging out in cafes. Everywhere. At any time. But not here.

Martha Jun 29, 2024

@jon
I've never encountered such a thing in a southern country; maybe aliens kidnapped the populace. There's a university. There must be somewhere that students go.

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

@Island_Martha I tried a pub called Warhol. Some blog called it a Podgorica institution. It was small, in the basement of a tower block near the university, and closed!

Martha Jun 29, 2024

@jon
I am genuinely perplexed. I've never encountered city closed down this way on a summer Saturday, not even Poland on a Sunday is this dead.

Martha Jun 29, 2024

@jon
Have you tried the area called Nova Varos?

tops Jun 29, 2024

@jon I spent three nights there in May last year. Didn't find much going on.

kravietz 🦇Jun 29, 2024

@jon Nice, I’ll be going there in just two weeks :)

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

@kravietz I find Podgorica a bit peculiar. But I have a few hours to explore now. Let’s see what I find. Montenegro’s nature is amazing though - amazing place. And the Bar - Belgrade railway line legendary.

kravietz 🦇Jun 29, 2024

I know, I always wanted to ride through the tunnels! But we’re going for a caving expedition, so time in transit is essential so we can explore other undergrounds :)

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

@kravietz the nicest part is Podgorica - Bijelo Polje. Doable as a day trip 🙂

kravietz 🦇Jun 29, 2024

Ah, right - that’s where I saw the tunnels in Bijelo Polje.

Martin Schröder 🇺🇳Jun 29, 2024

@jon
How did you fix your bike?

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

@oneiros with a cable!

Martha Jun 29, 2024

@jon
Go Birdy Go!

Martha Jun 29, 2024

@jon
Looks like it might be a pretty scenic ride. THere's no rain anticipated - I checked

Dining Car Jun 29, 2024

@jon
All the best and good luck!

Martin G Jun 29, 2024

@jon have a nice trip (and enough to drink)!

Martha Jun 29, 2024

@jon
I'm not surprised. He's probably right.

r-hold Jun 29, 2024

@jon they were on a line on a main Street mostly going straight forward and did just fine. Used to be a tram in ancient times.

Do they clog where you use them now?

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

@rhold Well traffic in Tirana is hellish. Not sure if these are much worse than a regular bus!

Martha Jun 29, 2024

@jon
Are there enough passengers to require such long busses?

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

@Island_Martha Yep. It’s full. Standing room only.

Jon Worth Jun 29, 2024

@Island_Martha (well that one maybe not as it was just starting, but it’s a major commuter route. It ought to have a tram. It runs the green line as shown, roughly)