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)

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)

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)

#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!

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

Podgorica

That was 🥵

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?

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

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

This is how it looked - still knackered but in use

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?

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

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*

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!

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

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