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

#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)
🧽: 🙂

432
20:45 Podgorica - Beograd Centar 06:19

Distance: 416.8km
Average speed: 44km/h

14 stops:
Kolašin
Mojkovac
Bijelo Polje
Prijepolje Teretna
Prijepolje
Priboj
Užice
Požega
Kosjeric
Valjevo
Lajkovac
Lazarevac
Rakovica
Beograd Centar

This train, mapped: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-south-east-europe-v9-draft_1053482#8/43.625/19.879

(Running +130 at Valjevo)

Oh and there were 2 border controls in the night

So when Montenegro’s Minister of Transport said on 7 June that by 15 June joint controls would start at Bijelo Polje, he was talking 💩

Which of course he was…

Worst staff of the trip so far: Montenegro railways ŽPCG

Ticket office in Podgorica: was sooner playing a game on her phone than serving customers

Night train attendants: being arsey about my folding bike, not stopping others smoking and smoking themselves. On a very full night train…

Full train. Everyone with luggage. Narrow door. High steps.

What does ŽPCG’s night train attendant do instead of helping? Gossips…

Belgrade Waterfront

My dic.. sorry, my tower is bigger than your tower

It’s so grim. The whole lot of it

#CrossBorderRail South East Europe 2024 Bus 20 of 20

11:30 Beograd Centar - Zagreb 17:00
Flixbus

Distance: 390.7km
Average speed: 71km/h

Bus type: Modern Setra
⛽️
🚲: ⛔️ (hold would be large enough, but staff are arsey about luggage quantity)
🦽: ⛔️
🛜: ⛔️
🍽️: ⛔️
🧳: 🙂 (hold is large)
🧽: 🙂

Also Belgrade Waterfront has about the most stupid bike racks I’ve ever seen (and it takes some doing)

They’re wide posts with 2 holes for locks

Holes are too high for a low bike

My lock won’t fit through the holes

Oh and they’re bolted to the ground… and look what’s happening there!

Spectacularly inefficient Croatian border control at Bajakovo

One bus in front of ours

They keep us waiting 40 minutes. Then they get us off… but then the booth is empty

A border guard is idly playing on her mobile

I’m not about to start campaigning about bus borders, but if you want people to take public transport you’ve got to do better than this!