Jon WorthHere’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
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)
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.
#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!
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
“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
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
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?
Montenegro side everything is orderly (tunnel built in 1984) and obviously in use
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
(And yes, needless to say, there’s no way to book this online - you need someone local to do it for you)
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
(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)
#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)
#CrossBorderRail South East Europe v9 Draft
The routes for #CrossBorderRail South East Europe May-June 2024 - see http://crossborderrail.trainsforeurope.eu/ HOW TO USE THIS MAP Lines on the map show train, bus and bike routes - each plotted as accurately as possible. PURPLE and ORANGE lines are train routes. These alternate - one day purples, one day oranges. A different shade indicates a different train. GREEN lines are bus routes. GREY lines are bike routes - more details about these can be found on Komoot here: https://www.komoot.de/user/1897747552710 The full timetable for these routes is here: https://nextcloud.techpolitics.eu/index.php/s/ZjdP5YGH6ZS6ZHK Details of all of Europe's rail border crossings can be found in this map: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-all-the-borders_838780
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!
I reckon with all that messing around at the border we’re c. 30 mins late
And I’ve got 2 hours 30 mins timetabled to change onto the night train in Zagreb
So it looks ok enough. I might get home tomorrow 🙂
So there we are
Final train in South East Europe #CrossBorderRail - the EuroNight from Zagreb Glavni Kolodvor to Zürich HB
More than 60 trains, 20 buses, 600km cycled, 30 borders in the past 5 weeks
A few more trains tomorrow until I’m back in Ravières though!
#CrossBorderRail South East Europe 2024 Train 61 of 64
EN 40414
19:40 Zagreb Gl Kl - Zürich HB 09:20
HŽPP
Train type: Končar 1142 (Zagreb-Dobova), Siemens Taurus 1216 (Dobova-Villach), Siemens Taurus 1116 (Villach-Bischofshofen, Bischofshofen-Buchs SG), SLM BBC MFO SAAS Re 420 (Buchs SG-Zürich), 4 carriages (1 sleeping car, 2 couchettes, 1 seating car) Zagreb-Zürich, more carriages to other destinations
⚡️
🚲: ⛔️
🦽: ⛔️
🛜: ⛔️
🍽️: ✅ (basic snacks and breakfast)
🧳: 😐 (very high steps)
🧽: 🙂
EN 40414
19:40 Zagreb Gl Kl - Zürich HB 09:20
Distance: 784.8km
Average speed: 58km/h
22 stops:
Zaprešić
Dobova
Sevnica
Zidani Most
Ljubljana
Kranj
Lesce-Bled
Jesenice
Villach Hbf
Spittal-Millstättersee
Mallnitz-Obervellach
Bad Gastein
Bad Hofgastein
Schwarzach-St.Veit
Innsbruck Hbf
Landeck-Zams
St. Anton Am Arlberg
Langen Am Arlberg
Bludenz
Feldkirch
Buchs Sg
Zürich HB
This train, mapped: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-south-east-europe-v9-draft_1053482#8/46.670/12.250
#CrossBorderRail South East Europe v9 Draft
The routes for #CrossBorderRail South East Europe May-June 2024 - see http://crossborderrail.trainsforeurope.eu/ HOW TO USE THIS MAP Lines on the map show train, bus and bike routes - each plotted as accurately as possible. PURPLE and ORANGE lines are train routes. These alternate - one day purples, one day oranges. A different shade indicates a different train. GREEN lines are bus routes. GREY lines are bike routes - more details about these can be found on Komoot here: https://www.komoot.de/user/1897747552710 The full timetable for these routes is here: https://nextcloud.techpolitics.eu/index.php/s/ZjdP5YGH6ZS6ZHK Details of all of Europe's rail border crossings can be found in this map: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-all-the-borders_838780
Here’s… a video. A sort of summary of the last 36 hours!
#CrossBorderRail South East Europe 2024 - 6/30/2024, 5:24:12 PM
Dobova
First station in Slovenia
Border control
I ask: “Why are you checking here? This is Schengen”
Police: “Since 5 months we check” (this is correct, there’s a Schengen suspension)
Me: “Do you check every car here at this border too?”
Police: “Yes”
Me: “You don’t”
Police: “How do you know?”
Me: “Two weeks ago I was at Rogatec - Ðurmanec. Bicycle. Nothing!” (That’s 40km from here)
Police: pauses… “Well we only control the main connections”
Me: “That makes no sense”
Police: “That’s the government”
Me: “I understand. And sorry I was annoyed - you are doing your job. It’s not your fault”
Police: “Thank you - have a good journey”
But seriously: the ‘we control everything’ falls apart right away when you check me! 😂
Tomi the Slav and 1024 others@jon I enjoy watching your train trips. I've just bought my first international train tickets (SI-RO) mostly because of your posts :)