Welcome to the #CrossBorderRail Mystery Trains Days Thread
Today: Berlin - Karlsruhe - Wörth/Rhein - Lauterbourg - Strasbourg - Haguenau
Tomorrow: Haguenau - Reichshoffen - Strasbourg - Offenburg - Freiburg (Breisgau) - Berlin
Crossing these borders:
Berg (Pfalz) 🇩🇪 - Lauterbourg 🇫🇷
Kehl 🇩🇪 - Krimmeri-Meinau 🇫🇷
But that's not the point of this trip... I am instead going looking for cross border trains, not checking infrastructure
Here’s today’s intro video
Why am I going to Lauterbourg and Reichshoffen?
#CrossBorderRail 2024 Mystery Trains Days
Train 1/10
ICE 73
07:23 Berlin Hbf
13:09 Karlsruhe Hbf
705.8km
122km/h
DB Fernverkehr
Train type: ICE 4 long version
⚡️
🚲: ✅ (needs reservation)
🦽: ✅ (lift on board and stations have backup ramps)
🛜: ✅
🍽️: ✅
🧳: 🙂
🧽: 😐 (clean outside, but wasn’t cleaned overnight inside)
I think DB fetched a different train out of the depot this morning as it hasn’t been cleaned
That also means reservation signs seem to be wrong (I took what looked like a free seat, but it was reserved)
Pro tip if travelling without a reservation: use Comfort Check In in DB Navigator. It won’t let you check in if a seat is actually reserved
Euractiv tries to explain why rail ticketing is in von der Leyen’s political priorities https://www.euractiv.com/section/railways/news/von-der-leyens-second-attempt-at-single-ticket-rail-travel/?trk=feed_main-feed-card_feed-article-content
And I have Gell-Mann Amnesia https://themindcollection.com/gell-mann-amnesia-effect/
I’m going to have to write an explainer
It’s obvious to many people what’s broken - EU wide train ticket booking doesn’t work as well as it should
But where it’s better or worse, why this is the case, why the industry alone will not fix this, and what to do about it are all poorly understood
This is WHY the Commission should act https://jonworth.eu/note-to-the-new-eu-transport-commissioner-fixing-cross-border-rail-ticketing-will-help-millions-of-europeans-and-can-secure-your-legacy/
Dear 2024 nominee for European Commissioner for Transport, Congratulations on your nomination. Being Transport Commissioner is a massive challenge, and an enormous privilege. As pretty much all of us living in the EU use some sort of transport every day, what you do is going to have an impact on […]
And in spring I wrote a detailed and long report about European rail ticketing - that has a bunch of case studies about what needs fixing https://jonworth.eu/a-report-for-jakop-dalunde-mep-and-a-follow-up-event-about-rail-and-multimodal-ticketing-in-the-eu/
The political context has changed a bit since then, but the practical issues remain the same
I was commissioned by Jakop Dalunde, MEP from Miljöpartiet de gröna (Greens/EFA), to write a report about the ongoing challenges to fix multimodal and especially railway ticketing problems EU-wide. The report - entitled "Simplifying European Ticketing – A chance for a green transformation of public and multimodal transport in the
Back to today's project... going to find the cross border Régiolis trains parked up rusting
Rheinland Pfalz now only sees the new contract for operations in place from December 2027! 😡 https://www.zoepnv-sued.de/projekte/grand-est (right at the bottom)
That's a full 3 years later than planned, and means the trains will only run 8 years after being ordered, and 6 years after the first one was delivered. FFS
Ok, the approval of these cross border Régiolis trains
They're notionally class Z85500, can also be known as Régiolis and Coradia Polyvalent, built by an Alstom works that got taken over by CAF
But I find no approval of them in the ERA ERATV database: https://eratv.era.europa.eu/Eratv/Search
Someone who knows this better than me - @partim maybe? - is there something I am missing to find an approval?
Or could EBA still approve these for Germany?
Damn rail reporting is full of 💩
“Das Besondere an den neuen Triebwagen: Sie verfügen über eine Mehrsystemtechnik, mit der sie elektrisch fahren und nicht elektrifizierte Teilstücke mit Dieselantrieb überbrücken können. 40 Mio. Euro hat die Entwicklung des neuen Fahrzeugtyps gekostet, welche die Projektpartner gemeinsam stemmen.”
Eh come on
Geneva has Régiolis that can do 15kV
France has dozens of electro-diesel Régiolis *for a decade*
So all these FR-DE Régiolis do is combine these two
Meanwhile my trip is going to 💩 in Frankfurt
The Riedbahn is closed for works
My train was meant to take the diversion via Darmstadt
But 💥 something has hit a bridge, part closing that line… so we’re going on the even longer detour via Worms instead
I’ll get to Lauterbourg eventually 🙂
Ah this is what has buggered everything up https://www.presseportal.de/blaulicht/pm/14915/5834425
A truck has hit a bridge on the rail line to Darmstadt
A passenger was just really rude to a DB staff member here about the delay
It was a 🛻 striking a bridge! You can’t blame DB here! FFS
#CrossBorderRail 2024 Mystery Trains Days
Train 2/10
RB 51 (12432)
14:34 Karlsruhe Hbf
14:52 Wörth(Rhein)
13.2km
44km/h
DB Regio AG Mitte
Train type: Talent DMU 3 carriages
⛽️
🚲: ✅ (lots of space)
🦽: ❓ (entry too low in Karlsruhe you’d need some ramp inside - how?)
🛜: ⛔️
🍽️: ⛔️
🧳: 🙂 (lots of space, multi use areas)
🧽: 😐 (grimy and worn)
#CrossBorderRail 2024 Mystery Trains Days
Train 3/10
RB 52 (81471)
15:19 Wörth(Rhein)
15:36 Lauterbourg
12.5km
44km/h
DB Regio AG Mitte
Train type: 628 DMU, 2 carriages
⛽️
🚲: ✅
🦽: ⛔️
🛜: ⛔️
🍽️: ⛔️
🧳: 🙂
🧽: 🙂 (it’s old but neat)
And yes, a knackered non disabled accessible DMU is being used for the #CrossBorderRail service here - because the new trains ordered… aren’t running yet
And might well not run for some time
Which is exactly why I’m here
So…
13 (of the 30) 4 carriage brand new Régiolis trains for France-Germany #CrossBorderRail operation found parked up at Lauterbourg
#CrossBorderRail 2024 Mystery Trains Days
Train 4/10
TER30735
17:40 Lauterbourg
18:38 Hoenheim
c 50km
c 52km/h
SNCF for TER Grand Est Fluo
Train type: Régiolis bi-mode 4 carriages
⛽️
🚲: ✅
🦽: ❓ (train is fine but stations barely have platforms)
🛜: ⛔️
🍽️: ⛔️
🧳: 🙂
🧽: 🙂
@jon
s’Chileli vo Määnz ^^
Schweizweit bekannt wurde die Kirche nach der Eröffnung der Gotthardbahn 1882, weil man sie bei der Fahrt aus dem Zug dreimal aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven erblicken kann. Dies ist der Tatsache geschuldet, dass die Bahnstrecke um Wassen mithilfe zweier Kehrtunnel (Wattinger Tunnel und Leggisteintunnel) rund 200 Höhenmeter in kurzer Distanz überwindet.
https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirche_Wassen
@bahntiger Weil da eine Kurve fehlt. 😃
Du kommst nicht von Kastel Bahnhof über die Brücke. Höchstens mit Kopf machen in Wiesbaden Ost.
Sering worms is always a ground experience.
@jon "Cross border" much gut!
Politicians, at the same time throwing away Schengen, one of the most important advances modern Europe made.
@jon Turns out googling for “Regiolis-TFR” brings up some results. Apparently, a prototype was presented in 2021* and then a prototype was presented in September 2023†. Testing may have started in April 2023‡, which means if there had been an approval it would be in ERATV.
* https://www.baden-wuerttemberg.de/de/service/presse/pressemitteilung/pid/neuer-prototyp-fuer-nahverkehr-nach-frankreich-vorgestellt-1/
† https://www.rlp.de/service/pressemitteilungen/detail/grenzueberschreitender-regiolis-tfr-setzt-nachhaltiges-zeichen-fuer-europa
‡ https://www.lok-report.de/news/deutschland/aus-den-laendern/item/40438-rheinland-pfalz-drei-prototypen-regiolis-auf-erprobungstour.html
Deutschland und Frankreich haben den ersten grenzüberschreitend einsetzbaren Triebwagen „Regiolis“ vorgestellt. Bis 2024 soll der Nahverkehr im Grenzgebiet deutlich ausgebaut werden, um ein attraktives, klimafreundliches Verkehrsangebot zu schaffen.
Jon Worth
Martin Hoffmann
Braid in trains 
- solidarity with 
Martha
~n
Ralph Angenendt
Markus Fink
Luke Philipps
Indra Kupferschmid 💙💛
Marco Bereth 
🇪🇺
Andreas Preissig
Andi Barth
CGdoppelpunkt
o ifrit 🌱
Marc Haber
Wrzlbrnft
utzer 
Roland Sivonen