Here’s today’s intro video

Why am I going to Lauterbourg and Reichshoffen?

https://peertube.netzbegruenung.de/w/44CHPH8MU8EJyKVaUhxSig

#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/

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

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 🙂

How many sides of Mainz would you like to see?

DB: yes