And off OUIGO to Marne La Vallée Chessy

Thank goodness I’m not going all the way to Toulon on this!

High speed train

Slow speed boarding

You can see how Marne La Vallée Chessy worked for #CrossChannelRail

Pic 1: the terminal
Pic 2: escalators secured with kind of fences, as in Lille
Pic 3: glass divider on the platform

And here’s SNCF inviting harassment of passengers by telling them to display sensitive information

No, legally you DO NOT need to put a mobile number on your luggage!

How dare SNCF exceed what’s legally necessary in this publicity?

So my little tour of the eastern edges of Paris is done

RER back into the city now!

Arriving at Paris Gare de Lyon - the station for high speed trains to France‘s second and third cities Marseille and Lyon… and there are 4 trains in the next hour.

FOUR

That’s it.

The chronically under utilised capacity on French rail, off peak, makes me annoyed.

And 2 of the 4 trains this hour at Paris Gare de Lyon are regional ones

So just 2 high speed departures

Compare that to Milano Centrale with 8 departures, or Frankfurt (Main) Hbf with a dozen

(Oh and DB doesn’t show Italo. So the Milano total will be higher still)

And when SNCF goes whining to the Italian competition authority it can’t get the paths it wants in Italy, pause a moment: Italian high speed lines and stations are quite full, all day

By contrast SNCF Réseau can‘t refuse Trenitalia an off peak path in France when nothing else is going

There are some design choices made by Trenitalia for the interior that make little sense

Worst: luggage space. Most carriages have no rack for large bags at all! What were they thinking?

They don’t sell 2 seats per carriage as a temporary solution for this

Thankfully the overhead racks are generous. Not quite as good as Talgo, but still very good.

The noise level on board is fine. The air quality good. Toilets and vestibules well designed. Gangways between carriages wide.

Put some luggage racks in, and replace linoleum floors with carpet and you’d have an excellent train.

France tangent: Bourgogne Franche Comté reduction cards have not been working on SNCF for a week or so, despite SNCF issuing them AFAIK

Now all holders have received an email telling them to… 🥁… use another SNCF website to book instead

Well done everyone!

Now on the final train home, Dijon to Nuits-sous-Ravières

It’s packed

But there *are seats* - but passengers put bags on them

I don’t know what’s more stupid: doing that to deny passengers a seat, or passengers refusing to ask passengers move bags?

I asked, got a grumpy 🤷‍♂️ but the passenger complied and I have a seat

Spent the past couple of hours working on the data, as so many of my #CrossBorderRail plans changed in the past couple of days

The map I travelled is now more or less right: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crosschannelrail-2025_1148540#6/48.973/2.845

But all the train assessments will follow sometime, tomorrow if I have the energy!

And just one more station of #CrossBorderRail to go... Montbard now, 10 mins to Nuits-sous-Ravières and then 2km bike home

And then this monster will no doubt be sat on my knee within 2 minutes of my arrival!

Thanks for following all of this crazy project this past three weeks. I need a bit of a rest, but there will be a lot more soon!

SNCF: bags without a label are a big danger! Announce! Fine! Act!

Also SNCF: passenger blocking doors (an escape route) with 4 bags. 🤷‍♂️

OK, the missing assessments!

#CrossChannelRail Train 66 of 72
RER D
09:31 Paris Gare de Lyon - Paris Nord 09:41
SNCF for Île-de-France Mobilités

Train type: ANF, CIMT, GEC Alsthom Z 20500 EMU, 2x 5 double deck carriages
⚡️ (1.5kV dc)
🚲: ✅ (off peak)
🦽: ✅ (ramp on platform)
🛜: ⛔️
🍽️: ⛔️
🧳: 😐 (difficult design - hard to move with larger bags in double deck carriages)️
🧽: 🙂

RER D
09:31 Paris Gare de Lyon - Paris Nord 09:41

Distance: 5.3km
Average speed: 32km/h

2 stops:
Chatelet les Halles
Paris Gare du Nord

This train, mapped: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crosschannelrail-2025_1148540#14/48.8620/2.3599

#CrossChannelRail Train 67 of 72
RER B
09:57 Paris Nord - Aéroport Charles de Gaulle 2 10:26
RATP & SNCF for Île-de-France Mobilités

Train type: Alsthom, Société Franco-Belge MI 79 EMU, 2x 4 carriages
⚡️ (1.5kV dc, then 25kV ac)
🚲: ✅ (off peak)
🦽: ✅ (ramp on platform)
🛜: ⛔️
🍽️: ⛔️
🧳: 😐 (not handy with large bags)️
🧽: 🙂

RER B
09:57 Paris Nord - Aéroport Charles de Gaulle 2 10:26

Distance: 28.4km
Average speed: 59km/h

4 stops:
La Plaine - Stade de France
Aulnay sous Bois
Parc des Expositions
Aéroport Charles de Gaulle 1

This train, mapped: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crosschannelrail-2025_1148540#13/48.9454/2.4612

#CrossChannelRail Train 68 of 72
OGV 7897
11:00 Charles de Gaulle - Marne-la-Vallée Chessy 11:27
SNCF Voyageurs

Train type: Alstom TGV Duplex, 2x 8 short double deck carriages
⚡️ (25kV ac)
🚲: ⛔️
🦽: ✅
🛜: ✅ (free with some tickets, others have to pay)
🍽️: ⛔️
🧳: ☹️ (Duplex, poor design)
🧽: 😐 (grimy and worn)

OGV 7897
11:00 Charles de Gaulle - Marne-la-Vallée Chessy 11:27

Distance: 23.9km
Average speed: 53km/h

1 stops:
Marne-la-Vallée Chessy

This train, mapped: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crosschannelrail-2025_1148540#12/48.9363/2.6645

#CrossChannelRail Train 69 of 72
RER A
11:43 Marne-la-Vallée Chessy - Paris Gare de Lyon 12:20
RATP & SNCF for Île-de-France Mobilités

Train type: Alstom Bombardier Mi09 XTrapolis EMU, 2x 5 double deck carriages
⚡️ (1.5kV dc)
🚲: ✅ (off peak)
🦽: ✅ (ramp on platform)
🛜: ⛔️
🍽️: ⛔️
🧳: 🙂 (three door double deck design is OK)️
🧽: 🙂

RER A
11:43 Marne-la-Vallée Chessy - Paris Gare de Lyon 12:20

Distance: 33.9km
Average speed: 55km/h

12 stops:
Val d'Europe
Bussy-Saint-Georges
Torcy
Lognes
Noisiel
Noisy Champs
Noisy-le-Grand Mont d'Est
Bry-sur-Marne train station
Neuilly-Plaisance
Val de Fontenay
Vincennes
Nation

This train, mapped: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crosschannelrail-2025_1148540#12/48.8812/2.5560

#CrossChannelRail Train 70 of 72
FR 6651
14:14 Paris Gare de Lyon - Lyon Part Dieu 16:09
Trenitalia

Train type: Hitachi Frecciarossa 1000 EMU, 8 carriages
⚡️ (1.5kV dc, then 25kV ac, then 1.5kV dc)
🚲: ⛔️ (only disassembled or folded bikes allowed)
🦽: ✅ (lift on platform)
🛜: ✅
🍽️: ✅
🧳: ☹️ (ridiculous - only two racks for larger bags in 5 carriages! And some seats used as luggage racks. Overhead racks are good however)
🧽: 🙂

FR 6651
14:14 Paris Gare de Lyon - Lyon Part Dieu 16:09

Distance: 429.4km
Average speed: 224km/h

1 stops:
Lyon Part Dieu

This train, mapped: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crosschannelrail-2025_1148540#8/47.325/3.633

#CrossChannelRail Train 71 of 72
TER 17812
16:16 Lyon Part Dieu - Dijon Ville 18:17
SNCF for TER AURA

Train type: GEC-Alstom BB22200 locomotive, 7 Corail carriages, driving control car
⚡️ (1.5kV dc)
🚲: ✅
🦽: ✅ (ramp on platform)
🛜: ⛔️
🍽️: ⛔️
🧳: 😐 (narrow and high doors)️
🧽: 😐 (grimy outside)