Off this morning on #velotrain2025 to Germany, on interrail, with my bicycle. Will be taking lots of regional trains along the way and am starting unnecessarily early, such as to be able to buffer possible delays later during the day.
I will report observations in this thread (thanks for the 50+ encouragements!).
1/n
A trip like this, through 3 countries, involves some complex planning. Without the bike, one would just go to Valence TGV and then take a long-distance train from there. But the few bike places in these TGVs proved impossible to reserve for my timing, so I am taking the route through Switzerland.
Still, even only going the first two legs, to Lyon, involves one train with mandatory bicycle reservation on some days but not today (and no option to reserve for today), and the second (Valence-Lyon) with mandatory reservation. None of this is obvious, it varies between regions and, here in AURA, even between different lines that run the same type of TER train.
2/n
So far, I am the only person with a bicycle in this train, but there is space only for two more in it, and it all depends on the mood and personality of the staff whether additional bikes are allowed on board.
3/n
For me, this is the ideal bicycle for this kind of trip. Lightweight enough for getting it into the hooks of these trains, very smooth 11-speed Alfine gearbox, hydraulic disk brakes, front-wheel dynamo, not much else. Just very nice to ride for a person at my age.
5/n
In Crest, quite some people boarding this TER (likely a number of regular commuters), and the staff was flexible enough to allow them all in.
6/n
On-time arrival in Valence Ville, quite a lot of travellers this morning, but a very friendly SNCF controller allowed me to take the next TER, despite my reservation for the later one, so I can maintain my "delay buffer".
Die Valence: 71 km
7/n
Lots of space for bicycles in this train from Avignon to Lyon (could not count them all), and lots of bicycles. I can understand that they need to manage this somehow, and the reservation is only 1€. But there seems to be no app for this, you have to open a web page.
8/n
Arrived with just 5 minutes delay in Lyon Part-Dieu. One needs a little patience for the elevator in this newly refurbished, very busy station, but there is more space than usual inside.
Valence Ville - Lyon Part-Dieu: 107km (178 km today)
9/n
When travelling alone with a bike, it's not always easy to grab a coffee. Luckily, here at Lyon Part-Dieu they were really flexible!
10/n
There is much to say about the planning of such a trip, I may write more about that later. But there used to be one golden rule: check for the existing trains on bahn.de first.
Except this morning. There is a fully regular train from Lyon to Geneva, at 9:38 (logically placed between the 8:38 and the 10:38), but bahn.de does not know it at all. It is a perfectly normal TER like all the others, and I am now in it, further maintaining my "delay buffer".
Positive surprise (I may end up having to tell my family that I arrive even earlier than expected)!
11/n
The ride up the Rhône valley to Geneva easy, comfortable and perfectly on time. Maybe so few people because of DB? No, I do not really think so...
By the way, reservations for bicycles neither mandatory nor even possible here, although still the same region, AURA.
Lyon Part-Dieu - Geneva (via Amberieu) : 163km (340 km today)
12/n
So I can take an earlier train to Bern then, no reservation required, but a 15CHF bicycle ticket, valid all day.
I tried to reserve, just to figure this out, without buying another ticket for the bicycle, read all the instructions on the SBB website, but I am convinced that this just doesn't work. So one wonders, what if one needed to travel on a day with lots of people and bicycles?
13/n
Today there are so few people here on this train that I decided to occupy, for the moment, both places for my bicycle, allowing me to even leave the panniers in place.
14/n
Even on a hazy day like today the climb right after Lausanne is spectacular.
Geneva - Bern: 158 km (499 km today)
15/n
Change trains in Bern during 8 minutes with a bicycle is totally possible, again with great ramps to roll your bike on, no need for elevators. Bike space is more localised in this IC, and technically not so convincing.
Still one hour ahead of my original schedule.
16/n
For the last leg of the day, from Basel to a small town just south of Freiburg/Brsg., the apps suggest taking an ICE just to Basel Bad.Bf., which would require a reservation for just 3 km or so. Or else the Straßenbahn. The easiest way to cross the border is simply to cycle, it's even downhill this way. From Bad.Bf., there are German regional trains, requiring a special ticket but no reservation.
17/n
Anyway, let's first arrive Basel SBB with its artworks (and again there perfect arrangements for getting your bicycle around the station, using elevators).
Bern - Basel SBB: 101 km (600 km today)
18/n
Just a nice little ride from Basel SBB down to the river, where I could finish today's picnic in the shade.
19/n
This is my last train today, from the gigantic platforms of the Basel Bad.Bf. to Bad Krozingen. I ended up taking the slowest of all regional trains on this line, and that's just ok for me.
21/n
Indeed arrived well, only 2 minutes after schedule in Bad Krozingen!
Basel Bad.Bf. - Bad Krozingen: 43 km.
End of travel for day 1, many trains, but when it all works then this way to travel long distances with a bicycle in the train is quite ok for me.
All in all, I travelled 643 km today, taking me 13 hours, which could sound like a lot to some people. But this was not Paris-Marseille, I went from a small place in France to a small place in Germany. Since there are so many such trains, I could even have fitted in longer breaks, on the lakeshore or elsewhere.
I never had to take any stairs, and the only lifting I did was my bicycle into these hooks, and the coffee cup to my mouth.
22/n
Day 2 (of four interrail days) starts under a greyish sky, applying my "delay buffer" principle again.
On busy lines such as this one, it is sufficient to go to the station a bit early - you'll likely find a delayed train from even earlier the day which you can take.
What I am not getting: this train passes through many small stations and somehow the screens did not show anything except "Deutsche Bahn AG". So why was there not any person taking a microphone and announce the stations? Do they really expect visually-impaired people to stay at home? No announcement, of any kind. I am convinced even the driver could do that if he/she cared about the DB passengers.
Bad Krozingen - Freiburg/Brsg.: 15 km
23/n
Onwards from Freiburg in an ICE with a precious bicycle reservation.
Not wanting to repeat clichés, but "of course" this ICE is already delayed and DB expects it to accumulate more delay minutes over the hours to come.
I am heading to Göttingen today and then be on regional trains again, so it's not a big problem for me. But where the system fails you completely is when you have connecting ICE's with compulsory bicycle reservation - you miss one of those, and you are seriously stuck.
24/n
Good space for some bicycles but really narrow door. Very good help from the staff, particularly needed by one person, probably even older than me, with one of those ridiculously heavy e-bikes.
25/n
Nice to roll through these green landscapes and I know of course that much of the ongoing work is to improve on ailing infrastructure. Nevertheless one wonders why the DB finds it so hard to adapt their schedule to these ongoing works.
26/n
Occasionally, the train just stops, at other times it skips stations, then stops in others. In Frankfurt/Süd, after a delayed arrival, we stood and watched in silence another train overtake us. 20 minutes later, as we started to roll again, the controller apologized, "sorry, I needed to fix a broken door for you, and I could not announce this at the same time".
For me, all the fancy digital information provided rather enhances the impression that nobody really knows when we might arrive, and even where. Those screens are updated all the time, but often not in sync with what happens (or doesn't happen) outside. Wouldn't it be better if they just said "we'll probably arrive some time this afternoon"?
27/n
Arrived Göttingen, some 40+ minutes late.
Freiburg/Brsg. - Göttingen Hbf: 502 km today 516 km so far)
28/n
The next train (since I missed the earlier direct connection to Herzberg), a packed minimalist diesel-powered "railbus" to Northeim, with some less pleasant travellers in it ("I am sick of those cyclists"), fortunately only a few minutes.
Strangely, and this seems to be another digital overload phenomenon, they announce one onward connection in Northeim but not the one I want (and which is perfectly visible in the "navigator"), what's wrong here?
Göttingen Hbf - Northeim (Han.): 20 km (today 536 km so far)
29/n
Short, but successful, change to a similar RB in Northeim. Fewer people but still well used. Going now to Herzberg.
Northeim - Herzberg: 27 km (today 563 km so far)
30/n
Cycling around the Harz means finding those roads and paths that are closed to cars - the big "Bundesstraßen" have too much traffic. Sometimes it's good to ask the locals, such as the old man in Lerbach who directed me to the Hexenstieg, an excellent recommendation for a road bike on gravel!
But one needs to be prepared to see large-scale forest dieback, direct consequence of climate change, everywhere.
The Hexenstieg took me to Buntenbock and then Clausthal-Zellerfeld. After a brief stop there, on to Bockswiese and Hahnenklee.
31/n
After a short stop at the pseudo-Norwegian stave church in Hahnenklee, I enjoyed the views of the rarely visited Granetalsperre - excellent road cycling, no access for cars at all. The trick is to find a very overgrown steep little track from Hahnenklee down into the Granetal, only the GPS made this possible for me.
32/n
Then arrived Goslar, my home town, after 41 km of cycling, total ascend according to bikerouter.
Hey, here is the track, if anyone wants it, but any use is at your own risk, there were some awkward places, like just North of Hahnenklee: https://bikerouter.de/#map=11/51.8288/10.3512/standard&lonlats=10.245523,51.725965;10.287495,51.748608;10.31642,51.75501;10.349722,51.780161;10.339336,51.817317;10.335259,51.845111;10.332813,51.854761;10.347919,51.863798;10.372124,51.888465;10.381908,51.910603;10.420961,51.911767&profile=trekking-noferries&alternativeidx=3
See you all back on Friday afternoon, if you like, this 🧵 will pause until then. And thanks for all the boosts, favourites and comments so far!
33/n
More walking than cycling around Goslar, this time with a great guided tour about its historic water provisioning systems from the river Gose.
34/n
After several days in Goslar, it is now time to take a new challenge. Four trains on a busy Friday evening to Bonn, the first going from Goslar to a small town, known to regular rail travellers in the region: Kreiensen.
Elevators ok, departure on time. Four bicycles in the usual storage place.
35/n
In Kreiensen we are almost 10 minutes late, but that's the case for all other trains here as well. Easy transfer.
Goslar - Kreiensen: 43 km
36/n
The regional train to Hannover has the largest bicycle compartment I have seen in my life, including lots of power sockets for e-bikes. People are happy to use them for their gadgets as well.
5 minutes delay on departure.
37/n
Lots of space for bicycles in this train from Avignon to Lyon (could not count them all), and lots of bicycles. I can understand that they need to manage this somehow, and the reservation is only 1€. But there seems to be no app for this, you have to open a web page.
8/n
Arrived with just 5 minutes delay in Lyon Part-Dieu. One needs a little patience for the elevator in this newly refurbished, very busy station, but there is more space than usual inside.
Valence Ville - Lyon Part-Dieu: 107km (178 km today)
9/n
When travelling alone with a bike, it's not always easy to grab a coffee. Luckily, here at Lyon Part-Dieu they were really flexible!
10/n
There is much to say about the planning of such a trip, I may write more about that later. But there used to be one golden rule: check for the existing trains on bahn.de first.
Except this morning. There is a fully regular train from Lyon to Geneva, at 9:38 (logically placed between the 8:38 and the 10:38), but bahn.de does not know it at all. It is a perfectly normal TER like all the others, and I am now in it, further maintaining my "delay buffer".
Positive surprise (I may end up having to tell my family that I arrive even earlier than expected)!
11/n
The ride up the Rhône valley to Geneva easy, comfortable and perfectly on time. Maybe so few people because of DB? No, I do not really think so...
By the way, reservations for bicycles neither mandatory nor even possible here, although still the same region, AURA.
Lyon Part-Dieu - Geneva (via Amberieu) : 163km (340 km today)
12/n
So I can take an earlier train to Bern then, no reservation required, but a 15CHF bicycle ticket, valid all day.
I tried to reserve, just to figure this out, without buying another ticket for the bicycle, read all the instructions on the SBB website, but I am convinced that this just doesn't work. So one wonders, what if one needed to travel on a day with lots of people and bicycles?
13/n
Today there are so few people here on this train that I decided to occupy, for the moment, both places for my bicycle, allowing me to even leave the panniers in place.
14/n
Even on a hazy day like today the climb right after Lausanne is spectacular.
Geneva - Bern: 158 km (499 km today)
15/n
Change trains in Bern during 8 minutes with a bicycle is totally possible, again with great ramps to roll your bike on, no need for elevators. Bike space is more localised in this IC, and technically not so convincing.
Still one hour ahead of my original schedule.
16/n
For the last leg of the day, from Basel to a small town just south of Freiburg/Brsg., the apps suggest taking an ICE just to Basel Bad.Bf., which would require a reservation for just 3 km or so. Or else the Straßenbahn. The easiest way to cross the border is simply to cycle, it's even downhill this way. From Bad.Bf., there are German regional trains, requiring a special ticket but no reservation.
17/n
Anyway, let's first arrive Basel SBB with its artworks (and again there perfect arrangements for getting your bicycle around the station, using elevators).
Bern - Basel SBB: 101 km (600 km today)
18/n
Just a nice little ride from Basel SBB down to the river, where I could finish today's picnic in the shade.
19/n
This is my last train today, from the gigantic platforms of the Basel Bad.Bf. to Bad Krozingen. I ended up taking the slowest of all regional trains on this line, and that's just ok for me.
21/n
Indeed arrived well, only 2 minutes after schedule in Bad Krozingen!
Basel Bad.Bf. - Bad Krozingen: 43 km.
End of travel for day 1, many trains, but when it all works then this way to travel long distances with a bicycle in the train is quite ok for me.
All in all, I travelled 643 km today, taking me 13 hours, which could sound like a lot to some people. But this was not Paris-Marseille, I went from a small place in France to a small place in Germany. Since there are so many such trains, I could even have fitted in longer breaks, on the lakeshore or elsewhere.
I never had to take any stairs, and the only lifting I did was my bicycle into these hooks, and the coffee cup to my mouth.
22/n
Day 2 (of four interrail days) starts under a greyish sky, applying my "delay buffer" principle again.
On busy lines such as this one, it is sufficient to go to the station a bit early - you'll likely find a delayed train from even earlier the day which you can take.
What I am not getting: this train passes through many small stations and somehow the screens did not show anything except "Deutsche Bahn AG". So why was there not any person taking a microphone and announce the stations? Do they really expect visually-impaired people to stay at home? No announcement, of any kind. I am convinced even the driver could do that if he/she cared about the DB passengers.
Bad Krozingen - Freiburg/Brsg.: 15 km
23/n
Onwards from Freiburg in an ICE with a precious bicycle reservation.
Not wanting to repeat clichés, but "of course" this ICE is already delayed and DB expects it to accumulate more delay minutes over the hours to come.
I am heading to Göttingen today and then be on regional trains again, so it's not a big problem for me. But where the system fails you completely is when you have connecting ICE's with compulsory bicycle reservation - you miss one of those, and you are seriously stuck.
24/n
Good space for some bicycles but really narrow door. Very good help from the staff, particularly needed by one person, probably even older than me, with one of those ridiculously heavy e-bikes.
25/n
Why is that ICE not going through Mannheim? Construction work?
Just checked: construction work between Karlsruhe and Mannheim. Then you'll likely pass through Heidelberg, tracks are just 600m from here.
Have a good trip!
@wolfgangcramer Interesting! Maybe @stefanlindbohm or @bovine3dom might have a clue where the 9:38 train got lost in the data?
You might want to try the CFF app too, it shows this particular train and I find the UX generally great!
Interrail's Rail Planner app is also a great choice (even without Interrail pass): given that they serve users across Europe they have incentives to source correct data. I really like the option to build your own journey by saving a series of trains together.
@cycling_on_rails DB generally uses the same source as Railplanner for international timetables (MERITS), but a) for some neighboring countries they have other connections and b) they seem to be on a relatively infrequent update schedule. Eventually both places would show the same data in most cases.
Hard to say what happened with DB to miss this departure. If Railplanner has it then DB also has access to the data.
@cycling_on_rails Btw you’re right that Eurail does a lot to improve data quality for MERITS. This then benefits everybody who uses the data including DB and us for example :)
@stefanlindbohm interrail also works offline, best if you put your phone in aeroplane mode then it doesn't try to access remote data
https://ter-fiches-horaires.sncf.fr/publish/03_du_15-12-24_au_12-07-25-V4.pdf there are some complicated conditions (🇫🇷) on 0938 so i guess either it's a new service or DB/Scotty aren't quite parsing the conditions correctly
btw https://www.veloabord.fr/ is handy for seeing which TERs need bike reservations. basically impossible to find the website even though it's official...
But is there any management of the bike space? I mean, if you've booked, are you really guaranteed there'll be space for your bike?
(Btw, I guess you've seen this recent new website: https://www.veloabord.fr/ - Of course it doesn't solve everything but at least you have a global view of bookings needed for a route)
@wolfgangcramer
Well if the train is crammed with people + luggage, as it happens on a regular basis on some services, I'm not sure how the staff will handle the situation.
But yes, in general even in those cases most of the people and staff are rather helpful and friendly on regional trains.
@wolfgangcramer @cyclotopie The most I've seen were 14 bicycles out of 5 official spots in region AuRa (no reservation required). The problem was that they applied the lighter "bank holiday" schedule (same as Sundays) where only half of the trains run, but it was one of these long week-ends in May.
There are perhaps fewer travellers on the average Sunday, but definitely not on a long week-end! In the end everyone was friendly with the situation (folks are happier during holidays, it seems 😉).
@cycling_on_rails @wolfgangcramer
Be it to accommodate bikes, luggage or simply... passengers I think we all agree the main problem is the number of services programmed and that actually run (and for some routes which have a number of services close to saturating the infra, the capacity of the trains).
@wolfgangcramer If there are only 4 bicycle spots per day on that route (2 per TGV) I'm not surprised they are all sold out. Thankfully, it's now in EU law that each new train must have at least 4 bicycle spots, and each Member State may define a higher minimum (article 6-5): https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32021R0782#art_6
The upcoming TGV-M should have 8 spots per train. But it's a change that will take time to roll out, unless they retrofit existing trains. (How much would it cost to remove 4 seats?)
@cycling_on_rails @wolfgangcramer
Agree. My feeling is that in #Switzerland (or #Denmark) #trains are slow but frequent, and that's much more efficient for a local #train.
I guess part of the contempt from #SNCF and #government in #France for those is due to the fact that France is a large centralised country. And I don't mean #TGV is not a useful achievement, but there's no reason its existence should cost us the dereliction of local trains.
@wolfgangcramer The fact that some trains are deemed "regional" and therefore stuck by the control of a region with arbitrary borders is well beyond me.
The passengers who go from A to B cannot care less if the whole route is within one region. They just want to go from A to B. Would we imagine that crossing a region border by car would mean switching vehicle or using a different fuel?
(Same applies to country borders, although I can understand difficulties for historic reasons)
@wolfgangcramer France has loads of trains, they just sit around doing naff all all day. For decades keeping Alstom going has been a national priority so not buying trains was never an option.
median utilisation rates compared to peak (very roughly!) are around 50% in France compared to ~80% in every other country in Europe.
if you hide half your trains in a depot all day sure it'll seem like you don't have many :)
Attached: 2 images @jon@gruene.social i was curious so i checked :) from the data I have, Canada and the US are definitely bad by non-French standards but they're nowhere near French levels of uniqueness Switzerland even seems to be running an inverted-French schedule, maybe to make up for the French? or maybe it's all tourist services. left is all services (buses, trains, metros, ski lifts, some airlines...), right is only heavy rail
@wolfgangcramer @cycling_on_rails
Indeed.
Most of bad/abusive behaviour will come from unmanageable situations, both for staff and passengers.
And many unmanageable situations comes from lack of …management decisions. But managers are not those present when their lack of oversight leads to problems.
It seems to be confirmed that the staff isn't in charge of any management to guarantee that those who've booked will get bike space.
(vive) #LeProgrès : "Transporter son #véloDansLeTrain : ça coûte 1€ pour réserver mais c’est toujours la même galère" "Face à ce nouveau dispositif de réservation, [l'AF3V] nous indique que « la #réservation d'une place #vélo n'est pas une garantie…» En effet, les voyageurs munis d'une réservation se mélangent aux voyageurs sans…, et dans les faits, les contrôleurs ne semblent pas avoir le temps de passer dans les wagons pour vérifier les titres de transport." https://www.leprogres.fr/societe/2025/05/25/transporter-son-velo-dans-le-train-ca-coute-un-euro-pour-reserver-mais-c-est-toujours-la-meme-galere
@wolfgangcramer looks amazing. Enjoy your trip / adventure. Keep an eye out on the weather forecasts. Stormy warnings with very heavy rain and high winds over next couple of days in France
Wolfgang Cramer
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