Welcome to today's thread - 2025 #CrossBorderRail Finale Day 13 - 22 June - Oslo - Grums - Öxnered - Herrljunga - Falköping - Nässjö, onto night train

Today's new borders:
None

Borders map, inc. borders re-crossed:
https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-all-the-borders_935041#11/55.5584/12.7750

Today's trains on the routes map:
https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-2025-finale_1163738#7/56.867/11.980

The geniuses at Trafikverket in Sweden have managed to close both lines from Norway (towards Stockholm and towards Göteborg) on the same weekend, so instead I am crossing the border by bus, and then heading south east across southern Sweden before boarding the night train southwards.

Here's today's #CrossBorderRail music track

Hugo Alfven: Swedish Rhapsody No.1 "Midsommarvaka"
Frédéric Zosso

Thanks @Jonas_Bostrom for this one - the right time of year!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mvbq-kwulHI

Hugo Alfven: Swedish Rhapsody No.1 "Midsommarvaka" (Full Performance)

YouTube

Here's this morning's intro video, explaining what I am trying to do today!

https://peertube.netzbegruenung.de/w/4HQeVoY3KhkfeQ6uNdJc9J

#CrossBorderRail live stream - 6/22/2025, 4:59:01 AM

PeerTube

Over there a recovery truck is picking up a FlixBus, presumably the one that was meant to operate my service to Grums…

We’re delayed 30 mins.

Now a further 30 mins delay announced

If I miss the train in Grums... my only option is to stay longer on the Flixbus, as far as Örebro

Might be an interesting argument: "Your bus was late, so I missed my train, so now you need to let me stay on it longer!" 🤔

It's almost like a real live case of the problems of Multimodal Digital Mobility Services the Commission is trying to legislate about!

#CrossBorderRail Finale Bus 12 of 22
Flixbus
08:00 Oslo S - Grums 10:36

Bus type: Volvo 9700, 2 axles
⛽️
🚲: ❓ (not officially, but there would be space in the hold)
🦽: ⛔️
🛜: ⛔️
🍽️: ⛔️
🧳: 🙂 (hold is huge)
🧽: 🙂

But rather than getting us going a bit earlier, the driver is now smoking a cigarette

Priorities 🤷‍♂️

I simply do not see why anyone *by choice* would favour a bus over a train

Other than Lux Express in the Baltics (that strikes me as a genuinely good company) I’d very happily give all the others a miss

Edit: as people are going “but buses are cheaper!” - I get why then you’d take a bus! But if all else were equal?

@jon it’s often cheaper. That’s enough motivation for a lot of people. There’s a lot of talk about lack of customer service in the context of trains, but in reality people travel with companies like Ryanair and Flixbus.
@interrailinfosvenska @jon well, Ryanairs customer experience is probably ahead of SNCF...
@krist @interrailinfosvenska @jon That’s possibly true. Also in general Ryanair experience is mostly identical to legacy airlines, the main difference being the lack of guaranteed transfers. Both low cost and legacy carriers have cramped seating, everything costing extra and self-service. And also the prices are pretty comparable for similar destinations and times, which makes sense since the product is the same.

@interrailinfosvenska @jon I bet more people travel with trains, though, on routes with both flixbus and long distance trains? Even though flixbus has an impressive network, the capacity of coaches is still tiny

What doesn’t seem to work is luxury coaches against trains. The comfort gap is still too wide, and people not happy with flixbus choose trains instead of a comfortable bus. So a bus can only compete with high efficiency (low pay for driver, cramped seats)

@interrailinfosvenska I know. But that’s not “by choice” then but “by need”
@jon Not necessarily need. Could be different priorities, putting different value on different things. Not always rational decisions.