To Paris for a meeting with Kai Tegethoff MEP first – before Kai tries to head to Portugal by train. My trip then takes me east (and likely delayed by border controls at Kehl) onwards to Marktredwitz on the border to Czechia. No new borders today though.

New for this tour: I’ve found a new way of linking to active map layers. So maps for the day should be easier to read.

Here’s today’s intro video: https://peertube.netzbegruenung.de/w/mYHgR9gdBBcdpPaVHrqpJi

#CrossBorderRail live stream - 9/15/2025, 4:14:08 AM

PeerTube

#CrossBorderRail Conclusions Tour Train 1 of 74
TER 91371
06:39 Nuits-sous-Ravières - Montbard 06:48
SNCF for TER Mobigo

Train type: Bombardier AGC bi-mode MU, 2x 4 short carriages
⚡️ (1.5kV dc)
🚲: ✅
🦽: ✅ (step free if station allows, Nuits doesn’t, Montbard does)
🛜: ⛔️
🍽️: ⛔️
🧳: 🙂
🧽: 😐 (grimy roof inside, loo makes whole carriage stink. But it’s orderly)

🎫 Interrail: 🙂 (accepted)

TER 91371
06:39 Nuits-sous-Ravières - Montbard 06:48

Distance: 18.2km
Average speed: 121km/h

1 stops:
Montbard

This train, mapped: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-2025-conclusions-tour_1266988#13/47.6738/4.2743

#CrossBorderRail 2025 Conclusions Tour

The #CrossBorderRail 2025 conclusions tour - mainly to go to events, but adding a few new borders too. Each day of the project is a Layer in the map - these should be displayed by default, or if not click the three layered diamonds icon "Open browser" to the left side of the map. The icons are all for borders, roughly coloured to differentiate the borders. A cross through a track means NO TRAINS CAN RUN. A cross through trains but not track means TRAINS CAN RUN BUT NO PASSENGER TRAINS. And TRAIN AND TRACK (no crosses) means there is a passenger service. All lines on the map are TRAINS, unless otherwise shown with icons along the lines - 🚲 for bike, 🚌 for bus, 🚗 for car, ⛴️ for ferry. Click each line to get basic information what it is.

uMap

App tip this morning

SNCF‘s main app - SNCF Connect - is generally terrible. Use @12train to book instead

And when travelling use Ma Gare SNCF - it gives useful information like where your carriage will stop before screens in French stations do

#CrossBorderRail Conclusions Tour Train 2 of 74
TGV 6760
07:05 Montbard - Paris Gare de Lyon 08:09
SNCF Voyageurs

Train type: Alstom TGV Duplex, 8 short double deck carriages
⚡️ (1.5kV dc, 25kV ac, 1.5kV dc)
🚲: ⛔️
🦽: ✅ (step free into lower level, lift down inside)
🛜: ✅ (and it's just about working)
🍽️: ✅
🧳: ☹️ (Duplex, so terrible. Thankfully it's mostly business travellers today)
🧽: 😐 (Rare for a TGV not cleaned properly inside)

🎫 Interrail: 😐 (needs compulsory reservation, costs €10 or €20)

TGV 6760
07:05 Montbard - Paris Gare de Lyon 08:09

Distance: 215.5km
Average speed: 202km/h

1 stops:
Paris Gare de Lyon

This train, mapped: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-2025-conclusions-tour_1266988#9/48.2351/3.3555

#CrossBorderRail

#CrossBorderRail 2025 Conclusions Tour

The #CrossBorderRail 2025 conclusions tour - mainly to go to events, but adding a few new borders too. Each day of the project is a Layer in the map - these should be displayed by default, or if not click the three layered diamonds icon "Open browser" to the left side of the map. The icons are all for borders, roughly coloured to differentiate the borders. A cross through a track means NO TRAINS CAN RUN. A cross through trains but not track means TRAINS CAN RUN BUT NO PASSENGER TRAINS. And TRAIN AND TRACK (no crosses) means there is a passenger service. All lines on the map are TRAINS, unless otherwise shown with icons along the lines - 🚲 for bike, 🚌 for bus, 🚗 for car, ⛴️ for ferry. Click each line to get basic information what it is.

uMap
Rolling into Paris on time. I might dislike some aspects of how SNCF operates, but this Montbard - Paris TGV has solid reliability in general. #CrossBorderRail

#CrossBorderRail Conclusions Tour 1 of 17
Paris Gare de Lyon - Brasserie à la place Saint-Georges

Distance: 6km
Est. duration: 0:30

This bike route, mapped: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-2025-conclusions-tour_1266988#14/48.8614/2.3562

Oh it was the record breaking TGV

Fixing the Birdy is never done 😀

Hit a bump crossing Paris and the front reflector breaks off

(There are other reflectors on the bike so I’m still road safe)

Back in the city. And it’s a breezy autumn day. Perfect light.

#CrossBorderRail Conclusions Tour 2 of 17
Brasserie à la place Saint-Georges - 23 Bvld Madeleine - Café les Deux Gares (Gare de l’est)

Distance: 2km
Est. duration: 0:45

This bike route, mapped: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-2025-conclusions-tour_1266988#16/48.8738/2.3417

SNCF: let’s speed you to Strasbourg in less than 2 hours

Also SNCF: let’s design platform barriers so badly it takes everyone ages to get onto the platform 👏

Oh and send a rubbish truck through!

#CrossBorderRail Conclusions Tour Train 3 of 74
TGV 9575
13:54 Paris Est - Stuttgart Hbf 17:04
SNCF Voyageurs, DB Fernverkehr

Train type: Alstom TGV Euroduplex, 8 short double deck carriages (8 more to Colmar)
⚡️ (25kV ac, 15kV ac)
🚲: ⛔️
🦽: ✅ (but platform 27 isn’t step free - I assume there’s a lift)
🛜: ⛔️ (doesn’t work)
🍽️: ⛔️ (bistro closed today)
🧳: ☹️ (Duplex. Awful. Thankfully it’s empty)
🧽: 🙂

🎫 Interrail: 😐 (needs compulsory reservation, costs €19)

TGV 9575
13:54 Paris Est - Stuttgart Hbf 17:04

Distance: 607.9km
Average speed: 192km/h

3 stops:
Strasbourg
Karlsruhe Hbf
Stuttgart Hbf

This train, mapped: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-2025-conclusions-tour_1266988#8/48.894/5.778

#CrossBorderRail

#CrossBorderRail 2025 Conclusions Tour

The #CrossBorderRail 2025 conclusions tour - mainly to go to events, but adding a few new borders too. Each day of the project is a Layer in the map - these should be displayed by default, or if not click the three layered diamonds icon "Open browser" to the left side of the map. The icons are all for borders, roughly coloured to differentiate the borders. A cross through a track means NO TRAINS CAN RUN. A cross through trains but not track means TRAINS CAN RUN BUT NO PASSENGER TRAINS. And TRAIN AND TRACK (no crosses) means there is a passenger service. All lines on the map are TRAINS, unless otherwise shown with icons along the lines - 🚲 for bike, 🚌 for bus, 🚗 for car, ⛴️ for ferry. Click each line to get basic information what it is.

uMap

The passenger across the aisle from me here:

- travelling on Interrail (as per questions from the train manager)
- is charging their phone with a UK-EU plug adapter
- has a bottle of wine, a can of beer, and an electric toothbrush poking out of an opulent leather handbag
- has red nails so long typing is hard
- is at least 70 years old

Departing Strasbourg

I know a stop for illegal passport controls at Kehl is ahead

There's one obvious ethnic minority passenger in my carriage. The train is about 1/3 full. Let's see what happens...

😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡

Yeah. Who did they control?

The ethnic minority person.

Fuckers, really.

I approached the police and asked why they only control ethnic minorities.

“She was the only one not to show her passport without asking” he said.

It makes me so effing totally fucking furious.

Every single time.

Racism pure and simple.

And they hauled a black guy off and were going through his papers on the platform.

I could have been transporting *anything* and got through no problem.

These checks are
- racist
- arbitrary (as they check trains more than other modes at Kehl)
- costly (labour intensive)
- inefficient (why not check while a train is moving?)
- ineffective (the pedestrian bridge at Kehl isn’t checked)
- annoying (they delay everyone)

Could you imagine anything more abjectly shit?

Great. Next train cancelled 😡
Let’s take a 🐹 to an insurance company

And if any of my followers could tell me which of these stations would give me the best chance of passable food (and ideally a beer) near the station I’d be grateful!

Edit: Rail logic wins over food logic. I’ll go to Schwäbisch Hall Hessental. There’s a pizza place at the station. And I’ll have an hour there.

Delayed on the Murrbahn to Schwäbisch Hall - Hessental due to congestion caused by a stranded train

From next year they want to run ICEs through here

But making this double track throughout - despite it connecting Stuttgart and Nürmberg is considered uneconomic. 🤷‍♂️

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahnstrecke_Waiblingen%E2%80%93Schw%C3%A4bisch_Hall-Hessental?wprov=sfti1#Weiterer_Ausbau

Bahnstrecke Waiblingen–Schwäbisch Hall-Hessental – Wikipedia

They serve the most German looking beer imaginable here 😀
This beer respects Jon’s rule of the German Reinheitsgebot. The law is no guarantee of a good beer, but it is a guarantee against a bad one. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinheitsgebot?wprov=sfti1#
Reinheitsgebot – Wikipedia

Schwäbisch Hall-Hessental

Feels like the sort of place where a Peek+Cloppenburg shirt, with one too many buttons open, and a medallion, is the height of cool

My German is pretty good. But… 🤨

And clearly that’s the message the ICE got

What the hell is a Stuttgart - München ICE 611 doing in Schwäbisch Hall - Hessental? 🤔

We have the train equivalent of gridlock here

The diverted ICE can’t move because the delayed regional train ahead of it is blocking it. Nothing can go the other way as it’s a congested single track line towards Backnang

Well done everyone! Party 🎉

Also how much should “DB is gonna cock something up somewhere else” be used as justification for improving a track like this? If you can’t run Stuttgart - Ulm - Augsburg you divert here. You can’t properly divert here as the infrastructure is crap.

@jon DB needs the equivalent of a giant cat to push the broken equipment off the track.

And maybe double-track any route that gets an entire ICE diverted to it.

@jon apparently it got initially redirected from Ulm to Aalen (which would make sense, considering the 10+ "Störung" icons around Stuttgart), but then... something happened, and it was forced to do a second redirect further north; that something is unfortunately not reflected either in DBnav announcements or anything reported on strecken.info
@jon The language is that of Mordor, which I will not utter here.
Wenn das Gleis zum 10ten mal wechselt 🚆😂 #deutschebahn #memes #lustig #lachen #ansage

YouTube
@jon bitte informieren sie sich im internat
@jon
Also eigentlich ganz klar:
"...bitte informieren Sie sich im Internet... Täterätäterätätäää"
@jon At least no spoken HTML-code.

@jon

Part of you audience agrees, part doesn't know if they are supposed to feel insulted 😅

@knud to be fair the station hasn’t been updated since then *either*
@jon what are the haircut like? Is there a mandatory minimum mullet quota?
@jon Schwäbisch Hall is a beautiful city located in the Kocher valley. The train station of Schwäbisch Hall-Hessental is in a suburb area, not pleasant at all. If you take a train towards Heilbronn you will go down the valley and reach the station Schwäbisch Hall with a panoramic view of the beautiful medieval old town. Looks a little bit like Tübingen, but smaller.
@jon where does this fit in
@timo that’s fake. Sorry!
@jon I like the Haller Löwenbräu 🥰 (even though I only drink alcohol-free beer)
@autinerd it’s not bad at all. Crisp.
@jon the beer is good, but they also make a beer called „Mohrenköpfle“ (highly controversial name, definitely). But that tastes really good.
@jon It is missing a bald man with round glasses on the label
@jon I'm travelling there four or five times a year and literally *each time* there is a different train or a different issue on this route!!!
But the view is great as long as you like rural area.
@jon Rail logic always wins - though Hessental is a depressing place (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/KZ_Hessental). Have a good trip!
KZ Hessental – Wikipedia

@jon Murrhardt seems to have a Rewe on walking distance.
@jon I would have stayed in Stuttgart and walked to Kraftpaule... https://maps.app.goo.gl/HVW2aZZabB6W4mvV8
Bevor Sie zu Google Maps weitergehen

@Unicorn time too short. And everything is disrupted. Too risky…
@jon no, this is the shittest shit
@jon Arresting people for not taking their passport with them to the beach. (France.) And delaying us for so long that there wasn't enough of the day left to get to the beach, so the kids didn't get their beach visit that holiday.
@TimWardCam French ID law doesn’t oblige you to have a passport with you anyway. There are 20 or so acceptable IDs. But “l’etranger doit prouver son nationalité”. Which gives police enough room to discriminate if they want to.

@jon
"Could you imagine anything more abjectly shit?"

Yes - left SNCF run it 😂

@jon Clearly everyone knows that all Russian saboteurs are black... boggle

@jon Maybe it's time for a little practical joke? Talk to that person, and a few other fellow passengers. Gather around him/her, and when the Bundespolizei approaches, you all offer your documents, without asking. See if the police ignores you others and just checks the "obvious" one.

(Assuming you can find enough like-minded co-passengers.)

@jon professional traveler I'd say
@jon I meet screencap this and post it in the Facebook group for older interrailers and see if someone there turns out to have been sitting across from you
@IanMoore3000 The passenger seems to have alighted at Strasbourg
@jon interesting that the average speed isn't so much bigger than the first train in your day ;-)
@julienw Long stop in Strasbourg. Plus slow to Karlsruhe.