Mastodawn

To Maastricht to give a speech at the university, and taking the dreaded Drielandentrein across the border – a nice idea, but an unreliable service. And the day ends in Bruxelles where I then have 2 days of political meetings. #CrossBorderRail

#CrossBorderRail Conclusions Tour Train 34 of 74
ICE 1052
07:06 Berlin Hbf - Aachen Hbf 13:11
DB Fernverkehr

Train type: Siemens ICE 4, 7 carriages (short version)
⚡️ (15kV ac)
🚲: ✅
🦽: ✅ (lift on platform, backup lift on board)
🛜: ✅
🍽️: ✅ (somehow the coffee machine was fixed after Hannover!)
🧳: 🙂
🧽: 🙂

🎫 Interrail: 🙂 (accepted)

(now gets a top score, as the coffee machine got fixed!)

ICE 1052
07:06 Berlin Hbf - Aachen Hbf 13:11

Distance: 624.1km
Average speed: 103km/h

10 stops:
Berlin-Spandau
Hannover Hbf
Herford
Bielefeld Hbf
Hamm(Westf)Hbf
Wuppertal Hbf
Solingen Hbf
Köln Hbf
Düren
Aachen Hbf

This train, mapped: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-2025-conclusions-tour_1266988#8/52.022/9.838

#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

Autumn sun on the wind turbines of Brandenburg #CrossBorderRail

Jon Worth

Meanwhile some good potential #CrossBorderRail news from Portugal: Linha da Beira is open again, allowing better connections to Spain at Vilar Formoso. The question though is what / when will there be cross border border passenger traffic? https://www.lok-report.de/news/europa/item/61772-portugal-die-linha-da-beira-wird-vollstaendig-modernisiert-und-mit-neuen-strategischen-verbindungen-wiedereroeffnet.html

LOK Report - Portugal: Die Linha da Beira wird vollständig modernisiert und mit neuen strategischen Verbindungen wiedereröffnet

Mit dem 28. September wurde der Zugverkehr auf der gesamten Strecke der Linha da Beira wieder aufgenommen, mit der Wiedereröffnung des Abschnitts zwischen Pampilhosa und Vilar Formoso. Diese Investition entlang einer 190 Kilometer langen Eisenbahnstrecke garantiert schnellere, sicherere und komforta...

And I am preparing my slides for a #CrossBorderRail at DG REGIO of the European Commission on Wednesday

"Can you cover the Balkans too?" they asked me

Sure

So in goes Bitola 🇲🇰 - Florina 🇬🇷 where the EU financed the renovation of the line, but no trains ran

(I am going to make myself popular!)

Pics from there: https://flickr.com/photos/jonworth-eu/albums/72177720319718501/with/53942117283

#CrossBorderRail South East Europe Day 24 25 Jun 2024 - Skopje - Bitola - Bilisht - Struga

Uploaded from Mac "Pictures/Flickr - Railways/Projects/2024 South East Europe Project/#CrossBorderRail South East Europe Day 24 25 Jun 2024 - Skopje - Bitola - Bilisht - Struga" on JW MacBook Pro 2017

Flickr

Meanwhile ÖBB has confirmed the Paris-Wien/Berlin night trains are no more. "Die ÖBB bedauern, dass nach dem Rückzug der französischen Partner, die beiden Nachtzugverbindungen ab 14. Dezember 2025 nicht mehr angeboten werden können." https://presse-oebb.at/news-oebb-bedauern-die-einstellung-der-nightjet-verbindungen-wien-paris-und-berlin-paris?id=223578&menueid=27022&l=deutsch #CrossBorderRail

My analysis, in English: https://jonworth.eu/sncfs-half-hearted-effort-to-support-international-night-trains-in-danger-of-hitting-the-buffers/

ÖBB bedauern die Einstellung der Nightjet Verbindungen Wien - ÖBB

NJ Wien – Paris nur noch bis Mitte Dezember NJ Wien – Brüssel wird weiter angeboten ÖBB bleiben größter Anbieter von Nachtzügen in Europa

Newsroom der ÖBB

And that leaves France with ZERO international night trains. None. Aucun.

👏 Well done SNCF and the French Government

🤨

And here follows a quick list of how France is buggering up #CrossBorderRail (these are just the ones that spring to mind)

1️⃣ Is cancelling Paris-Wien/Berlin night trains from December, leaving France without any international night trains

2️⃣ SNCF is the main barrier to fixing regional cross border traffic at the France-Germany border

3️⃣ 16 months ago SNCF stopped selling tickets to most international destinations on SNCF Connect and at ticket offices, and still hasn't resumed

4️⃣ SNCF removed French signalling systems from 6 TGV Duplex, leaving them with just 6 TGVs for France-Spain operation, meaning they can run max 3 trains a day on this route

5️⃣ Despite the French town Breil s/ Roya having 1 line to France and 2 lines to Italy, and all lines being operated with PSO contracts, SNCF cannot sell tickets from France to Italy there

6️⃣ As majority owner of Eurostar, SNCF has been the main driver of the sky high prices, low offer model for all Eurostar routes (inc. ex-Thalys routes)

7️⃣ France remains the only predominantly standard gauge European country where the Siemens Vectron locomotive is still not approved to run, thereby limiting operation of both international night trains and freight

8️⃣ Is about the hardest country to use Interrail, and SNCF has now suspended selling Interrail reservations at its ticket machines

9️⃣ Is threatening the closure of lines FR-CH, and breaks of service there, despite Switzerland having financed infra investments French side of the border

And remember the rules of SNCF!

1) We don't want to run any train that goes less than 300km/h

2) We *REALLY* don't want anyone else to run them either

(Meanwhile I am on a ICE Berlin-Aachen, and beyond Köln it is quite empty. Just the sort of train SNCF would not run, but DB does - because *for those of us on it* it is really useful!)

German railways: right in theory, can be poor in practice

French railways: wrong in theory, can be OK in practice (if you can get where you want to go on a TGV)

Second time in a week I’m on a ICE running early. Amazing!

Now will there be a Drielandentrein in Aachen? 🤔

Adam Sep 29

@jon The more I read of your travel on SNCF and DB, the more glad I am that I settled in Belgium (where admittedly the type of service is governed by the fact that there aren't many train journeys longer than an hour because at that point one runs out of Belgium)

Tor Lillqvist Sep 29

@jon And still, if you ask a random person on the net about European railway companies, the one thing they think they "know" is that DB is supposed to be the worse company.

Indra Kupferschmid 💙💛Sep 29

@tml @jon And Germans who are over the moon about how fast and punctual they go and they never had any problem, the one time they went to Paris, and mandatory reservation is a great thing! 🙄🙄🙄

Triple ⁂Sep 29

@kupfers @tml @jon This

@jon It is silly that there is no night train from Barcelona to Paris.
I basically have to get over the border first and then have a lie down.

@cdamian Yeah, but those are the two worst firms to collaborate with! No one manages cooperations with either Renfe or SNCF.

@jon And if I recall correctly, there are no other night trains in Spain any more.

@cdamian Correct. Spain has no night train at all.

J—dV Sep 29

@jon @cdamian Because high speed is shiny! And who would want to continue past Madrid to visit family in Galicia or Asturias anyway?

DeterioratedStucco Sep 29

@redjives
People with families?

@jon @cdamian

prl Sep 29

@redjives @jon @cdamian People visiting Portugal?

@jon @cdamian Which seems ridiculous. Portugal - Spain, and North Spain - South Spain would make sense, right?

@Sobex Sure. But Renfe is like a more incompetent version of SNCF. @cdamian

@jon @cdamian Night train do tend to need subsidies, so this is also a government issue ? Or is the case of the Intercité de Nuit very specific and most night-train connection can be open access services ? (What's the English version of Service Librement Organisé (SLO))

Le Néandertal se sent las, las Sep 29

@Sobex @jon @cdamian I think it's mostly a cultural/government issue (lots of bus in Spain from a long time), same thing for the SNCF, more a problem of political choices than competence

@Sobex @cdamian Not really. They need subsidy if you run them to tiny places, and if your costs for locomotives, staff are high. ÖBB could probably have had a go itself if Vectron had been approved in France, but isn't so can't.

@jon @cdamian ÖBB Vestons are cheaper to operate than other locomotives (like the one used by SNCF) ?

And has ÖBB got some lower staff costs than anyone ? At what social cost ?

@jon @cdamian And do we have any knowledge of what's the deal with the Vectron approval ?

@Sobex @cdamian might be done next year.

pglux.bsky.social Sep 29

"Estrella" sleeper services of Renfe were heavily-loss making. Hence their constant decline from 1992 until 2015. "Trenhotel" were making money until the 10s. But this didn't prevent Renfe from making very stupid decisions. E.g.: axing the"Antonio Gaudi" Madrid - Barcelona in September 2005. 🔜

pglux.bsky.social Sep 29

@pglux.bsky.social @Sobex @jon Interesting. I checked my photos, and it seems I did the Barcelona-Cadiz trip in 2009. It was a reasonably fast train, but not really a proper sleeper in the area where we were.

pglux.bsky.social Sep 29

Which accommodation were you travelling in?

@pglux.bsky.social

I can't remember. It was just wide reclining chairs. There might have been blankets.

Le Néandertal se sent las, las Sep 29

@Sobex @jon @cdamian Madrid - Lisboa by train is a terrible trip!

@HydrePrever @Sobex @cdamian Yes, but might from December be a fraction better

@jon @HydrePrever @cdamian Ohhh, why ?

@Sobex @jon I once took a train from Barcelona to Cadiz (stopping in Madrid). We only had reclining seats. I don't know if this was still in the trenhotel times.

Moof! 🔜 #JetLagTheGame NL Sep 29

@jon @cdamian <pedant>Um, actually… the Transcantabrico and Al Ándalus are both night trains. They just aren’t affordable for mere mortals or practical for day-to-day travel</pedant>

Alan Grant Sep 29

@moof
To be even MORE pedantic - they remain stationary at night. You wake up in the same place you went to sleep. So: not night trains.
@jon @cdamian

Moof! 🔜 #JetLagTheGame NL Sep 29

@alan @jon @cdamian really? *reads the blurb* that’s… even more meh than I imagined from those trains… they really are pointless, aren’t they?

Alan Grant Sep 29

@moof
I guess people who pay those prices don't want to have their sleep disturbed by nasty train-like movements.

Even Ireland had a luxury train service for a few years. If a train actually travelled overnight in Ireland it would run out of track pretty quickly!
@jon @cdamian

Inga stands with 🇺🇦 🇵🇸Sep 29

@cdamian @jon and of course night train is not going to wait for the local train, so to reduce the risk of being stranded in the middle of nowhere, one has to take the previous local train, with 3+ hour transfer

@jon Nice! Do you plan to check it out any time soon?

@tops I was there autumn 2023, while works were ongoing. I will check with a few people to work out if/when a further visit would make sense!

@tops These pics from end of October 2023, near Ciudad Rodrigo. Most of the electrification was done already.

@jon looks lovely! I am trying to decide on a mission next month with some spare legs I have on a pass. A spin round the Iberian peninsula is one option, a visit to Chișinău is another.

@tops Chișinău is great, but damn getting there and back is quite painful. The night train from Bucuresti is hellish slow, the daytime train from Iasi Socola not much better. But once you are there Chișinău is great.

@tops Also the part of Spain between Salamanca and Villa Formoso is *very* empty, with Ciudad Rodrigo the only real centre (although it's a nice little place). But train travel in Portugal is nice (and retro) once you get there! 😀

@jon thanks for the tips. Salamanca is somewhere I've never been... but so is Chișinău!

@tops And December 2026 for passenger traffic Villa Formoso - Salamanca, if at all. So I am personally not going to be in a rush to go there!

@jon That is pretty key. It's beginning to sound a lot like Chișinău.

Martin Hoffmann Sep 29

@jon Are there any plans for improvements on the Spanish side?

@partim Yes, the line to Salamanca is to be electrified, and when I was there in Oct 2023 those works were already ongoing. But given this is Portugal and Spain I'd not be at all surprised if they renovated and then ran nothing.

EDIT: apparently some bridges at the edge of Salamanca still need completion. So December 2026 for electric trains on the line likely.

Martin Hoffmann Sep 29

@jon If it’s all electric, maybe Iryo is interested?

Jonas Boström Sep 29

@partim Even if it's broad gauge? @jon

@Jonas_Bostrom @partim It's all broad gauge indeed, so no, Iryo can't do it. You'd have to use a 252 and some Talgo stock, or some CP carriages.