Mastodawn

#CrossBorderRail 2026 Spring Tour Bike 8 of 14
Drávakeresztúr - Barcs

Distance: 43.1km
Est. duration: 2:45

This bike route, mapped: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-2026-spring-tour_1361108#13/45.891741/17.596321

(that's @mejs 's Brompton - I have been travelling with him as far as Barcs)

That's what remains of #CrossBorderRail

Virovitica 🇭🇷 - Barcs 🇭🇺

The sort of lump in the river is where one of the bridge foundations used to be (pic 1). Pic 2 is looking from Croatia to Hungary - you can see where the line used to go, just about

#CrossBorderRail 2026 Spring Tour Train 34 of 86
IR 8997
09:30 Barcs - Zalaszentiván 11:57
MÁV

Train type: Siemens Desiro DMU, 2 short carriages
⛽️
🚲: ✅
🦽: ✅ (lift on board for the many stations that are not step free)
🛜: ❓ (there is a sticker saying it is installed, but no network found)
🍽️: ⛔️
🧳: 🙂 (these Desiro DMUs have a clever and roomy design)️
🧽: 😐 (all a bit grimy)
Interrail: 🙂 (accepted)

IR 8997
09:30 Barcs - Zalaszentiván 11:57

Distance: 138.2km
Average speed: 56km/h

15 stops:
Peterhida-Komlosd
Babocsa
Vizvar
Belavar
Somogyudvarhely
Berzence
Gyekenyes
Örtilos
Murakeresztur
Nagykanizsa
Gelse
Pötrete
Zalaszentmihaly-Pac.
Bucsuszentlaszlo
Zalaszentivan

This train, mapped: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-2026-spring-tour_1361108#10/46.420503/17.169370

#CrossBorderRail

#CrossBorderRail 2026 Spring Tour

Tours in Spring 2026. 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.

uMap

Aaaannnd this isn’t looking good. Single track line, waiting for some passing train. Vizvar. And I’ve got tight connections ahead! #CrossBorderRail

Because I’m likely to miss my connection in Zalaszentiván (due to this delay) I need a backup

That will be Zalaszentiván - Öriszentpeter by train, bike across the border to Hodoš, then take further trains

I don’t strictly have tickets to allow it. I’m going to have to blag my way!

I can just imagine this on the Slovenian side at Hodoš

“But there’s no train from Hungary that connects to this one. And your ticket was valid on the previous one.”

“I know. But the train from Barcs was delayed so I cycled across the border, will you let me on?”

🤔

One alternative *ought* to be a train Gyekenyes 🇭🇺 - Koprivnica 🇭🇷

But there’s only 1 train a day 🤦‍♂️

There are lots of men with high viz jackets staring at something at Gyekenyes, delaying my train further…

Somehow I’m in Hungary and am not taking a Bzmot today. I’m not sure how this happened. Anyway here’s a pic of one in Barcs earlier for @wrzlbrnft

And there would be my second alternative. Murakeresztur - Kotoriba. That one has no passenger trains at all, and no road bridge either 🤷‍♂️

Using translation apps with the train manager, she thinks the Ljubljana train will wait in Zalaszentiván. I’ll believe it when I see it 🙂

In the end I’m about as cool about all of this as anyone could be. I’ve got a bike to save me if I need it. I can re-route if I have to, and be confident enough to explain things to get my way. And it’s all useful learning for my #CrossBorderRail project.

According to MÁV live data it has gone 🤔 #CrossBorderRail

But the live data was wrong! It waited! #CrossBorderRail win 🎉

Márton Salomváry

@jon In my experience MÁV's live data on *international* trains is poor or plain non existent while domestic trains have near full and high precision coverage (even BZMots;).

I can't help but assume they are doing this to not further worsen the already horrible delay statistics with international trains where delays are often measured in hours (often but not always the "other side" to blame).

#MÁV

@jon In the end we have second and meter precision tracking for airplanes, cars, trains, boats, bicycles, pedestrians, how come international trains within certain political boundaries manage to skip under the radar? ;)

@mrc but the data for the IR to Pécs was also wrong here!

@jon I said "near" full ;)

@jon I'd be curious btw how trains' real time data is collected.

Can imagine it is a mix of GPS data relayed via satellite or cellular or proprietary channels and station managers calling The Data Center on the phone or sending a telegram when they see the train arrive/depart ;)

Do you know any good sources to read up on this?

@mrc I don’t. But some comes from the signalling system that translates into UIC points.

@jon Speaking of real time train info, there is this community-built alternative to presenting the same data but slightly better maybe.

It's only as good as MÁV collects/exposes it, but at least you can get around the numerous limitations of the official apps (for instance the map they killed a while ago): https://holavonat.is/

Hol a vonat? - Valós idejű vonatkövetés Magyarországon

Valós idejű vonatkövetési térkép. Nézd meg, hol járnak a vonatok most! Késések, útvonalak, állomások egy helyen.

Hol a vonat?

Tuukka R Mar 10

@mrc @jon

In Finland every train driver has a tablet computer called "KUPLA". It also constantly transmits its GPS location and speed, viewable for example at http://juliadata.fi (funnily, the easiest way to see the location there is the "show the speed graph of the train" link because it shows the speeds on map)

Junaliikenteen havaintojärjestelmä

Julia - Junaliikenteen havaintojärjestelmä