Mastodawn

https://peertube.netzbegruenung.de/w/5Qa9h1SgPABTnf9zKYnUbZ

Here’s today‘s #CrossBorderRail intro video. Damn I wasn’t really awake when filming this!

#CrossBorderRail live stream - 4/5/2026, 4:53:41 AM

PeerTube

#CrossBorderRail 2026 Spring Tour Bus 6 of 11
X28
07:28 Xanten Bhf - Goch Bhf 08:09
Niederrheinische Verkehrsbetriebe Ag

Bus type: Mercedes Citaro 2 axle
⛽️
🚲: ⛔️
🦽: ✅
🛜: ⛔️
🍽️: ⛔️
🧳: 🙂
🧽: 🙂

First bus on a Easter Sunday: not many passengers!

I‘m confused

I’m on the Boxteler Bahn and it’s a bus!

#CrossBorderRail 2026 Spring Tour Bike 10 of 20
Goch - Cuijk, via Gennep

Distance: 26km
Est. duration: 1:45

This bike route, mapped: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-2026-spring-tour_1361108#13/51.705864/6.016903

No Gochness today! #CrossBorderRail

The Boxteler Bahn is blocked by an Absinth company #CrossBorderRail

Nice border! The Zollbeamter can’t control me as he’s made of wood #CrossBorderRail

There‘s #CrossBorderRail

Hassum 🇩🇪 - Gennep 🇳🇱

#CrossBorderRail 2026 Spring Tour Train 53 of 111
RS11 (32233)
10:22 Cuijk - Venlo 11:01
Arriva Nederland

Train type: Stadler DMU, 2 short carriages
⛽️
🚲: ✅
🦽: ✅ (step free)
🛜: ✅
🍽️: ⛔️
🧳: 😐 (door areas aren’t cleverly designed)
🧽: 🙂
Interrail: 🙂 (accepted)

RS11 (32233)
10:22 Cuijk - Venlo 11:01

Distance: 46.7km
Average speed: 72km/h

5 stops:
Boxmeer
Vierlingsbeek
Venray
Blerick
Venlo

This train, mapped: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-2026-spring-tour_1361108#11/51.546154/6.022750

#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

So this first #CrossBorderRail of the day: Hassum 🇩🇪 - Gennep 🇳🇱

I‘d wondered if this would be an alternative to Nijmegen 🇳🇱 - Kleve 🇩🇪

It’s too long gone, and in and around Gennep too hard to reactivate

So I need to work out some other solution to the Groesbeek problem on the Nijmegen - Kleve route

Maybe a tram train is the best choice?

#CrossBorderRail 2026 Spring Tour Bike 11 of 20
Around - Venlo

Distance: 11.7km
Est. duration: 1:00

This bike route, mapped: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-2026-spring-tour_1361108#14/51.382879/6.193242

Beyond the 🐎 is Germany. But no sign whatsoever of #CrossBorderRail Straelen 🇩🇪 - Venlo 🇳🇱

#CrossBorderRail 2026 Spring Tour Train 54 of 111
IC 3546
12:03 Venlo - Eindhoven 12:41
NS

Train type: Talbot VIRM EMU, 4 double deck carriages
⚡️ (1.5kV dc)
🚲: ✅
🦽: ✅ (ramp on platform)
🛜: ✅
🍽️: ⛔️
🧳: 😐 (weird design)
🧽: ☹️ (grimy outside, not cleaned inside)
Interrail: 🙂 (accepted)

IC 3546
12:03 Venlo - Eindhoven 13:41

Distance: 51.6km
Average speed: 81km/h

5 stops:
Blerick
Horst-Sevenum
Deurne
Helmond
Eindhoven Centraal

This train, mapped: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-2026-spring-tour_1361108#12/51.420549/5.825395

#CrossBorderRail 2026 Spring Tour

uMap

Really who the hell designed the air conditioning units in NS‘s ICNG trains? James Dyson?

I also discovered earlier you can go on jumbo benders in Venlo

Those British stag night parties must be queuing up!

I obviously didn’t partake

#CrossBorderRail 2026 Spring Tour Train 55 of 111
IC 1144
12:43 Eindhoven - Rotterdam Centraal 13:44
NS

Train type: Alstom Konstal ICNG EMU, 8 short carriages
⚡️ (1.5kV dc, 25kV ac, 1.5kV dc)
🚲: ✅
🦽: ✅ (step free)
🛜: ✅
🍽️: ⛔️
🧳: 🙂
🧽: 🙂
Interrail: 🙂 (accepted)

IC 1144
12:43 Eindhoven - Rotterdam Centraal 13:44

Distance: 103.8km
Average speed: 102km/h

3 stops:
Tilburg
Breda
Rotterdam Centraal

This train, mapped: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-2026-spring-tour_1361108#10/51.685328/4.972687

#CrossBorderRail 2026 Spring Tour

uMap

You can move to a different section of the ICNG where the air conditioning blasts less

But then you’re nearer the wheels / bogies. And similar to the cousins of these train - Régiolis in France - something incessantly clanks

As you might tell: I don’t really like these trains

Jon Worth 22h ago

The bender - it turns out - is not in Venlo (see earlier toot) but on this ICNG to Rotterdam

Thankfully the hen night group is not in my carriage!

Jon Worth 22h ago

Also ICNG runs more smoothly and quieter on the high speed line at 200km/h than on the old line through Tilburg at c. 130km/h

Here it doesn’t clank

Jon Worth

To those complaining the ICNG pic wasn’t today’s train, here is today‘s at Rotterdam

Jon Worth 21h ago

#CrossBorderRail 2026 Spring Tour Train 56 of 111
EST 9358
14:58 Rotterdam Centraal - Paris Nord 17:40
Eurostar

Train type: Alstom PBA EMU, 2 power cars, 8 articulated single deck carriages (2nd set is to Marne la Vallée, splits Bruxelles)
⚡️ (1.5kV dc, 25kV ac, 3kV dc, 25kV ac)
🚲: ⛔️
🦽: ✅ (lift on platform)
🛜: ✅
🍽️: ✅
🧳: ☹️ (there’s not a single rack for large luggage in this carriage - on a route full of tourists!)
🧽: 🙂
Interrail: 😐 (needs compulsory reservation, costs c. €30)

Jon Worth 21h ago

EST 9358
14:58 Rotterdam Centraal - Paris Nord 17:40

Distance: 456.8km
Average speed: 169km/h

3 stops:
Antwerpen Centraal
Bruxelles Midi
Paris Nord

This train, mapped: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-2026-spring-tour_1361108#8/50.429518/3.543091

#CrossBorderRail 2026 Spring Tour

uMap

Jon Worth 20h ago

Bruxelles Midi #CrossBorderRail

Today also marks the completion of all the #CrossBorderRail heavy rail borders of Netherlands

The only ones missing now are former Vicinal tramways to Belgium. And those are always hopeless…

Meanwhile I’m getting the impression that Jean Castex, new boss of SNCF, might sound less like the French political elite than some others when he talks, but behaves just as unpleasantly as the rest of them.

I can’t currently state the two cases that make me think that, but both are interesting and not positive.

He *could* have tried a radical strategy: trying to be what a good state owned railway could be

Or he could double down on the scheming, malevolence and passenger hostile behaviour typical of SNCF, that no doubt a lot of cheminots applaud

And it’s looking like the latter

This wasn’t the initial plan. So I don’t have any data on it. It’s a AGC Paris - Laroche Migennes

This looks quite clean, somehow, but it’s not 🙂

Jon Worth 16h ago

It all looks so idyllic

Andreas K 15h ago

@jon Well kept, trains looked basically the same 20 years ago.

Hans Zelf 🇪🇺🌻15h ago

@yacc143 @jon make that 40.

@yacc143 hmmm.

@jon “And is it?”
“No, that’s where it all falls down of course.”

The train services are rubbish for a start! But great scenery. :)

Jon Worth 15h ago

@dubiousblur well it depends what you want from a place! I’ve concluded it’s not what I want from a place.

Bela 🐑17h ago

@jon
AGC Ketchup Moutarde

Oliver Blanthorn 18h ago

@jon at least if this alleged corruption turns out to be true
https://mobilycites.com/poitou-charentes-jean-castex-sauve-le-premier-grand-lot-ferroviaire-de-la-sncf/

france is one of the few countries in the world happy to prosecute the politically powerful so he may eventually get his comeuppance

cold comfort for the poor sods in aquitaine who have to put up with a crap rail service for another decade

pglux.bsky.social 18h ago

More than ever...

a man wearing a black hat and ...

Erwan 🚄19h ago

@jon As a former prime minister he surely have a political background

@R1Rail Right. But at RATP he gave the impression he’s less elite. The impression…

Oliver Blanthorn 18h ago

@jon hmm, I got the impression that he was truly on the side of the rank and file at RATP and I haven't seen anything to disabuse me of that from what he's said and done at the SNCF

which is less elite than his predecessors but arguably worse for passengers. can't imagine him starting Ouigo or iDTGV Max for example

@R1Rail

Rémi Cardona 18h ago

@bovine3dom @jon @R1Rail It wasn't just an impression. He's always on the ground **actually taking transit**, talking to unions and other personnel reps. He really was known for always leaving the door open for discussion at RATP. The HR situation was critical when he was appointed. It was vastly improved by the time he left.

I'm not sure what that will mean for new services or service improvements at SNCF (as RATP only does PSO contracts, not open-access).

Jon Worth 18h ago

@remi @bovine3dom @R1Rail doing what cheminots want and what passengers want might directly contradict however.

Tom Tom 17h ago

@jon @remi @bovine3dom @R1Rail but it can concur also. I don't see cheminots enjoying running dirty trains (like most ter) with stupid connexions (like a local train leaving 2 min. before the main line train arrives), or having to put up with a deteriorating line and 2 trains a day... At least I hope so.

@tomtom I disagree here. Sorry. I don't see much pride in their work from within SNCF. OK, there are *some* budgetary reasons, but I see cheminots not seeing opportunities as a core problem with SNCF. @remi @bovine3dom @R1Rail

Tom Tom 17h ago

@jon @remi @bovine3dom @R1Rail I don't know the SNCF from the inside so I can't say but my experience is that I have never seen anyone happy to give a crap service. I have seen employees deliver a crap service for a lot of reasons, but I have never ever seen one actually happy to do so.

@tomtom @remi @bovine3dom @R1Rail Not caring: I have seen plenty. Malevolence to customers: also plenty. Wanting to deliver a crap service: probably not, or they would not say so. But they don't see dishing out a fine of €70 for a ridiculously minor infringement as in any way problematic, and I do.

Rémi Cardona 10h ago

@jon @tomtom @bovine3dom @R1Rail train managers are so unpredictable. I know you, Jon, have interacted with many more than I have. But I did manage to see wonderful and genuinely helpful employees… and also the worst kind. The ones that think their sole job is ticket/fare enforcement. Those wannabe cops are the absolute worst.

Tom Tom 3h ago

@remi @jon @bovine3dom @R1Rail yes and to be fair, this is not SNCF specific. I have seen a SBB Conductor fining a mother with two kids because she was in 1st class instead of 2nd even though he saw her running on the platform to catch the train and rushing in the first carriage and her only error was not to rush towards 2nd class but stay standing with her kids and luggages in the entrance hall.

Ryanair staff are also notorious arseholes.

Jon Worth 3h ago

@remi @tomtom @bovine3dom @R1Rail I have found good ones, yes. Friday I had two of those. But I think their incentives are wrong, that doesn’t help.

pglux.bsky.social 17h ago

How busy was that train?

@pglux.bsky.social About 80%.

Moritz Kleine-Sendrail 🇺🇦21h ago

@jon is this the refurbished version?

@Moritz_Kleine but I’m in 1st class. There’s a coffee machine I think they don’t use where the luggage rack should be. Priorities!

gommehammer 18h ago

@jon Have Eurostar/Thalys Interrail reservations always been this expensive? I was aware of the hefty fees on channel tunnel reservations, but thought Thalys was closer to SNCF (10 or 20€)