Today working on support for self-serve refunds on Railfinder*, and I finally cracked the last boss of building a multi-ticket booking platform: how the hell to solve after sales with multiple tickets. We will finally have a tech architecture + UI that MAKES SENSE and is future-proof!
Just needed to share. Thanks for listening 🤓
*Refunds will allow some significant news that have been held back. And yes, booking fees will be refundable (for the portion of the booking that is being refunded).
My minigolfing of regional rail branding across Europe continues, and now we show train names/brands across the Netherlands on Railfinder! And as a bonus we now also show line numbers where we have that data.
Big thanks to @partim for explaining the systems-within-systems for how NL regional rail is organised & marketed. Saved quite some research!
If you see any train branding/names/lines that’s off (in NL or elsewhere), I always want to hear that feedback for my next minigolfing session.
”Anything under 2 hours late to Sthlm we consider on time”
Well, I guess today we were just about slightly delayed.
Loving BahnBet – can we get a dedicated EuroNightBet maybe?
It could have fun sub-bets like ”how long will the train preparation delay end up being actually” (it increased in 30 min increments in Berlin), ”will we gain or lose time between Hamburg and Padborg”, ”how many platform changes will there be”, ”will coach numbers be sequential or random order”, etc. Infinite potential!
Posting about the lack of Talgo 230 on EC to/from Copenhagen in another group was great nerd sniping. Now I know:
- One DB IC1 coach group still in use on some departures
- IC3 trainsets with Indusi/PZB lack ERTMS and have to go the old 180 km/h line in Denmark + max 160 km/h in Germany
- Maintenance workers still learning how to work w Talgo coaches
- Some problems with Talgo 230 and connection to the locos with random error codes
- Some departures even with bilevel coaches + replacement bus
Was looking forward to seeing the new DSB Talgo 230 carriages on my trip Copenhagen - Hamburg, but arrived at a platform with an old DSB IC3 train 🤷🏻♂️
The canary was an updated timetable a few days ago with a longer running time, so maybe this indicates a new and more proactive temporary solution while the Talgo carriages get sorted.
And hey ho, first class comfort is great in these old carriages!
Heading towards Berlin and ITB next week, but not before squeezing in some ski turns in the newly fallen snow and not without a little extra weekend trip on the way, this time heading first for Copenhagen!
Most people on this Snälltåget service to Malmö are going to and from their ski vacations, but as a local I’ll take the opportunity to go direct to Malmö (almost 900 km as the crow flies).
Departure on time right after snow clearing arrived from the line we’ll go (far left last pic)
New feature of the Railfinder journey planner live today: avoiding station changes that require a metro or similar
We now consider transfers in three levels: within a station, walking between nearby stations, and changes that require local transit.
If the fastest journey possible requires a worse change of stations, we calculate other options that have easier transfers. And we promote the easier journeys higher in the list of results.
For example going Brussels - Barcelona skipping Paris ⤵️
@stefanlindbohm Super interesting result out of Railfinder.
Vidin - Budapest. Suggests to take the train in Craiova to Draganesti Olt, to catch the Night Train (which stops at Craiova).
Actually a nice idea. You get on the Night Train at a more civilised time.
Took some looking to notice this though.
Might have opted for that option too, except MAV (where you can get the interrail pass accepted) won't do Draganesti Olt only Craiova (CFR will, but not the Interrail). But then did realize getting on the train after 00:00 makes it a new Interrail day (and we travel much further after Budapest, and the first bit the day before is cheap) so maybe for good - even if getting on a train at 1 in the morning.
Bahn.de doesn't come up with anything so sensible... even if you route directly from Craiova it wants you to change trains at 2 or 3 in the night (urgh).
ekes