@lewd at least the more modern control cars (that this has) have a big, wide, automatic door, wide steps, and an accessible toilet. But you don't know beforehand which end it will be running!
@jon Well, sometimes SNCF Connect is willing to show you the train composition with the correct order, but indeed, it requires some knowledge about the stations.
@lewd I think this depends on the region. @smveerman pointed out to me that data on bike transport is missing for Hauts de France TERs but works for the rest!
@jon@lewd Last, year, I actually preferred to lift my not really bike because it meant some sensible food onboard as compared to more recent low-floor EMUs that should be used on that line...
Hmmm. I have a bit of flexibility in my timetable later… Could I maybe cycle a bit further, and check out Maulde-Mortagne [FR] - Antoing [BE] as well as Vieux-Condé [FR] - Péruwelz [BE]? 🤔
Meanwhile the TER I am on is approaching Paris. We're a bit late (5-10 mins or so - enough to be mildly annoying) but there has been no announcement. And the train manager has not even bothered to pass through the train, and there has been no ticket check.
For these sorts of things SNCF is a rather sloppily run rail company, especially on TER trains.
@pony I’m aware the multiple of anecdote is not data. But after dozens of trips in both CZ and FR, ČD is much better at this. Definitely better than TERs. TGVs in France are not as bad.
From the beginning of August, on regional trains in Italy, one needs to "check in" (=validate) the e-ticket, before departure time through the app or through a link on the email with the ticket.
@meduz@timrichards Again, the plural of anecdote is not data, but a train manager passing through at least in Belgium happens more than on TERs in France. Italy I don’t know so well.
@jon I don’t think I’ve ever had my ticket checked on a TER. Which is just as well, since I still don’t know how you were supposed to composter your ticket after buying it from the machine in Tende.
#CrossBorderRail Autumn 2023 Train 2
TGV 7165
10:52 Paris Nord - Valenciennes 12:35
SNCF Voyageurs
Distance: 237km
Average speed: 138km/h
Train type: TGV Réseau Belgium tri voltage version*, 8 carriages (splits in Arras, 8 further carriages to Dunkerque)
⚡️
🚲: ⛔️ (only if dismantled)
🦽: ✅ (needs lift on platform)
🛜: ✅
🍽️: ✅ (not checked if it’s open though)
🧳: 🙂 (single deck, so it’s ok)
🧽: 🙂
the service could be extended to Mons… if Valenciennes-Quiévrain #CrossBorderRail were reinstated!
@jon well they would also need to make technical modifications to the TGV Réseau to make them more of a PBA. The TGV only has allowance on LGV1 till Brussels-Midi as an exception. It is not allowed to be taken on the general Infrabel network.
@jon i haven’t got the exact details but when they ran a few under Thalys they were clearly marked as not to be allowed. For further approval now they would for sure need ETCS which they do not have (yet, depending on SNCF)
@jon four years in Paris and I still get confused between the machine for SNCF Grands Lignes and the Ile-de-France Mobilités machine for regional trains.
Let's see how the government will deliver on the promise of a French version of the Deutschlandticket 🙄
@deach different functionality. You need to know what type of train (TGV, Intercités - Grandes Lignes, TER Bourgogne, TER Centre Val de Loire) and then use the right machine.
@jon oof, yeah that’s painful. Sounds like an organisation where one group is responsible setting up one type of train travel but having no one inside the company really championing integration between different groups
@jon why do they do this?! I know it’s 25 years since I lived in France, but back then there was a single machine for everything. There was even one on my uni campus.
@deadliftbear then Grandes Lignes. But if it’s TERs from 2 regions it becomes messy very quickly, online as well. And that’s before you even get to the nightmare of reduction cards.
My Paris - Valenciennes TGV hammers along at close to 300km/h for two thirds of its journey. But the last bit - Douai-Valenciennes - the line is 110km/h, despite flat-ish terrain. Why doesn’t France upgrade these sections to 200km/h?
This tram takes 39 mins. Komoot told me cycling would take 44 mins. Now I know why… damn it crawls. And there are loads of single track sections as well, even though it’s a new tram system. At least it has priority at traffic lights. But this isn’t great, sadly.
Oh and someone’s smoking hash in here too… (or was)
Now I understand why - although it’s new - it’s single track
It’s on street running. But with a reserved right of way… but had it been built double track… they’d have had to remove parked cars from one side of the road
So they went for this car friendly, low capacity, but supposedly reliable solution.
@PGLux@jon@quixoticgeek The US has an intercity train running on the street today - the Amtrak line through Oakland. It's slow even by American rail standards and everyone mocks it.
I was so happy in Paris 1.5 weeks ago: arrived at ~11:17PM in Gare de Lyon, saw a staircase half way along the platform "Metro", walked down and 100m later I was in the metro that just came, changed 1x, came to the next metro that just arrived, exited 50m from my hotel at Gare de'l Est at around 11:40.
That's 10km/h for the direct distance, incl. walking and 2 metros.
And while I was cycling @tops tried to buy Interrail reservations for me for trains later in #CrossBorderRail in Spain. These can’t be booked online.
But Renfe - a railway company that makes SNCF look like a customer friendly panacea - won’t sell them unless the passenger named shows their ID at the station. A photo of the ID won’t do 😡
And tickets are controlled before boarding on AVE anyway. What fraud are they trying to prevent? FFS
@jon@tops Ah yes, happy memories of my Inter-rail days as a student. There was no internet back then, so it was harder to look up the details of travel, and what I hadn't realised was that an Inter-rail ticket wasn't valid for travel on all trains unless you paid a supplement. So they threw me off the train.
@jon@tops There may have been a requirement for compulsory reservation as well (which I'm sure I wouldn't have bought). It was a long time ago. I don't remember the details.
What I do remember was being mightily hacked off with Spain as a result and getting on the first train I could find out of the country.
One additional problem for Spanish-French train connections is a cockfight between RENFE and SNCF.
It's a longer tragedy in several acts. RENFE is definitely the less efficient company of the two (Symptomatic: You can't even look up connections on their web 🙄). But in this recent drama, respondibility is probably at least shared.
If somebody knows better, please correct me:
In the EU (remember, some stuff in the EU is nice, but a lot also neoliberal bullshit), the countries are "encouraged" to privatise national rail companies and to allow competition.
The French SNCF became annoyed by RENFE trains starting to cover some of the more revenue-generating routes*.
So, SNCF just kicked RENFE out and didn't allow them to operate on French rails anymore. RENFE would have liked to do the same, but luckily for the cross-border connection, they couldn't.
In Spain, the infrastructure is operated by ADIF, RENFE runs only the trains (as France is one of the big players in the EU, SNCF is allowed to retain the authority over the tracks and to play both roles).
So the two broke ties and stopped any cooperation. So no mutual ticket selling or anything...
Things are starting to improve again, apparently. RENFE ads are announcing "breaking: there will be a new connection Barcelona-Paris" (in reality, just starting to recover the connections that four years ago were totally normal).
here is obviously a flaw in my version of the story, as SNCF has apparently less of a problem with DB and others...
@jon
I live in Spain. Believe me, SNCF is great compared to #Renfe.
I'm trying to buy a ticket and their website has not been able to work for the last two days.
@jon@tops starting a Eurail itinerary with a Madrid-Valencia journey right after an intercontinental flight was not the greatest plan on my part. (Made worse by the complication of getting from the airport to the station and finding the right ticket office once we were there.)
Train type: SNCB I11 powered sets - 1x6 carriage, 1x4 carriage
⚡️
🚲: ✅
🦽: ✅ (but station in Tournai seems to not be accessible)
🛜: ⛔️
🍽️: ⛔️
🧳: 🙂 (plenty of multi use spaces)
🧽: 🙂 (spotless and new)
@jon recently I witnessed a situation when in Poland on an ExpresIntercityPremium train more bicycles were loaded that were allowed. This is the only category of trains in Poland that you cannot board without a seat reservation. The crew carried out a thorough investigation suggesting that they will unload the extra bikes if the owners of the bikes that didn't have a reservation don't declare themselves.
It was quite funny, but it's evident that the number of places for bikes is too small
@jon I hear your frustration, but tbh while I like fast trains, I rather like slow trams, especially in town or city centres. But I'm a pedestrian mostly, so different perspective from cyclist.
@jon walk-bus-walk here is slower than just #cycling most journeys because Norfolk County Council are dicks (buses have no priority). Can only bike-bus-bike with a bagged folded bike because NCC are dicks (no parking at bus stops), DVSA are dicks (no bus bike racks worth using are allowed) and the borough/city council are dicks (no bike hire at the central bus stations).
Agreed, main conventional lines in Norhern 🇫🇷 are rather derelict. Old power supplies, lots of flat junctions, level crossings, and the usual abandonned and countless sidings.
All this dates back to the late-50s, when the infra was tailor-made for Freighters more than for passenger traffic.
Douai-Cambrai is even worse; wired in 1993 just to accommodate a short-lived single daily TGV to/from Paris, with derelict infra.
@jon A few years ago I rode Paris to Geneva. An hour into the 3 hour journey I checked the map and thought for a moment we were nearly there... Until I remembered the very slow, in this case windy and pretty section on the non high speed line
@timrichards Regionalisation of responsibility for rail was done during the first Macron government term (it’s now the 2nd). But why it then had to be this messy I don’t know. Germany has regional rail responsibility, but you can get any ticket at any machine, generally (there are a few exceptions).
@jon That second class carriage looks very much like the one I caught from Lyon to Chambéry, in order to pick up the FrecciaRossa service to Milan. Luckily I was the only person in it that morning. :)
@timrichards indeed. Just Bourgogne chose some different colours to Rhone-Alpes 🙂 I always go for open carriages in Corail trains though - better imho.
8-seat compartment Corail cars (B11u VU-78/80 were normally operating in 🇫🇷 🇱🇺 only.
But the very last-ordered (VU-86) batch got 4-voltage inverters, and ran on the 2 daily EC Paris - Cologne - Dortmund ("Molière" and "Parsifal") and on EC Paris-Zurich ("Le Corbusier").
Needless to say, that passengers complained a lot with it, especially as those trains were subject to Supplement.
Those cars ended up on the sleepers Paris - Hamburg/Berlin.
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