@ehrba And I agree with @Island_Martha - thereโs much more rail potential in the Baltics than people realise, especially Latvia that (unlike Estonia) still has a quite terrible railway.
While walking around the 18รจme in Paris this morningโฆ thereโs a car someone wiped out in the night. Petrol still dripping, indicators still flashing.
(And in the coming few weeks as my next big #CrossBorderRail trip starts Iโll be highlighting a bunch of the ace railway people here on Mastodon - itโs a super and eccentric and nerdy community that I appreciate a lot)
@jon Do SNCF get commission on the foreign part of the tickets they sell? That would add a line item to a senior managers finance spreadsheet at least, and they could see how much commission they were losing out on. But if they don't earn any commission, then it's not surprising if, at a senior level, they don't really care.
@gravitystorm of course! Around 10% it's rumoured. But whether they can then really assess the impact I have no idea - their whole IT infra is such a steaming stinking mess!
@jon@takua I managed to get around Belgium somehow. Currently sitting in the TGV inoui from Barcelona to Paris (great landscape). One thing is certain, I will never complain about DB Navigator anymore.
@takua Right. Totally. German journalists often ask me โBut surely Germany's digitalisation of rail is lacking!" and then response is โHave you seen the situation elsewhere?โ
So I just tried asking at Bercy if they could sell me a ticket to Berlin in June
The guy was friendly but couldnโt get a price (because we know he canโt get prices). But he was genuinely confused, and had no idea SNCF has suspended these sales
Iโm going to try once more at Austerlitz and see what they tell me there
@jon Agree with you, last time I was on an ICE to Stuttgart there were some people walking down the aisle towards the front of the train and I remember thinking that nobody in France would do that. Which is weird because every Parisian knows exactly where to stand on the metro in order to be right in front of the exit.
Though to be fair nobody would want to be at Stuttgart Hbf any longer than they absolutely need to!
Iโm often critical of French rural timetables not being joined up
But this one works perfectly
The bakery in Nuits opens at 06:00, so thereโs time to get a croissant ๐ฅ on the way from home to the railway station for the first train to Paris at 06:21 ๐
@jon@corentin You can continue along rue de Rivoli to Place de la Concorde, which is very pretty, with a view of the avenue des Champs รlysรฉes and the Arc de Triomphe. Then, take the Pont de la Concorde in front of l'Assemblรฉe Nationaleโฆ