This Macron calling an election is such a “I think I know best” manoeuvre.
If you’ve just suffered a defeat in the EP elections, going “oooh I’ll make you go vote again, to back me or not” comes across (to me anyway) as aloof and stupid.
Maybe pause and ask yourself why what happened did happen? Just an idea…
And another timetable failure: the Čapljina - Sarajevo train departed 4 minutes EARLIER than timetabled. Things are relaxed enough here to mean likely no one missed it, but it’s odd…
@jon In India "preponing" flights was a thing, as I discovered to my cost (despite arriving in plenty of time, ie a couple of hours). Maybe it's better now.
The nonchalance with which this was communicated, as if it was routine enough that one should have anticipated it, was quite Alice in Wonderland.
And ZFBiH really has its priorities wrong. As well as employing two people to not sell me a ticket (see earlier toot), I was told off for taking this photo of the roof of the hall of Sarajevo station (which is brutalist and quite cool!) #CrossBorderRail
there are meant to be joint border and customs controls 🇲🇪 🇷🇸 at Bijelo Polje by mid June. Check this is the case once I’m there end June!
Albania is meant to have its new railway - inc to Tirana airport - running and electrified by 2025. I’ll go check this, inc the airport, to see if that looks viable
Really struggling with my #CrossBorderRail workflow here in Sarajevo today. The wifi in the conference venue, and the cafe next door, are both too slow. And my workflow is too dependent on uploads to the cloud… I’ll eventually get the photos onto Flickr and share HD videos with the journalist who wants them.
@jon In Austria the correct title for the rector of a university is "Magnifizenz" 🤔 👑
Then again, as silly as the rituals of diplomacy may seem, I try to remember that formalized compliments & titles & protocols historically grew out of episodes in which jaw-jaw replaced war-war. <>
I only got involved in railway policy advocacy work because I needed it and I lived it
And while at one level I might be of the university educated elite, I’ll literally get my hands dirty, and pitch up at a summit on a bike wearing a t-shirt. Without living this stuff on the ground it makes no sense
How do people like this Montenegro minister just want to stay at the abstract level?
Thank goodness. Someone who knows their stuff and knows how to communicate it. Edin Forto (Transport Minister, Bosnia) - he’s a good speaker. #GreenMobilitySummit
I wonder how these senior people really learn. If you go to events like this, full of bla bla, can you ever learn the reality on the ground? #GreenMobilitySummit
Also I’m a bit cynical here. There’s currently no passenger train between Maglaj (Federation) and Doboj (Republika Srpska) because the rail firms don’t get along and it’s politically too complex. Can they really get a line upgraded and get something working on it? #GreenMobilitySummit
There is this thing with places you go infrequently where somehow the weather and the place and the light merge in your memory
Just as I’ve seldom had a day of sun in all my visits to Maastricht, every time I’ve been to Sarajevo I’ve had these amazing calm evenings with golden sun and it’s an amazing place on evenings like this…
One day I’ll come here and it’ll rain. But until then I’ll dream every evening here is like this evening 🙂
Green Mobility Summit. Where the bike parking is a lamp post. And there’s no way to take the stairs not to the lift… and there’s a LCD screen to direct people #CrossBorderRail
One or two comments at this Green Mobility Summit make me think the new railway line Kjustendil 🇧🇬 - Kriva Palanka 🇲🇰 is not as advanced as the news stories claim. I’m now extra looking forward to going there 🙂 #CrossBorderRail