And for the non-rail people among my followers: there are going to be a lot of railway posts from me (more than usual - really!) - so maybe you mute the tag 🙂
@DiegoBeghin Yes, this is going to be tough - physically too. However if things are really totally broken then there's not much I can do to fix them. But I am sure there’ll be a half dozen places where some simple changes would work.
For the first time since 1992 (when I was 12) I’m completely disinterested by the UK General Election.
Sunak and the Tories will lose, Labour in uninspiring, the Lib Dems weedy, Greens weak and SNP weakened, and Reform simply grim. And Brexit is the elephant none of them will touch.
As I’m still a UK citizen I will vote, but it’s with less determination than ever before.
Ticketing for one of y the most over-hyped #CrossBorderRail services is a mess - you can’t use a Dutch OV-Chipkaart on the Belgian part of the route, and Belgian passes can’t get you beyond Visé
@jon Greece is still not very interested in railways.
We were quite surprised in 2009, how small Athens (old) station was, for a capital city - probably smaller than, say, Cambridge before its booking hall was enlarged.
@vandyke4ad Thessaloniki is markedly better and bigger. But all the rail investments in Greece have been one hell of a mess. Thessaloniki-Athens works OK, but the rest is chaos, sadly.
Damn I hate the #CrossBorderRail non-collaboration between HŽPP and SŽ
Both now have online ticketing
But only to the last station in their respective territories
So neither of them can sell Ilirkska Bistrica - Šapjane (line Pivka-Rijeka) or Rakitovec - Buzet (line Divača-Pula) - in both cases just a few km at the border 😡
Simple solution: include the first station in the neighbouring country in the national ticketing system…
Ah ha! Željeznice FBiH has online booking (I thought)
Do it and pay…
... and then find you have to go to the ticket office in Sarajevo to collect a paper ticket! 🙂
And there was I thinking I could avoid a queue. Well, if there are even enough people wanting the once a day train to Maglaj, which according to Vagonweb runs with only 2 ancient carriages
Mastodon usually has a knack of finding the right people, so let's try this... 🙂
Due to a last-minute drop out, my flat in Berlin Neukölln is available to sub-let 26th May - 28th July. Shorter periods negotiable too
85m2, new building, furnished, lots of light, near the edge of Tempelhofer Feld, high speed internet, all utilities and bikes included in the rent. €1650/month, all included
@sandzwerg It doesn't. But I have enough experience of Talgo now to justify my fears. Talgo trains are bumpy. They're cramped. There are problems with axel weight and the buffet. Talgo Baureihe 105 is a bespoke product, never easy to get approved.
Who does the Bundestag invite to talk about a golden era of international rail? Alain Krakovitch, boss of SNCF Voyageurs - responsible for this ticket mess 😡
@smveerman@jon But surely they already wanted to do that, like, five years ago. That they start half a year after being rid of SNCF at least is curious.
@partim@smveerman At the very least Rail Europe - while owned by SNCF - did not know what it was for. Now it sort of does. Whether the non-sale of Interrail pass reservations was due to malevolence, or a lack of strategy, we cannot really judge.