@jon I looked up the transportation information on the event website, and it turns out the bus from the city to the congress centre only runs every 70 minutes. Who comes up with such a schedule 😳
That's a big problem in 🇪🇸 : some cities grew up like mushrooms, with loads of new attractions and facilities built in the outskirts, yet not always with adequate public transportation.
Sometimes even dangerous for a 🚴 🚶 , as such areas are usually cut up with motorways with no genuine or too few under/overpasses.
@jon Thanks for that rant! It's not only the bad trains, but that Europe's elite institutionalized traveling by plane as the default (high carbon lifestyle, as Kevin Anderson puts it). Your frustrating conversation with the organizing agency is a good example of that. This must change.
@jon As somebody who calls German one of their mother tongues, I gotta admit that "Renfe" has always sounded to me like the noise somebody makes after they've slammed their nose against an obstacle…
What we’ve had:
Announcements telling us what to do in the case of emergency
Announcements telling us to not leave anything behind
A Prosegur-Securidad dude walking back and forth
#CrossBorderRail Autumn 2023 Train 107
MD 9143
14:28 Santiago De Compostela - Vigo-Urzaiz 15:30
Renfe
Distance: 94km
Average speed: 91km/h
Train type: CAF Series 121 EMU, 4 carriages
⚡️
🚲: ⛔️ (can’t see any bike spots)
🦽: ✅ (ramp on board)
🛜: ⛔️
🍽️: ⛔️
🧳: 🤔 (narrow door areas, not handy with bags)
🧽: 😡 (windows not cleaned recently)
Within 4 mins of leaving Vigo bus station we’ve scraped a tree, almost hit a learner driver (we now know the brakes work) and almost hit a plant pot (driver turned erratically to avoid)
I bet some awful stuff happens in train cabs too, but as a passenger you seldom experience it! ☺️
@atbeaune@jon The job is mostly getting around the circle without hitting anything. If the timing on the route is off or the traffic is bad, the next loop is late, and there's not a good way to catch up. There is an anttena above most buses that gets hit a lot, and I've had overgrown branches smack the bus because there's no space to pull over. I'm not questioning that this driver hit a tree, of course, that happens.
For good driving in a bus, the tires won't hit or jump curbs. Stops and starts will feel smooth. Clean windshield. There won't be hesitation on tight turns, and they tell if a gap is wide enough for a bus just by looking at it. + No speeding, no accidents, no drinking.
I drove in the midwest US, which is different, but people made room once I put on my signal. One route had to get across multiple lanes quickly, and people would make space before I put on my signal, because it was often the same drivers, and they were used to the bus changing lanes right there.
@jon That's the strangest thing I've heard today. I expected to hear "Nästa Slussen, byte till tunnelbanans röda linje och till bussar", and when there was an announcement in Portugese it did not fit the jingle.
@PGLux yes that’s now a huge multi use area. At least a vending machine or coffee machine there would be good. But the cars are quiet, the seats good, the ride smooth, the vestibules well designed.
Feeling a bit melancholy tonight as my train rolls towards Coimbra…
In three days I’m home in Berlin. #CrossBorderRail done for this year.
Vilar Formoso 🇵🇹 - Fuentes de Onoro 🇪🇸 (tomorrow) and Euskotren - Irun Ficoba 🇪🇸 - Hendaye 🇫🇷 (Saturday) are the last active lines at PT-ES and ES-FR borders I’m missing.
Research on the internal borders of the EU is coming close to its end…
@PGLux@stadtstreunen_at well there are of course some borders I’m missing. And I’ve sort of covered Switzerland already (and Norway). But the number of really interesting borders to still visit in the EU is now quite few. Cesky Tesin, Breil-Cuneo and Breil-Ventimiglia, Reutte Tyrol and Mittenwald are about the only ones I’m itching to visit.
@stadtstreunen_at@Island_Martha i remember checking if i could do half by bus, half - inc. the cross border section - by bike. And abandoning because I could not work out an adequate cycle route. But I will have another look.
A kind of pre-rail-Baltica trip could be interesting I think!
@jon@stadtstreunen_at
There is a lot of cycling here in Estonia. Saaremaa has an entire network of cycle paths, although no border crossings. While you're up here you could interview the responsible individuals in each country to get their views on how things are progressing - a kind of analysis on how change might be created. .
@stadtstreunen_at I have a timetable already. 22 days. And I even have to hire… a car for 4 days in North Macedonia as no buses where I need to go, and too far to bike it. It’s going to be hardcore.
@jon@stadtstreunen_at fwiw taxis in 🇲🇰 are pretty cheap from my experience, even if you arrange a later pick up. A bit hard to avoid the scammy ones but yeah. If you need one in the Skopje area lmk.
@PGLux@drnoble very empty. It was early summer though, not high season. I'd booked a bed in a 3 bed Schlafwagen, but had the compartment to myself for the whole trip!
@jon
Further more, I think you are nearing what is called in EuroSpeak a dissemination phase of your project - time to gather up what you have learned and begin/continue lobbying to see some of it implemented.
@jon Fortunately, it wasn’t very busy - around 8pm. Our day trip into Portugal from Ribeira was shortened (distance) by the car needing a repair.
Hope to do train to Lisbon via Paris/Hendaye/San Sebastian:/Vigo and Porto next year.
@jon NS used to have 6 A32 trams. They also had the same announcement sounds as Stockholm, but it was probably because The Hague’s HTM had the possibility to buy some trams via SL’s order.
@jon with accidents and SPADs investigated I would say that train drivers take driving very seriously. If all road accidents were reviewed and findings implemented in the same way as rail the roads would be a lot safer!
@jon To be honest, I’m sure it’s cool architecture and all, but it also looks like it’s using that camouflage they used in WWII to hide ships and these days to make it hard to photograph cars still in the design phases. It’s hard to see anything there 😵💫
@jon When I went from Ferrol to Madrid I noticed both the lack of scanning and the lack of ticket checks before being allowed onto the platform. Just like most of Europe.
@rivoluzioneurbanamobilita It’s at the far opposite end of a car park for 500 cars. I found it by chance when leaving the centre yesterday. There’s not a single sign indicating where it is.
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