@jon
Yeah and it's a bit sad, they had materials with really high capacity (some more comfortable than others) and now they have just the crappy small Régiolis 🙃
@_Hemmschuh they are 6 section Régiolis, usually running in double. Could be worse. But yes, there's a lot more you could do. But BFC, Neugnot and SNCF, it's a pretty pernicious combination.
(And in the coming few weeks as my next big #CrossBorderRail trip starts I’ll be highlighting a bunch of the ace railway people here on Mastodon - it’s 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 “But surely Germany's digitalisation of rail is lacking!" and then response is “Have you seen the situation elsewhere?”
So I just tried asking at Bercy if they could sell me a ticket to Berlin in June
The guy was friendly but couldn’t get a price (because we know he can’t get prices). But he was genuinely confused, and had no idea SNCF has suspended these sales
I’m 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!
I’m often critical of French rural timetables not being joined up
But this one works perfectly
The bakery in Nuits opens at 06:00, so there’s time to get a croissant 🥐 on the way from home to the railway station for the first train to Paris at 06:21 🙂
@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 Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe. Then, take the Pont de la Concorde in front of l'Assemblée Nationale…
Yeah, because you merged with Thalys - so, surprise surprise, you transported more people
Passenger numbers London - Paris/Bruxelles are still down on the last pre-pandemic year, not least because Eurostar now no longer serves Ebbsfleet and Ashford
People keep sharing it into my timelines, being positive. And from a grain of truth Welt constructs a story that’s rubbish. And people who take trains but don’t work on rail topics trust it, even though it’s Welt. And obviously don’t trust a random dude on Mastodon (me) instead
Ok, les passionnés de trains parisiens, j'ai besoin de ton aide.
Comme la file d'attente pour les billets des Grandes Lignes était trop longue à la Gare du Nord aujourd'hui, je vais devoir essayer une autre gare vendredi.
Bercy ou la gare de Lyon seraient les plus faciles d'accès, mais j'irai par vélo ailleurs si les files d'attente sont moins longues.
Quel est le terminal parisien où les files d'attente seront les plus courtes ?
@tristramg Loco2 a été intégré à Rail Europe, propriété de la SNCF. Mais elle l'a vendue l'année dernière. Elle existe donc toujours et peut encore tout vendre, mais ce n'est pas la SNCF.