The best way to follow #CrossBorderRail as the trip develops is on social media
There are always posts on Mastodon (@jon@gruene.social & #CrossBorderRail)
To follow on Bluesky please follow the bridged account there.

 

Today’s live text updates

Why is the first Perpignan - Paris of the day at 7am? That's TOO LATE. FFS. Early trains are useful, damn it.

(Note all of this not for me, but for someone who might come along to film )

You can get from Berlin to Helsinki reliably by train and ferry in 2 days and 1 night (Berlin - Warszawa - Vilnius, night there, Vilnius - Tallinn - Helsinki)

But you cannot sensibly get from Lagos to Berlin in the same time, despite, oh, about 2000km of high speed infra to use

You *might* just do it with buses Lagos - Sevilla, and Barcelona - Perpignan, and the rest with trains, and a night in Perpignan

AAAGGGHHAHHAGAGHAHAGAHHAGHAH

Look how many EFFING BUSES there are between Barcelona and Perpignan

WHERE THERE IS A HIGH SPEED EFFING TRAIN LINE WITH 4 TRAINS A DAY EACH WAY ON THE BORDER SECTION

This is why Spain and France (and especially the border between them) make me so hopping mad. How you can spend billions and billions on new infra, and STILL not get to your destination when your trip is something a fraction more complex than Sevilla - Barcelona or Lyon - Lille

I can forgive Romania being crap

I cannot forgive France or Spain being crap

FFS Spain is such a pile of abject shit when it comes to rail timetables

Sure, the trains are fast *if and when they go*, but nothing connects properly

I am now testing routes on some portals like Railfinder

But this also gets interesting

Take this part

Railfinder leans so heavily towards direct trains it leaves you with a *very tight* connection in Hamburg

But change in Lund and Copenhagen in addition, and everything is much safer...

So I *think* I have an answer?

Kemijärvi - Lagos is 18 trains

To do this with normal railway websites (i.e. DB, SJ etc.) you would need 12 bookings, and there would be 9 changes where you would lose passenger rights (the other you can just take the next train)

Ticket costs

Seat 2nd class
€586.93

1st class and sleeper ÖBB, shared sleeper SJ
€1016.31

2nd class, shared sleeper SJ, mini comp ÖBB
€726.23

LOL 😂

These anomalies

Offenburg-Strasbourg

If you get a French operated train, it has 1st and 2nd class. But SNCF Connect will only sell you a 2nd class ticket, for €13,40

If you get a German operated train, it has only 2nd class seats. But DB will sell you a 1st class ticket (for €19,20) or a 2nd class ticket (for €13,20, so 20 cent cheaper)

So if you want deluxe 1st class hope you get a French train and use a German ticket!

Way to go DSB 🤣

On your *national* website you have Hamburg ZOB listed, and that's the Zentralomnibusbahnhof (bus station) (pic 1, 2)

To get a train to Hamburg Hbf, the main station, you need to use the DSB International website (pic 3) dsb.dk/en/international/

But to Flensburg - which is in Germany - *is* on the national site. Totally makes sense (pic 4)

Text updates are auto-generated from Mastodon – follow me on Mastodon @jon@gruene.social
Some updates will also be occasionally be posted on Bluesky – follow me @jonworth.eu 

 

Today’s introduction and summary videos

All the #CrossBorderRail daily videos are on my Peertube channel

 

 

Today’s photos

Today’s full album on Flickr 

 

Today’s background

New borders:
None

Borders already crossed:
None

After a little investigation of Albania’s ongoing rail plans, it is time to head to Italy – on a ferry from Durrës. 

 

Today’s route

The full zoomable and scrollable map, including today’s route, is on uMap here

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