Today’s live text updates
New #BullshitMeter this morning
Rather surprisingly I think this one might happen: Lisboa-Madrid will likely improve once the Elvas-Evora line opens
Two or three a week the Minister claims https://alfa.mk/pushtena-vo-upotreba-prugata-kumanovo-belakovcze/?trk=feed-detail_comments-list-reply_comment-text
Better than none (which is what I feared). But given that can’t really be used by anyone on such a short trip I fear it’ll get cut back…
Damn
My chance to test a Gadgetbahn on a #CrossBorderRail line has been postponed until the autumn
Such dreadful news from @coreice
How will I survive? 😭*
* - you all know I am not being serious and don't believe in this shit, right?
(and this makes me feel so bad: I trust rather little I read about railways in general, but having been to North Macedonia in June and seen how they claim trains run that don’t, and photographed the scene of rusting desolation at the Skopje depot, I do not believe ANYTHING from there until I have it confirmed) #CrossBorderRail
Ah
I was at this station at Kumanovo in June 2024. It was unfinished then, it is finished now as per Matej's post
But I am pretty sure МЖ has no trains for a daily service on the line
Danger this is like Bitola-Florina - a completed line with no trains...
Why is it *vitally important* to go and visit these places impacted by EU railway policy? (or, well, not helped because the policy is broken)
Because you learn and see amazing things
Have you ever been to Turmantas or Ormenio, to Seifhennersdorf or Zgorzelec?
Right, the provisional plan is done
"Completing" #CrossBorderRail in June-July 2025, spending 5 weeks at the EU's eastern borders, and PL-SK-CZ-AT-HU-RO
I’ll do my #CrossChannelRail project in March-April, and this one in June-July
Zoomable map: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-2025-finale_1163738#6/47.643/21.896
Explainer and timetable: https://crossborderrail.trainsforeurope.eu/provisional-planning-crossborderrail-the-eus-eastern-borders-june-2025/
Want to try it?
CFR International https://bileteinternationale.cfrcalatori.ro/
SNCF Connect https://www.sncf-connect.com/
Here's the Tulcea Oraș - Rendsburg route https://signal.eu.org/osm/#locs=45.181914,28.790652;44.448242,26.071243;46.210250,24.554443;47.500619,19.088573;51.103522,11.304932;54.302402,9.670715 and Strasbourg - Mainz Hbf https://signal.eu.org/osm/#locs=48.585124,7.734203;49.762639,8.342743;50.001382,8.258594
This is *amazing* work by 🇷🇴 CFR - it can find me a route and a price for Tulcea Oraș 🇷🇴 through 🇭🇺🇦🇹 to Rendsburg 🇩🇪 (5 changes, 2936km)
SNCF meanwhile - despite France having a border with Germany - can give me neither a route nor a price for Strasbourg 🇫🇷 - Mainz Hbf 🇩🇪 (1 change, 213km)
@rysiek Any view on this? Same problem as the KD trains? https://kolejowyportal.pl/opolski-impuls-ma-problem-z-uruchomieniem/
Vy to run summertime trains to Malmö - it'll happen
To København - don't believe it yet, because the company has no suitable trains yet
Story for #BullshitMeter submitted by @Gurre https://www.vy.no/vygruppen/presse-og-nyheter/2025/3364053
This DW piece about a Polish guy going to court over Germany imposing border controls in Görlitz is masterful
"Vielleicht auch weil er einen Kleintransporter mit getönten Scheiben fährt, wird er immer wieder angehalten.”
(Perhaps because he drives a small van with tinted windows, he is repeatedly stopped by the police.)
Which nails it. It's profiling (in amongst all the other ills). If he drove a modern BMW he's be let through.
https://amp.dw.com/de/polnischer-b%C3%BCrger-verklagt-deutschland-wegen-grenzkontrollen/a-71292497
Not for the #BullshitMeter, but bullshit nevertheless - should you trust a book that claims to give tips about European railways, but uses a picture of a train in, errrr, Thailand on its front cover? (and no, I am not linking to it!)
(See “Non-air-con 2nd class sleepers" at Seat61 here https://www.seat61.com/Thailand.htm )
And one more #BullshitMeter
A Frecciarossa service Milano-Ljubljana has been proposed and postponed many times, but I reckon it might well finally launch in June this year. This one isn't bullshit, or at least isn't intentionally
Good morning!
Today's first #BullshitMeter
There's not going to be Oslo - Gothenburg train in 1 hour at 350km/h
Here's the "story" https://www.abcnyheter.no/nyheter/norge/2021/03/13/195745808/hemmelige-lyntog-planer-oslo-goeteborg-pa-en-time?nr=1
In case there are any followers of mine based in Brussels: on 28th January I am discussing the future of railways in the EU at an event in Brussels
Informal event, and there is even beer
Come along!
https://beersandpolitics.com/rail-for-real-how-can-we-fix-eu-crossborder-railways-in-2025/
Oh this is a *classic* of the genre!
A Spain-Morocco rail tunnel by 2030
So much 💩 I can smell it from here!
The "news" https://www.mirror.co.uk/travel/huge-6bn-tunnel-connecting-spain-34308458
When you look at a road in Moldova (near Ocniţa) on Google Street View and wonder whether you'd be better on a bike on the gravel on the side, or in a taxi on this
For #CrossBorderRail
And here's a #BullshitMeter double at @sebwilken 's suggestion
Re-gauging Finland's railways, and building a tunnel from Helsinki to Tallinn are both bullshit ideas
And the next #BullshitMeter
Thanks @niels for asking me about this one!
There might eventually be a København - Oslo direct train, but I doubt it will be in spring 2026 as this article suggests https://www.kollektivtrafik.dk/dsb-forventer-konkurrence-paa-ny-rute-til-oslo/3331
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 background
A day of transition from north east Europe to central Europe! The daily InterCity train to Warszawa arrives too late to connect with the night train from there to Budapest, so it’s instead a coach for the cross border section, and then after a few hours in Warszawa onto the night train across 4 countries to Budapest.
Borders examined on this day:
Zebrzydowice 🇵🇱 – Bohumín 🇨🇿
Distance covered:
1407.9km
Transport modes:
🚆 1
🚌 1
Today’s route
The full zoomable and scrollable map, including today’s route, is on uMap here.
