Max Wyss – one of the excellent community of Swiss railway nerds on Twitter – messaged me with a suggestion: why not route via Rapperswil to St Gallen on Day 23 of #CrossBorderRail. That would mean taking in part of the Voralpen Express run by Südostbahn. The new Stadler built trains on this line (pictured, right) have been receiving rave reviews, so why not try one?

From a sublime new train to a… well, either sublime or ridiculous old one, depending on your perspective!

A chance email from a person I am due to meet in Poprad in Slovakia on Day 38 of the project… led me to re-check my timetables for Days 37 and 38. I had intended to route from Bucuresti in Romania via Cluj Napoca to Miskolc in Hungary, crossing from Romania to Hungary at Biharkeresztes. But engineering works there mean a complete re-routing across Romania – taking the night train via Craiova, Timisoara and Arad to Szolnok in Hungary (crossing into Hungary at a different border – Curtici-Lőkösháza). The good news however is that between Bucuresti and Timisoara I will be able to travel on board one of the ancient WLABmee sleeping cars of Romanian railways CFR. Look at that chair (pictured, left) – you can see more photos here.

These changes have now been reflected in the pages for Day 23, Day 37 and Day 38, and of course in the Google Sheet containing the full timetable! They’re also mapped on Umap.

Photos used in this post

Adam Vanting
CFR WLABmee
From Vagonweb
Used with permission

Nelso Silva
SOB RABe 526 107
August 27, 2021
CC BY-SA 2.0