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Hello old friend!
Test ride on the red Birdy (that I’ve not used since June) this evening before the #CrossBorderRail adventures to come this autumn 😀
In my research about the public transport data problems the Multi Modal Digital Mobility Services (MDMS) Regulation was supposed to solve... I have not yet found any major data issue with long distance coaches.
All the major ones - Lux Express, Ecolines, Flix, BlaBlaBus, Alsa - have their tickets re-sold on some third party platform somewhere.
That's of course NOT the case for many rail operators…
This is GRIM
A Swiss TV channel tries to get to the bottom of the problems with the Belfort-Delle-Delémont #CrossBorderRail line
Michel Neugnot (VP of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté) uses language befitting of Le Pen (about 6 mins into the piece)
Sure, the Swiss running the trains through to Belfort would mean these need a subsidy, but *both French and Swiss passengers would benefit*
https://canalalpha.ch/play/le-journal/topic/31396/delle-belfort-dans-les-coulisses-de-notre-enquete
But Busbud can show Flix on international routes. So my conclusion has to be this is Omio being crap https://www.busbud.com/en/bus-schedules-results/u33dc1/u3qcnh?outbound_date=2023-09-27&adults=1
I don't get Omio
Bus Berlin-Köln - shows me Flix
Bus Berlin-Warszawa - doesn't show me Flix, but there are Flix buses on the route
Why?
Flix won't give them the data for international routes? Or Omio's search is horrid? Both equally likely I reckon…
All this research about (lack of) availability of cross border rail tickets makes me annoyed
DB Navigator *is an excellent route planner*
Imagine adding easy booking - even for trains outside Germany! - to that. It'd be *amazing*
But DB being paranoid about Flix, ÖBB paranoid about Westbahn, SNCF paranoid about everyone... means no state owned railway will make a transformative, EU-wide app
The only players that can and will are hence going to be private
SNCF Logic
We're opening a OUIGO subsidiary in Spain, to compete against Renfe
But we're not going to sell OUIGO Spain tickets on SNCF Connect, but we *do* sell Renfe AVE tickets, despite Renfe being our rival in Spain
Makes total sense. Not.
Oh, and why can't SNCF sell me this anyway? 🤔
I thought it was routing me onto local trains, but it's not. It's a SNCF/DB Alleo TGV or ICE across the border, then a ICE from Frankfurt
This is the sort of connection that railway lobbyists in Brussels (CER) say is already sorted. But obviously it's not
I think - even by SNCF Connect's standards - this is one of the weirdest results I have ever found
It shows me times, and number of connections. But it cannot sell me tickets... so makes *everything* impossible to click. So I cannot even work out what the components of my journey should be!
(and note, NO, of course I would not use SNCF Connect for a trip like this, and I am not even going to Gotha next week - this is for research purposes)
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Introduction and summary videos
All the #CrossBorderRail daily videos are on my Peertube channel
Latest photos
Today’s background
Detail to be added.
The background for the Autumn 2023 project can be found here.
Route – with the focus on today’s border crossing
The full zoomable and scrollable map, including today’s route, is on uMap here.
Photo Rights
Jon’s own photo
