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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
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

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