Good morning, Mastodon!
It's my turn for a #CrossBorderRail and #noflying adventure. I'm going from Parma to Brussels to speak at a project management conference.
My route is Parma - Milan - Brig - Basel - Strasbourg - Brussels. 5 trains, 4 countries, plenty of possibilities that the trip takes an unexpected turn :)
First one is on time at 6:10. Let's do this!
At the conference I will argue that travelling by train in #Europe is "a project"
- Strong dependencies. Miss one train and the whole trip is in jeopardy
- Budget issues. Mind the route, the type of service.
- Plan for contingencies. Leave enough time between trips to allow for potential delays.
- Deal with different providers. I am buying tickets from 3 providers who don't talk with each other.
- All of this, crossing borders in a multicultural environment :)
Did I say the first one was on time? Actually it just took 10' of delay because we were waiting at the station for two night services from the South of Italy (to Turin and Milan), that were both running late and had to overtake us.
At least it's good to know the night services have the preference.
Now we're moving.
I'm now on the Milan - Geneve Eurocity. I'll switch at Brig, to get to Basel.
But there was a Milan - Basel train at the station board, cancelled. If that had run, I would have saved one connection.
On this leg I will pass by #LakeMaggiore, where I lived for 6 years until this summer.
A view of Lake Maggiore from aboard the train
Mount Saint Quirico and Castle of La Rocca, in Angera, in the morning mist.
From the Eurocity 32 train, from Milan to Geneve.
The most expensive part of this #CrossBorderRail might be... having lunch in Switzerland.
I could have planned it better though. Push to Strasbourg (trains every hour) and eat there, or bring my panino from the Italian border. I guess I'm not a 20-year-old traveller any more
And 1.5 CHF to use the toilet at Basel train station? WTF
Remember to go to the toilet on the train just 10' before arrival!
Crossing the border again into the European Union, French side.
I'm travelling now on the SNCF network. And I am 1 hour ahead of schedule!
The reason is that there are hourly trains in the route Basel-Strasbourg. Old trains though, but frequent service. So I just jumped on an earlier one.
Being ahead of schedule is a temporary illusion, because I'll still have to wait for the Strasbourg - Brussels. At least I have some more buffer time.
It feels good
Just started the trip on the fifth and last train of the day, a TGV from Strasbourg to Brussels. On time.
Quite crowded. This is the way to make many people travel by train. Fast, comfortably.
A curiosity: two TGVs are running together until Paris Charles de Gaulle. From there, the first unit will continue to Brussels, the second to Nantes.
Last TGV made it to Brussels on time, no incidents.
This closes the trip at almost 15 hours. I think I have a better face now than in the morning!
Thanks for accompanying me, Mastodonians! See you on Friday for the way back!
@rafa_font
Good travels and enjoy the experience even when things take unexpected turns. It is a project indeed. One question is how much you want to account for risks: how much extra time and backup plans are needed?
@nicorikken Thanks!
I attach my original trip plan.
I hear from other travellers that 1 hour between trains and you're safe. But that's not always possible.
If you go through Switzerland, they have a good track record of punctuality so 20' should do. In Italy you better get at least 45' even for a regional connection.
An example: I checked two websites for past performances of the trains. I saw that the 6:27 from Parma had 17' delay yesterday, so I changed to the service at 6:10 instead.
@rafa_font
I never considered looking at past performances, clever. Indeed sometimes it isn't possible or it cannot be easily booked online with more time inbetween. At one of my recent international train travels an incident caused my initial local train to be cancelled halfway and I had to take an alternative route. The 1 hour space for this short trip prevented a cascading effect of the whole trip having to be replanned. Your Parma train sounds of similar importance.
@nicorikken
A cancellation half-way and replanning from the middle of nowhere seems like a challenge!
If we want to extend international train travel to the masses, they shouldn't be looking at past performances, but for now...
I used these websites:
- Central Europe with data from last 30 days https://www.zugfinder.net/en/start
- Italy with data from the current day
http://www.viaggiatreno.it/infomobilita/index.jsp
@rafa_font ánimo y mucha suerte. Buen viaje.
@rafa_font
That's a lovely journey!
@rafa_font Frequent conventional trains with no reservations and 200 kph speed are the best! If also a #DiningCar would be included...
Yes! I have been trying to buy tickets from Geneva to Prague for weeks now -- one hurdle being that according to OBB, there are places in the night jet, but at the last hurdle, AFTER having paid, the places are gone. (And I can't buy online from SBB, but they don't say why)
Same thing last year: got places just a few days prior. Otherwise, I must take the day trains with a few minutes between trains -- for 14 hours. Miss one train, and I must find a hotel.
@Jostein If OBB can't provide this, being probably the top night train service in Europe, then I don't know who can.
What did they tell you after you paid but ended up with no place?
@rafa_font it didn’t go through. I went through all the hoops, finished the payment, both with PayPal and my bank, only to be met with a message on the obb page: ah sorry the train is full after all. I called them, they got the same result, and the woman said hmm that’s strange it has never happened before; oh well, it’s full.
I never actually paid, though. Fortunately.
@rafa_font
Do you have an interrail ticket ? It does not resolve all these points but it can make it a little bit easier.
@trains @Ruth_Mottram
I have standard tickets. I don't have experience with Interrail tickets, but when I looked at them they didn't see to fit.
I've looked again now however and I see a 4-day global pass for 258€ that might have been a good option, it's similar to what I paid for my trip, 2-ways.
@rafa_font @mart1oeil @Ruth_Mottram I recently did an Interrail trip: 5 journeys, 3 countries (Germany, France, Belgium). It worked a treat. Very flexible and just one of the legs had a one hour delay.
@mart1oeil @rafa_font @trains @Ruth_Mottram
That is not entirely accurate. #interrail does not work well when you have to deal with seat reservations in, for example, Germany or Denmark. Do expect to change seats often. In other countries, interrail comes with hefty reservation fees.
@Andrawaag @mart1oeil @rafa_font @trains @Ruth_Mottram I thought Germany didn't require seat reservations for Interrail/Eurail. The real headache is in France where the reservation supplements are limited and can cost as much as a ticket. (Also Spain where paper reservations are required for fast trains.)
@jtwcornell91 @Andrawaag @mart1oeil @rafa_font @trains reservations required on pretty much all high speed trains like ICE TGV etc, one of the reasons that I don't usually bother with interrail, it's rarely cheaper and the flexibility is a bit irrelevant if the aim is to get there as fast as possible...
@Ruth_Mottram I used it several times to go from Grenoble to Tromsø and I think it's a good solution to not stress about missing one train : you can always catch another.
But, yes, like I said, " it can make it a little bit easier" ;)
Edit: in fact from Grenoble to Narvik because there is no train station in Tromsø
@jtwcornell91 @mart1oeil @rafa_font @trains @Ruth_Mottram No reservations are not required, but most travellers take seat reservation and with an interrail that is not trivial if at all possible. So I ended up using the interrail in Germany and Denmark and had to switch seats often
@Andrawaag @mart1oeil @rafa_font @trains @Ruth_Mottram If you go to https://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en and click "Seat only (no ticket)" (instead of the red search button) you can get just a seat reservation (which as you say is not required) with DB for €4.90 per itinerary. (Haven't tried it with the new booking system.) Another perk if you're travelling with kids (in which case you probably want seat reservations anyway) is that a "family reservation" costs only 2x the price of a one-seat reservation.
@rafa_font @trains It's exhausting sometimes.
@rafa_font @trains Regarding the point of having to deal with different providers who don't talk to each other, 100%. However, I sometimes rely on https://www.thetrainline.com/, who somehow seem to have figured this out. I don't know what happens if your connection is disrupted since, so far, I was always able to make the connection.
@Andrawaag Thanks! I think this is very useful for planning. Also Deustche Bahn have a good overview of most train options available across Europe. But yes, if you miss a connection, you're on your own. And very little options to buy several trains in a single ticket.
Although to be fair, there's some coordination between Trenitalia and SBB for the Eurocity service. However I still had to buy Basel-Milan (2 trains, one SBB and 1 Trenitalia) separate from Milan - Parma (Trenitalia).
@rafa_font I am jealous of SBB. I live in Belgium, which we could consider the heart of the EU, yet the Belgian railways and their unions, contrary to SBB, are actively blocking any cross-country collaboration. See e.g. https://www.brusselstimes.com/406943/tri-state-train-between-belgium-the-netherlands-and-germany-gets-green-light. Any progress and chance in cross-border rail connections is met with fierce resistance by both management and the unions. As long as this remains, trains in Belgium will remain difficult.
@Andrawaag Thanks! I see the issues with ECTS, however the unions were probably concerned with this "agreements were made on the deployment of both Dutch and NMBS personnel on the route".
I hope that unions could be also pushing for cross border rail services. They (should) understand something about the future. I don't know the details about this one though.
By the way, I heard that there's a strike in the Italian railways on Friday, when I'm travelling back...
@Andrawaag @rafa_font @trains I’ve used Raileurope as one stop shop. Worked well. And when I now search a trip Rotterdam-Rome Raileurope finds more options to book. https://apps.apple.com/app/id993672511
@rafa_font I wish you a safe journey
@rafa_font Bonne chance!
@rafa_font I love this revival of long distance train travel! Thank you for highlighting how much it takes still.
One thing I got to experience since MECFS is how #CrossBorderRail quickly becomes impossible for people with mobility issues. There is an expectation that you can run, carry, walk distances, wait around, get off the train unaided. The project becomes too difficult. I don't want to fly, but I can't take the train if there is a change involved. It shouldn't be so hard!