Notices by Jon Worth (jon@gruene.social), page 12

Not #CrossBorderRail today. Or at least not in the normal way 🙂

I’m off to TU Braunschweig first, working with @ehrba ‘s students

Then later I’m going to Gedenkstätte Marienborn - the transit point for those travelling to West Berlin from West Germany

First up: a replacement train ICE 2917 Berlin Südkreuz - Braunschweig Hbf

I’m in the quiet zone in the ICE and someone is typing on a phone with the keyboard bip-bip-bip noise on

Not only is this irritating for others, but does it serve any purpose? Does it really assist any sort of user? The short sighted maybe, somehow?

Or is it a sort of skeumorphic thing, that keyboards of the past made noise, so still must?

Now someone started a zoom call, super loudly. In English. So she got deutsched by me *immediately* and told to shut up.

Now had to shut up a second one making calls. What part of “Ruhebereich" do you not understand? (this one was speaking German - so can well understand Ruhebereich)

Nice but rather impractical bike racks at TU Braunschweig. So yes, I parked at 90° to the plan 🙂

And today I am at TU Braunschweig as @ehrba 's students have been researching #CrossBorderRail lines, and they're presenting what they have found. I am looking forward to hearing a lot more about the technical problems at each border - the sort of knowledge I am usually missing or at least cannot easily obtain

The five lines we're examining today:

Görlitz 🇩🇪 - Zgorzelec 🇵🇱
Horka Gbf 🇩🇪 - Wegliniec 🇵🇱
Simbach 🇩🇪 - Braunau 🇦🇹
Kehl 🇩🇪 - Krimmeri-Meinau 🇫🇷
Gronau 🇩🇪 - Glanerbrug 🇳🇱

Now heading back east. First the RB40 to Helmstedt. There’s a tandem on board, but I thought tandems were not allowed? Or does that depend on the line?

Or not. Stuck for 10 mins not moving. No staff have thought to make an announcement. Other trains are variously delayed for “Another train has priority”, “Technical failure in another train”, “Delay of previous train” and “Police activity”. So 🤷♂️

It feels like proper #CrossBorderRail 🙂

People of Sachsen, Thüringen - do you want THIS back? Gedenkstätte Marienborn

The sheer scale of this place. Marienborn

DB, I *know* you’re cost cutting. But you surely don’t need to make your ICEs this short? And no this isn’t AI or some Photoshop trick!

Forst (Lausitz)
Land: Brandenburg
Population: 17900
Visit: 23 May 2023

You can see plenty of money has been invested in Forst in the physical infrastructure, but the streets and station are eerily quiet. There is a rail connection to Poland, but it has a poor service.

Seifhennersdorf
Land: Sachsen
Population: 3600
Visit: 9 Jun 2023 (and 18 Aug 2022)

The railway station was burned out in an arson attack (note burnt out roof in the drone pic) - but after 8 years of rail replacement buses the town got its trains back - and that led to a street party!

Eibau
Land: Sachsen
Population: 4500
Visit: 9 Jun 2023

The line from Eibau to Seifhennersdorf has been out of action for more than a decade - a bush grows through the tracks. Eibau is connected to Dresden still, but the station was very, very quiet when I was there.

Fohrde
Land: Brandenburg
Population: 1400
Visit: 11 Mar 2024

An impeccable modern train, a rebuilt and disabled-accessible station, but no people. And very little life along the route I cycled towards Brandenburg (Havel)

Kodersdorf
Land: Sachsen
Population: 2300
Visited: 3 Aug 2024 (having visited previously in 2023)

The old railway station is charming, but run down and up for sale, and demand so low it is now a request stop

Hirschfelde
Land: Sachsen
Population: 1500
Visited: 3 Aug 2024

The old power station at Hirschfelde, north of Zittau. This was once a museum, but even that closed due to low demand. The town square is eerily quiet, with many abandoned shops.

Holzhau
Land: Sachsen
Population: 500
Visited: 4 Aug 2024

The tiny railbus waits at the Holzhau terminus. Despite it running hourly there were so few people on a summer weekend the passenger numbers only just reached double figures when I took it.