Notices by Jon Worth (jon@gruene.social), page 13

Wriezen
Land: Brandenburg
Population: 7200
Visited: 21 Aug 2024

Despite it being a warm sunny evening, the town centre was deserted by 7pm. Many shops are empty. The railway line towards Berlin (Wriezener Bahn) stands derelict.

Marienberg
Land: Sachsen
Population: 16600
Visited: 28 Aug 2024

Trying to get here by public transport was a bit of a mess, as the railway line has been left to fall into disrepair. Better connections for towns like this could help bring the life back.

Deutschkatharinenberg
Land: Sachsen
Population: 120
Visited: 28 Aug 2024

It is more about the border than the place here - the road to Hora Svaté Kateřiny is calm, and everything is orderly. Just as it is the whole way down the valley from Deutschneudorf to Olbernhau in the Erzgebirge.

Linthe
Land: Brandenburg
Population: 900
Visited: 31 Aug 2024

This anti-Green, pro-Russian poster next to a electric car charging point greeted my arrival in Linthe - by bike. I was the only customer at the cafe-guest house in the village.

/ends

Ebersbach-Neugersdorf
Land: Sachsen
Population: 11400
Visit: 14 May 2023

The quiet border road to Czechia, and the disproportionately large and quiet station.

Bad Muskau
Land: Sachsen
Population: 3800
Visit: 18 May 2023

The town square is impeccably restored, but there is no-one there. It is Łęknica - across the Neiße in Poland, and with the metal roofs of the Polenmarkt that can be seen in the 2nd picture, where all the life is.

Horka
Land: Sachsen
Population: 1700
Visit: 18 May 2023

Horka has the most modern railway line to Poland (pictured - double track electrified line), but the town does not benefit from this - the best it gets are small diesel trains to Görlitz and Cottbus.

Görlitz
Land: Sachsen
Population: 56600
Visit: 18 Aug 2022 and many more visits, inc. 26 Aug 2024 during election campaign

The picture of my #CrossBorderRail project - where electrification masts end in the middle of the bridge as Poland electrified and Germany did not. Görlitz station is charming but forgotten. And election posters in front of an abandoned building.

Frankfurt (Oder)
Land: Brandenburg
Population: 58200
Visit: 31 Aug 2022 and a couple more visits

Sat at a huge and largely abandoned multi storey car park at the station, observing German Bundespolizei illegally check passengers arriving from Poland. The town has infrastructure for twice the population.

There has been a lot of understandable anguish about the election results in the German Länder Thüringen and Sachsen on Sunday.

Thüringen I know less well, but I have been to Sachsen (and Brandenburg that holds elections later in September) a LOT in the past two years during my #CrossBorderRail project.

What strikes me overwhelmingly is NOT that these places are swamped with immigrants, as per the AfD rhetoric, but they are absent of life, lacking vibrancy.

Many of these places depopulated since 1990, and young people continue to leave.

That leaves behind places where the physical infrastructure is sometimes passable, but life has gone.

When I have told west German friends I am going to these places they often react "Are you going to be OK there?"

I am a white man, so I’ll be OK - it might be different were I a woman from an ethnic minority.

This story I will tell in this thread - as a Berlin-dwelling, well travelled, Brit who became German.

Wittenberge
Land: Brandenburg
Population: 16800
Visit: 17 Jul 2022

Drone pic of the Elbe. Wittenberge is well connected (regular trains to Hamburg and Berlin) and has some interesting post-industrial architecture, and an old town centre. But it feels eerily quiet.

Zittau
Land: Sachsen
Population: 24800
Visit: 3 Aug 2022 (visited many times)

The border from Poland (Porajów) entering Zittau. All calm and tranquil. Zittau is incredibly preserved, has a charming old town, but it was very quiet every time I have been there.

Guben
Land: Brandenburg
Population: 16400
Visit: 6 Aug 2022 and 23 May 2023 (2 visits)

A vine creeps over an EU flag on an old building, and my bike at the border bridge. Guben has seen plenty of investment in the physical infrastructure, but all the life is in Gubin on the Polish side.

Adorf (Vogtland)
Land: Sachsen
Population: 4700
Visit: 11 Aug 2022

There is some industry in Adorf, but the demand for rail services is so low that tiny railbuses - seen bottom left in the drone picture - are used here.

Zwickau
Land: Sachsen
Population: 87100
Visit: 16 Aug 2022

120000 people lived here in 1986. Now it is below 90000. The train connection is good, but the town feels empty.

So @jmovs pointed me to an article by @anildash entitled “Systems: The Purpose of a System is What It Does”

And I have had a go at applying this to why #CrossBorderRail ticketing is so customer unfriendly

This IS THE SYSTEM WORKING AS INTENDED. And only EU law is going to fix it

Blog post👇
https://jonworth.eu/international-rail-ticketing-that-is-customer-unfriendly-that-is-the-system-working-as-intended-we-need-eu-law-to-change-the-system/

There’s not much to add about the grimness of the election results in Thüringen and Sachsen

But even I’m disappointed by the way Germany is currently governed. The coalition is a mess, there’s little in the way of care or support for people, and plenty of harshness and victimisation

It doesn’t take much to push people from hopelessness into authoritarianism

And there’ll be plenty of anguish, but little course correction after today

So this is *the* picture. That’s #CrossBorderRail

Poland left, Germany right - between Szczecin and Tantow

Welcome to #CrossBorderRail 2024 Extra Days - Berlin - Tantow - Gryfino - Godków - Wriezen - Berlin

Today’s borders
Tantow 🇩🇪 - Szczecin-Gumieńce 🇵🇱
Ladenthin 🇩🇪 - Barnislaw 🇵🇱
Hohenwutzen 🇩🇪 - Stary Kostrzynek 🇵🇱
Neu Rüdnitz 🇩🇪 - Siekierki 🇵🇱
Neu Rüdnitz 🇩🇪 - Siekierki 🇵🇱 - Abzweig Schleuse