Notices by Jon Worth (jon@gruene.social), page 4

Welcome to today's thread - #CrossBorderRail 2024 Extra Days Baltic Circuit - Děčín - Litoměřice - Kolín - Warszawa

Crossing these borders:
Chalupki 🇵🇱 - Bohumín 🇨🇿

These borders on the borders map:
https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-all-the-borders_935041#12/49.9066/18.3224

Today's routes on the routes map:
https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-extra-days-2024_1030682#6/51.481/17.930

Annoying start to the #CrossBorderRail day

EC 459 ČD Děčín hl.n. - Ústí nad Labem hl.n. is delayed

So I take Arriva R 1322 instead

Interrail isn’t valid on this so - despite explaining the EC delay to the train manager - I have to buy a ticket (it’s just €2, but it’s the principle)

What would happen if I had a ČD ticket here I ask him? You still pay he says, but can claim it back at the station

Poorly organised liberalisation

This by @pluralistic is excellent - why he doesn’t trust Bluesky https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/02/ulysses-pact/

*Were* it possible to spin up your own Relay on Bluesky, to genuinely move, Doctorow (and I) would be reassured

I’m using Bluesky a fair bit, but I’m holding off going all in there

#CrossBorderRail 2024 Extra Days Baltic Circuit Train 7 of 29
EST 9435
13:25 Bruxelles Midi - Köln Hbf 15:15
Eurostar

Train type: Alstom PBKA, 8 Carriages
⚡️
🚲: ✅
🦽: ✅ (needs lift on platform)
🛜: ✅
🍽️: ✅
🧳: ☹️ (one of *the worst designs* - see next toot)
🧽: 🙂

Here's today's intro video, filmed at Gare du Midi https://peertube.netzbegruenung.de/w/1w715kuBeykaAjhfottNXB

Bundespolizei go through the train at Aachen

No one with dark skin in my carriage, so no one got checked

Right. Friends of Europe event ends this morning. Then #CrossBorderRail this afternoon - Bruxelles to Ústí nad Labem 🇨🇿. Thread will start at lunchtime.

Struggling to get going today.

So struck from yesterday‘s event that the politicians were not only the poorest speakers, but they were the most disconnected and the most intellectually lazy. And these were people from mainstream parties.

Step by step I’m losing all trust in this elite I’ve always been on the fringes of.

This sort of thing.

Diplomat plates BMW on the pavement as I left, to go get my bike. I think I was one of only two cyclists, at an event of 200 people.

But then I read @can (who I’ve never met, but on Mastodon seems like a super person) met a friend of mine Arian who is a train manager on the Berlin-Stockholm night train, on board the train, and that makes me happy. I know so many super people - just pretty much none of them are close to any levers of political power.

Talking about polarisation today at Friends of Europe

It reminds me of friends’ reaction when I went to Seifhennersdorf. And polite German friends of mine said “why would you ever go to Seifhennersdorf? And will you be safe?” https://jonworth.eu/the-personal-is-political-have-you-ever-been-to-seifhennersdorf-zgorzelec-or-ormenio/

Meanwhile Woidke is trying to promote rail improvements in eastern Germany

https://www.schiene.de/news-7890/Woidke-Ost-Regierungschefs-fuer-zuegigeren-Bahn-Ausbau.html

I don’t like this phrasing though. These lines aren’t deprioritised because they’re in the east. All such projects struggle to get attention

And I’d argue that on the international passenger rail aspects DE-PL, DE-CZ (from Sachsen) are better than Western European borders - at least in terms of making best use of existing infrastructure. There’s a confident way to frame this too.

Eurostar 😡

Welcome to today's thread - #CrossBorderRail 2024 Extra Days Baltic Circuit - Bruxelles - Köln - Dresden Neustadt - Usti nad Labem

Crossing these borders:
Aachen 🇩🇪 - Welkenraedt 🇧🇪 (visited before)
Schöna 🇩🇪 - Dolní Žleb 🇨🇿 (visited before)

These borders on the borders map:
https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-all-the-borders_935041#7/50.506/9.635
(They’re pretty far apart though!)

Today's routes on the routes map:
https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-extra-days-2024_1030682#7/51.028/8.789
(You might need to use the key!)

These are among the worst designed trains for (dis-)embarking - the inbound train was +18 but it takes ages to board

And I’m privileged today - I’m travelling sort of 1st class (1st class seat, but no food) but there’s no luggage space as they’ve filled two vestibules for the business class passengers’ food trolleys

These sorts of things are annoying - the privileges for the very rich cut against the purpose of a train - to transport passengers

EST 9435
13:25 Bruxelles Midi - Köln Hbf 15:15 (currently +25 at Liège)

Distance: 222.9km
Average speed: 122km/h

3 stops:
Liège-Guillemins
Aachen Hbf
Köln Hbf

This train, mapped: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-extra-days-2024_1030682#10/47.4234/4.5779

There seems to be both a medical emergency on a train, and a points problem ahead in Köln, and I am now almost +30 departing Liège - hell knows whether I am going to get through this

Thankfully I am on Interrail today meaning I can take any train (and even route via Nürnberg instead of Dresden)

But were I using normal tickets I'd be both very nervous and possibly out off pocket due to what's ahead…

Also is there any digital way to find the composition of a Eurostar train? SNCF Connect can show me TGV compositions but not Eurostar. Railer can’t, so it’s not in any SNCB API. Bahn App can’t. Eurostar’s own app doesn’t. Is there any way?

@ZekuZelalem look how covered in muck the road is! 🙂