Cycling on Rails

A blog about trains, cycling, and taking bicycles on trains. More on https://cycling-on-rails.com.

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Last Notes

2025-04-18 08:23:30

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@nprofile…c5n8 Oh yeah the famous Tout'Oui chatbot dumpster. Last time my TGV was delayed enough (> 30 min) to warrant partial reimbursement, you had to go through this bot to fill in the form. Except that it showed the same "petit problème technique"... Merde alors! 💩
I didn't bother because I was on Interrail anyway, but I wonder how much SNCF has saved on reimbursements from clients who just gave up. Oh and it would only be a voucher, I guess only valid on SNCF Connect? 🤡

2025-04-10 08:01:07

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@nprofile…c5n8 I'm curious whether they do passport checks at each checkpoint, or if they keep the train hermetically sealed to let the regulators happy? 2 nights and a whole day without a chance to breathe fresh air for even 5 minutes on a platform seems like a stretch.

2025-04-10 07:50:41

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@nprofile…c5n8 Not cheap, but fair considering Nightjet prices for a single night. However, 200€ to bring a bicycle along 👀😳 while a car is 400€ and SUV is 500€ 🤔🤦‍♂️ https://optimatours.de/en/price

2025-04-10 07:41:25

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@nprofile…c5n8 I see the map mentions crossing Serbia by train, are cross-border trains back in summer, or is that a draft that'll end up needing a bus or bicycle ride? (Are you allowed to cross Schengen borders by bicycle?)

2025-04-04 16:58:13

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@nprofile…c5n8 Left 18:31 towards Paris from a delayed Lyria 👋

2025-04-04 16:40:16

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@nprofile…c5n8 Live* from Dijon who just saw 4 trains passing in the last 5 minutes, on this side of the window alone. Bourgogne new hub of French railways? 😜
*Once mobile network works again 🙃
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2025-04-04 13:53:47

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@nprofile…c5n8 Ah ah! So they made the implicit policy of using empty seats as storage (https://mastodon.social/@cycling_on_rails/113175605559930724) official! Or is it only Trenitalia France?
If I remember well, in Italy they have a "second class premium" with a luggage rack at each end of the carriage as the only visible difference to regular (see linked toot). You might want to walk around the train to check it out.

2025-04-04 11:46:04

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@nprofile…c5n8 But the real question is: have they fixed their systems and are they gonna show the Frecciarossa on the departure board this time? 🤭 Their* app didn't last time when the screens didn't work! https://mastodon.social/@cycling_on_rails/113736627917837342
*And by they, I do mean SNCF Gares & Connections.

2025-03-21 21:13:08

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@nprofile…c5n8 My thinking was that better have regular services on a few lines than sparse services on scattered lines, due to network effects. They would have 9 daily Paris - Lyon-Part-Dieu, so passengers could build a habit with them (and see their trains more often in a busy station).
On the other hand Paris-Lyon is already at least hourly so I see your point to cover other lines.
Maybe it has to do with track-access charge discounts, as now it's clear they open a new line (vs. extend existing one)?

2025-03-21 20:41:20

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@nprofile…c5n8 Speaking of St-Exupery, I was a bit surprised to learn that Trenitalia's upcoming Paris-Lyon-Marseille services will stop in St-Exupery. https://actu.fr/ile-de-france/paris_75056/trenitalia-ouvre-la-billetterie-de-ses-tgv-paris-marseille-ce-mardi-les-premiers-trajets-a-moins-de-30-euros_62355724.html
Maybe it's slightly faster and easier to get a slot, but seems like a missed opportunity to get Paris-Lyon or Lyon-Marseille passengers on board.

2025-03-21 20:06:54

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@nprofile…c5n8 "C’est bien les citoyens de la région Grand Est qui ont payé ces rames avec leurs impôts." last I heard taxes were centralized in France, but I guess that means the state gave X€ to region Grand Est, who allocated Y€ to these trains and now cannot use them?
Anyway a lease doesn't mean the money is lost, no, the trains will come back? Does Grand Est at least pocket the interest in the meantime?

2025-03-21 20:03:28

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@nprofile…c5n8 If these trains are idle, better lease them in the meantime I guess. So many details unanswered in the article though:
Who owns the trains: the regions or the operator? Who owns the overloaded maintenance centers: the regions, SNCF Réseau or the operator? Who owns the sparse timetables: the regions or the operator (via its tender proposal)?

2025-03-21 19:55:45

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@nprofile…c5n8 "ces conducteurs devront être capables également de faire rouler les trains prêtés par les autres régions qui sont des modèles hétérogènes (Régiolis, Régio2N) et différents des Omneo Premium."
According to Wikipedia, Omneo Premium = Regio 2N 🤔 https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regio_2N

2025-03-20 07:30:25

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@nprofile…c5n8 carriage 8 is nice though for those who need it 🚲😁 Some people didn't even disassemble their bicycles (in the France > Spain direction).
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/114/193/573/169/599/104/original/251cf6f0f6bb2a3b.jpg

2025-03-19 14:43:25

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@nprofile…c5n8 Too bad the default luggage is limited to 55x35x25 cm on Avlo then 😅 https://www.renfe.com/es/en/travel/prepare-your-trip/quiero-avlo/ayuda
But to be fair luggage space is quite generous on series 103 too. 💯

2025-03-18 15:52:29

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@nprofile…c5n8 I'm curious what are the bicycle/luggage options inside?

2025-03-17 13:47:06

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@nprofile…c5n8 I'd bet they didn't think of intermediate stops in mid-sized cities (although they at least didn't build new TGV stations nowhere) as the non-stop London-Bordeaux route is already long enough (although shorter time than to Marseille or Bourg-St-Maurice), and they didn't think there's enough demand for cities along the way?
I've heard Dordogne is (was?) quite popular among British tourists/retirees, but the TER line passing in Périgeux only goes to Bordeaux for example.

2025-03-17 10:54:41

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@nprofile…l8ak @nprofile…09up @nprofile…c5n8 Some say there would be more than one company already if SNCF Réseau wasn't dragging its feet in attributing slots to competitors*, SNCF Voyageurs was selling its old trains (to its competitors) rather than destroying them, etc. Not that many operators is necessarily good, but can certainly kick SNCF to improve.
*Supposedly part of the Railcoop debacle was a lack of cooperation from SNCF Réseau, although there were many other factors: https://reporterre.net/Liquidation-de-Railcoop-les-raisons-d-un-echec

2025-03-16 19:31:31

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@nprofile…c5n8 The big concrete building just above the platforms looks like the parking lot, as France being France there has to be a big one for each TGV station, and it has to be more convenient to reach the parking lot or to take a taxi than to connect to the suburban trains 😉

2025-03-13 17:09:14

SBB planning to launch a tender next year for 40 high-speed trains for #CrossBorderRail to France and Italy (with options to Spain & UK): https://news.sbb.ch/medien/artikel/135243/sbb-prueft-beschaffung-von-hochgeschwindigkeitszuegen-fuer-internationalen-verkehr
#CrossChannelRail @nprofile…c5n8

2025-03-10 13:33:36

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@nprofile…c5n8 Just a quick comment as I struggled to find the Betterplace link: it's simply not visible when using an ad-blocker like uBlock Origin in "strict" mode (3rd-party frames blocked).
Maybe readers with these settings are a tiny niche and only me, but I'd recommend making the "Crowd funding is now open" text also a link to improve accessibility :)
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2025-02-11 22:36:46

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@nprofile…09up @nprofile…c5n8 One thing I don't get is that EU regulation 2017/1926 (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2017/1926/oj) supposedly mandates open data (I need to spend the time to read it in depth). Yet many folks say GTFS has data quality issues and the answer to that is paying 50k€ for Merits.
How are data quality issues compliant with the law? I guess legal fees to complain up to the ECJ are prohibitive so everyone bites the bullet and pays the 50k (well the players who can afford it)?

2025-02-07 11:55:36

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@nprofile…c5n8 Ideally the pricing should all be public and transparent. After all, when you go to the supermarket you know the prices of all the items (well, you cannot look them up online in advance, you have to physically go there to observe the prices).
As long as legislation doesn't mandate making public the whole database of prices it will be hard for customers to find the best deals (for their own preferences, which aren't usually only accounting for price).

2025-02-07 11:45:20

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@nprofile…c5n8 To me splitting the search into segments is definitely the right approach! And if you know the prices for all the trains of the day on each segment, you can even implement a feedback loop into the planning, where you could maybe find an even cheaper total price if you take a longer break in Paris (cheapest Strasbourg-Paris of the morning + cheapest Paris-Bordeaux of the afternoon).
The caveat is that it would mean more API calls to query SNCF prices and SNCF may punish you for that...

2025-02-07 10:23:07

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@nprofile…c5n8 @nprofile…ptrt I guess nothing prevents a reseller to choose a breakdown and ask SNCF for prices on each segment. However from what I've read of @nprofile…zqly 's toots, there are constraints on book-to-look ratios, which would mean that such manual breakdown to look for the best prices could get expensive very fast. But the details are under NDA, so what data is publicly available to resellers or not isn't even public. 🤷‍♂️

2025-02-07 10:15:11

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@nprofile…c5n8 @nprofile…p87n Sometimes a longer trip is cheaper. For example staying on the same train for one more stop (or symmetrically boarding at a previous stop). Of course SNCF rules officially forbid buying an extended ticket for a trip you don't take (and generalization of ticket gates is here to enforce that at the entry points...).

2025-01-15 09:00:47

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@nprofile…c5n8 "Bridges are more costly than building on the ground" have you heard of Paris' upcoming metro line 18? 😅
A fully-fledged viaduct in the middle of the countryside (granted it's "only" 6.7km, the rest being... a tunnel of course). https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligne_18_du_m%C3%A9tro_de_Paris
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2024-12-19 19:08:34

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@nprofile…c5n8 2 assembled bicycle spots for 600 seats doesn't seem like much. 😢 That's certainly more than Thalys which has none, but still lower than the EU regulation (at least 4 spots after a "major upgrade" of existing rolling stock https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32021R0782#art_6) and practically, anything fewer than 1% of seats is really inadequate.
There anyway seems to be no option to upgrade luggage or add bicycles beyond "Ouigo Essentiel" at the moment (let's give them the benefit of the doubt).

2024-12-19 10:37:51

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@nprofile…dnwe When society normalizes driving so much that you have to confess about not driving #autonormativity

2024-12-18 09:39:15

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@nprofile…c5n8 Good you didn't come later. There is no train at 9:51 and the 10:21 is cancelled. Should one miss the 9:21 they'd end up with an extra 90 minute delay (or 60 minutes if they figure out the trams and their ticketing in Basel to reach St-Louis).
Not sure why Basel-Strasbourg isn't a 30-minute Takt in the first place. Not sure turning around in St-Louis in case of delay is ideal given how many folks travel to/from Basel on this line, although it's perhaps the least bad option?
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2024-12-10 13:36:29

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@nprofile…c5n8 @nprofile…l8ak But if there were more direct train services Marseille - St-Exupery, the government would have to apply the law and tell Air France to remove its direct planes (once there are enough alternatives under 2h) 😜
(At this point I'm not even sure removing the 3 daily round-trips flights on weekdays would be that big a benefit, as the extra trains may create induced demand on planes from Lyon to anywhere else?)

2024-10-26 08:51:26

Renfe and SNCF: fight not to propose more than 4 #CrossBorderRail trains per day at the Perpignan border (5 on week-ends).
Nîmes: let's have new flights to Barcelona next year 🤦‍♂️ Just above 3h30 by train (incl. 5 stops) and less than 400km 🙄 https://www.francebleu.fr/infos/transports/valerie-rouverand-denonce-l-arrivee-de-nouvelles-lignes-aeriennes-a-nimes-a-contre-sens-de-l-histoire-9062688
Likewise, new flights to Nice & Geneva (just above 4 hours each from Nîmes). cc @npub1y98…fhhs
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