Welcome to today's thread - #CrossBorderRail 2026 Tour Day 14 - 3 Apr - Ravières - Paris - Saarbrücken - Saarlouis - Bouzonville - Saarbrücken
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So I am now finally approaching the France-Germany border at Forbach
One obvious ethnic minority passenger in my carriage
Let's see who the Bundespolizei controls
And given I am going to be in Germany about 2 hours before exiting again, and I'd bet there'll be no control Bouzonville-Niedaltdorf... this is all going to be especially ridiculous today!
Oh here we go. Bundespolizei getting on at Forbach, carriage next to mine
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@q WHY? Germans rioting at the Easter market?
@jon genuinely no idea
meanwhile the interior minister turned up with but one BPol
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SNCF train manager comes to check tickets. I’m travelling with Interrail, it’ll take a second I tell him. “Is there a problem?” he asks me
We chat, and I explain the disappearing button. Just in case others he controls have the same issue
@jon reminds me of the time I had to explain to London Overground ticket offices how to sell me a Platform ticket because the button was hidden 3 menus deep.
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Oh here we go. Bundespolizei getting on at Forbach, carriage next to mine
The ethnic minority person got a long stare. But no control. No one controlled.
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The ethnic minority person got a long stare. But no control. No one controlled.
@jon It's the small victories?
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As there are all sorts of issues here this morning (train left Paris Est +15, speed restrictions around Champagne Ardennes TGV) I wondered "could I take a bus from Forbach to Bouzonville?"
I could either wait until 15:33 and do it with two changes, *or* it proposes me a bus from Creutzwald, which is 22km by bike from Forbach
️So no. I have to hope I get to Saarbrücken fast enough, and to Saarlouis by 13:08 as planned!
@jon And when you search how to go from Forbach to Bouzonville on the Fluo Grand Est website... It tells you to go through Germany
(I am kind of amazed it has German train timetables to be honest!)
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The ethnic minority person got a long stare. But no control. No one controlled.
@jon what do they get paid for if they just wander down a train and have a bit of a look? I'm surprised the bosses don't have a quota of IDs checked per train.
I mean, racial profiling is evil and counterproductive, but at least it's _activity_…
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The ethnic minority person got a long stare. But no control. No one controlled.
There it goes!
The train to Dillingen
from Bouzonville 
That runs 1 day a year - on Good Friday
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There it goes!
The train to Dillingen
from Bouzonville That runs 1 day a year - on Good Friday
A few pics from the station #CrossBorderRail
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A few pics from the station #CrossBorderRail
@jon for a service they run one day a year, you'd think they could at least clean the rolling stock...
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Here’s today’s #CrossBorderRail intro video, complete with
https://peertube.netzbegruenung.de/w/jNwANJ8GL5pZLHqcVmUmF4@jon hello kitty!
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@jon for a service they run one day a year, you'd think they could at least clean the rolling stock...
@quixoticgeek @jon the first 8am service from Hbf was cleaned well
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A few pics from the station #CrossBorderRail
Today has been manic. Will post more later. For now a few more pics. #CrossBorderRail
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Today has been manic. Will post more later. For now a few more pics. #CrossBorderRail
@jon the most beautiful Train the found?
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Today has been manic. Will post more later. For now a few more pics. #CrossBorderRail
@jon something something how a typical french train looks and the best a belgian one ever has 🤪
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There it goes!
The train to Dillingen
from Bouzonville That runs 1 day a year - on Good Friday
@jon I guess you’ll explain why? Some local pilgrimage reasons?
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@jon I guess you’ll explain why? Some local pilgrimage reasons?
@fiee There's a Good Friday market in Bouzonville. That's the excuse to run the special train. But the point is also political - on the German side there is some will to do this more. The French side, not so much.
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Also it is pretty funny this train manager happened to ask me about all of this, given he - by luck - found about the most experienced and knowledgeable passenger he could have found, and one fluent in the three most useful languages for this train (French, English, German)
@jon I’m sure nobody else could have made this reservation, so he could only find you.
But he has a story to tell now. -
@jon something something how a typical french train looks and the best a belgian one ever has 🤪
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Genuine Interrail panic this morning
The Interrail app wouldn’t allow me to add a journey 🤯
No journey means no QR code to show to train managers…
Turns out: an iOS update broke it! You can’t SEE the Save button
Tap where I’ve circled and it works!
@jon that is an insane failure of integration testing
