Welcome to today's thread - #CrossBorderRail 2026 Tour Day 05 - 20 Feb - Genève - Coppet - Divonne - Crassier - Nyon - Paris

[phrawzty@hachyderm.io]

@jon
This thing where every country thinks their secret sauce is the best and no other country could possibly uggh

[oschonrock@mastodon.social]

@jon

I would file that under relatively harmless self delusion. Very common in France.

Germany is much better at senseless self criticism. Maybe more honest, but often miserable to the point of being damaging?

[bovine3dom@masto.ai]

@jon maybe they meant they were the only railway who managed to find the political space to reduce their fleet of high speed trains by 15% without anyone complaining too much

particularly mad when it's such a pedestrian refurb. trenitalia managed to take its old high speed locomotives and reuse them for InterCity service

when's the SNCF going to solve its locomotive shortage for night trains by converting some old TGVs?

[henkvandereijk@mastodon.green]

@jon Sounds like 'Our new trains weren't ready in time and now we're fluffing the fact that we need to keep the old ones running for longer than they should.'
(In the Dutch situation, the new trains also are hardly ready for use when they arrive on the tracks - looking at you, ICNG.)

[moof@cupoftea.social]

@jon It’s interesting that the only named competition here is Trenitalia, when there is also competition from DB, Eurostar, and checks notes Renfe who also run refurbished and life-prolonged 1980s-1990s era TGVs

[jsl@hachyderm.io]

@jon It's only an extension de vie if it happens in the Alstom region of France. Otherwise it's just sparkly Nutzungsdauerverlängerung.

[smveerman@zug.network]

@moof @jon For France it is a revolution this taking only 7 weeks. An average overhaul of a Thalys trainset seems to be taking 7 months 🫠

[hector@mapstodon.space]

@moof @jon But DB is under cooperation, right? And Eurostar is partially owned by SNCF.

[cycling_on_rails@mastodon.social]

@jon Yes but nobody else is refurbishing that many *TGVs by Alstom*. Checkmate!

[remi@urbanists.social]

@bovine3dom @jon SNCF is **also** downsizing the fleet of old-school locomotives. Classes 26000 and a slew of nez cassés are being scrapped. Only 22200 are, for some reason, spared from the crusher (possibly because some are TVM capable?)

[ilmari@social.treehouse.systems]

@jon my french is a bit rusty, do they need to refurbish their because of a need for croissants?

[bovine3dom@masto.ai]

@remi c'est unique au monde, nous sommes les seuls à pouvoir le faire

@jon

[jon@gruene.social]

#CrossBorderRail 2026 Spring Tour Bike 4 of 14
Coppet - Divonne - Crassier - Nyon

Distance: 16.7km
Est. duration: 1:15

This bike route, mapped: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-2026-spring-tour_1361108#13/46.199875/6.146772

Not a good start. Broke the Birdy travel cover and had to repair a brake cable…

[jon@gruene.social]

@smveerman @moof Haaaa.

[grajjarg@norden.social]

@jon Ach verflixt: so etwas ist immer ärgerlich unterwegs. Pannenfreie Weiterfahrt!

[jon@gruene.social]

First time I’ve had a vineyard block the route of a former #CrossBorderRail line I think

[dubiousblur@social.treehouse.systems]

@jon okay that one’s never coming back

[hans_zelf@mas.to]

@jon And NS in The Netherlands
https://nieuws.ns.nl/ns-investeert-opnieuw-in-het-moderniseren-van-dubbeldekkers/

[stefanlindbohm@mastodon.social]

@cycling_on_rails @jon They’re the only state-owned French railway in the world that does it!

[moof@cupoftea.social]

@jon I think someone told someone else to “stop whining about that rail connection” and that dyslexic someone else decided to double down and commit to the bit