Welcome to today's thread - #CrossBorderRail 2026 Tour Day 03 - 18 Feb - Ravières - Dijon - Culmont Chalindrey - Paris – Genève
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@meganL I don’t even know if I had the right reservations today or not. If even I don’t know the railway has a serious problem.
@jon Now that I read back in the thread, I can see how that would be.
At least the multilingualism must help...
Fingers crossed for you. Thanks for illuminating for folks how cross-border rail is working in practice...
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@partim @jon Ah that makes sense. But they are reported with 6 digits and we (Railfinder) show them like that, so there’s some processing on their export/import then.
Starting a project after Postgres became magic helps a lot with this stuff. The liberation of ”external data? just slap it in a `text` column” without downsides :). Compared to Hafas which originally had to run on the phones of 2-3 decades ago, phew!
@stefanlindbohm @jon My internship back in uni was at Hacon to build a Japanese version of their Windows app. The code (obviously) assumed single byte character sets and did some formatting on it, so I built a string translation layer. That was quite fun!
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And as the train is (partially?) compulsory reservation, but of course they don’t show what’s reserved on signs on board… they do have a website to tell you https://www.maplaceabord.com/maplacelibre/details?service-name=839552&from-station=87142000&to-station=87113001&travel-date=2026-02-18
@jon Voiture 6 is unreserved for non-Paris travellers?
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@TimWardCam why are tourists taking trains? They drive like any normal person.
@jon A couple of years after the wall came down we toured round Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary by train, as that was the preferred mode of transport for all the eastern bloc spy movies.
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I’ve seen some pretty weird stuff on #CrossBorderRail but for the sheer “no one even thought about the passengers”-ness this is one of the most extreme cases I’ve seen. Anywhere.
#CrossBorderRail 2026 Spring Tour Train 7 of 80
TER 39552
09:26 Culmont Chalindrey - Paris Est 12:16
SNCF for TER Fluo Grand EstTrain type: Alstom Coradia Bi-mode MU, 6 short carriages
️, 
️ (25kV ac)
: 
🦽: (step free if station allows)
🛜:
️
️: ️
🧳:
🧽:
Interrail:
(needs compulsory reservation, costs €1,70)
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I’ve seen some pretty weird stuff on #CrossBorderRail but for the sheer “no one even thought about the passengers”-ness this is one of the most extreme cases I’ve seen. Anywhere.
@jon another fine installment in the chronicles of the Société nationale des chemins de Fuck You
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🤯
So @12train makes it clear
The train is COMPULSORY RESERVATION
AAAAGGGGHHHHH
It’s a regional train for a 47 minute trip
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@jon A couple of years after the wall came down we toured round Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary by train, as that was the preferred mode of transport for all the eastern bloc spy movies.
@TimWardCam you should have bough a Trabi. Obviously!
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#CrossBorderRail 2026 Spring Tour Train 7 of 80
TER 39552
09:26 Culmont Chalindrey - Paris Est 12:16
SNCF for TER Fluo Grand EstTrain type: Alstom Coradia Bi-mode MU, 6 short carriages
️, ️ (25kV ac):
🦽: (step free if station allows)
🛜:️️: ️
🧳:
🧽:
Interrail: (needs compulsory reservation, costs €1,70)TER 39552
09:26 Culmont Chalindrey - Paris Est 12:16Distance: 307.1km
Average speed: 108km/h8 stops:
Langres
Chaumont
Bar-sur-Aube
Vendeuvre
Troyes
Romilly-sur-Seine
Nogent-sur-Seine
Paris EstThis train, mapped: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-2026-spring-tour_1361108#9/48.361724/3.900146
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@_Hemmschuh fuck off SNCF really. Let’s make it extra hard for irregular travellers, just the ones we need to entice to take the train!
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@TimWardCam you should have bough a Trabi. Obviously!
@jon
We saw plenty - they were still around. -
TER 39552
09:26 Culmont Chalindrey - Paris Est 12:16Distance: 307.1km
Average speed: 108km/h8 stops:
Langres
Chaumont
Bar-sur-Aube
Vendeuvre
Troyes
Romilly-sur-Seine
Nogent-sur-Seine
Paris EstThis train, mapped: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-2026-spring-tour_1361108#9/48.361724/3.900146
I’m too German. I can’t tolerate this sort of bullshit
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@drnoble I know @technicalotter knows a lot about railways. I think they’re confused why a regional train needs this!
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@drnoble I know @technicalotter knows a lot about railways. I think they’re confused why a regional train needs this!
Yep. I am unfortunatly burdened with too much knowledge of the railways (occupational hazard of the PhD project/neurospicy).
I'm amazed that you not only have to have seat reso's on a regional, but that one has to PAY! I already paid for the damn ticket!
I criticise the British ticketing a lot, but at least our reservations are free and (mostly) work!
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I’m too German. I can’t tolerate this sort of bullshit
@jon I don't understand why anyone puts up with this bollocks
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I’m too German. I can’t tolerate this sort of bullshit
@jon Looking forward for a potential future holidays of yours in Trenitalia
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I also asked why these trains are compulsory reservation anyway
“There’s too much demand!”
My response: “So run more trains!”
“But that’s the Région’s responsibility!”
But what if my plans change? I asked the employee
“Then you have to change your ticket in the app”
️@jon you’ve probably heard a million similar stories, but I was an a TGV International and a Swiss Interrail user was there with no reservation. There was this long back and forth of
“But the Interrail is a valid ticket? On every train I’ve taken before I can just get on and ride, I don’t care about reserving a seat, just being on the train”
“The contract says a reservation is required! Didn’t you read the contract!? You’re lucky I’m not throwing you off!”Went on for 5–10 minutes
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@jon I don't understand why anyone puts up with this bollocks
@wnd because everyone drives instead?
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@jon Looking forward for a potential future holidays of yours in Trenitalia
@rafa_font it’s not as stupid in Italy. Not quite.
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@jon you’ve probably heard a million similar stories, but I was an a TGV International and a Swiss Interrail user was there with no reservation. There was this long back and forth of
“But the Interrail is a valid ticket? On every train I’ve taken before I can just get on and ride, I don’t care about reserving a seat, just being on the train”
“The contract says a reservation is required! Didn’t you read the contract!? You’re lucky I’m not throwing you off!”Went on for 5–10 minutes
@h0m54r Right. Exactly. Leaving Switzerland for France is a shock!
