Welcome to today's thread - #CrossBorderRail 2026 Tour Day 05 - 20 Feb - Genève - Coppet - Divonne - Crassier - Nyon - Paris
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For example: Here’s Germany extending the life of its oldest ICEs by 10 years
@jon It's only an extension de vie if it happens in the Alstom region of France. Otherwise it's just sparkly Nutzungsdauerverlängerung.
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@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
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@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
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Damn this exceptionalism in France
“"C'est unique au monde, nous sommes les seuls à pouvoir le faire": comment la SNCF prolonge la vie de ses TGV afin de répondre au besoin croissant de trains”
Errr EVERY railway does this to some extent!
"C'est unique au monde, nous sommes les seuls à pouvoir le faire": comment la SNCF prolonge la vie de ses TGV afin de répondre au besoin croissant de trains
BFM Business a eu l'occasion de visiter le technicentre du Landy, près de Paris, où des TGV en fin de vie, normalement voués à la casse, sont remis à niveau pour être utilisés encore plusieurs années en toute sécurité. Globalement, la compagnie va prolonger la vie de 104 rames, pour 600 millions...
BFM BUSINESS (www.bfmtv.com)
@jon Yes but nobody else is refurbishing that many *TGVs by Alstom*. Checkmate!
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@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?
@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?)
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Damn this exceptionalism in France
“"C'est unique au monde, nous sommes les seuls à pouvoir le faire": comment la SNCF prolonge la vie de ses TGV afin de répondre au besoin croissant de trains”
Errr EVERY railway does this to some extent!
"C'est unique au monde, nous sommes les seuls à pouvoir le faire": comment la SNCF prolonge la vie de ses TGV afin de répondre au besoin croissant de trains
BFM Business a eu l'occasion de visiter le technicentre du Landy, près de Paris, où des TGV en fin de vie, normalement voués à la casse, sont remis à niveau pour être utilisés encore plusieurs années en toute sécurité. Globalement, la compagnie va prolonger la vie de 104 rames, pour 600 millions...
BFM BUSINESS (www.bfmtv.com)
@jon my french is a bit rusty, do they need to refurbish their because of a need for croissants?
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@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?)
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For example: Here’s Germany extending the life of its oldest ICEs by 10 years
#CrossBorderRail 2026 Spring Tour Bike 4 of 14
Coppet - Divonne - Crassier - NyonDistance: 16.7km
Est. duration: 1:15This 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…
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@smveerman @moof Haaaa.
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#CrossBorderRail 2026 Spring Tour Bike 4 of 14
Coppet - Divonne - Crassier - NyonDistance: 16.7km
Est. duration: 1:15This 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 Ach verflixt: so etwas ist immer ärgerlich unterwegs. Pannenfreie Weiterfahrt!
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#CrossBorderRail 2026 Spring Tour Bike 4 of 14
Coppet - Divonne - Crassier - NyonDistance: 16.7km
Est. duration: 1:15This 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…
First time I’ve had a vineyard block the route of a former #CrossBorderRail line I think
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First time I’ve had a vineyard block the route of a former #CrossBorderRail line I think
@jon okay that one’s never coming back
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For example: Here’s Germany extending the life of its oldest ICEs by 10 years
@jon And NS in The Netherlands
https://nieuws.ns.nl/ns-investeert-opnieuw-in-het-moderniseren-van-dubbeldekkers/ -
@jon Yes but nobody else is refurbishing that many *TGVs by Alstom*. Checkmate!
@cycling_on_rails @jon They’re the only state-owned French railway in the world that does it!
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First time I’ve had a vineyard block the route of a former #CrossBorderRail line I think
@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
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@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?
@bovine3dom @jon You know, some old TGVs doing the Paris-Tolouse run would be awesome.
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@bovine3dom @jon You know, some old TGVs doing the Paris-Tolouse run would be awesome.
@moof isn't that what already happens?
it's one of the lines that i am going to cut once appointed imperial ruler sncf voyageurs
Oliver Blanthorn (@bovine3dom@masto.ai)
Attached: 1 image @pglux.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy @jon@gruene.social https://kepler.gl/demo/map?mapUrl=https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/scl/fi/jn4vntnpies84hiqhudu8/keplergl_z7wbkd9.json?rlkey=bmi0g2gqsmjg53e2dfezdft3g&dl=0 freshly made just for you :) if the sncf would like to use this my consulting fees are very reasonable. what's the opposite of "mates' rates"? "danger money"? 30% discount for new entrants like trenitalia
Mastodon (masto.ai)
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@moof isn't that what already happens?
it's one of the lines that i am going to cut once appointed imperial ruler sncf voyageurs
Oliver Blanthorn (@bovine3dom@masto.ai)
Attached: 1 image @pglux.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy @jon@gruene.social https://kepler.gl/demo/map?mapUrl=https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/scl/fi/jn4vntnpies84hiqhudu8/keplergl_z7wbkd9.json?rlkey=bmi0g2gqsmjg53e2dfezdft3g&dl=0 freshly made just for you :) if the sncf would like to use this my consulting fees are very reasonable. what's the opposite of "mates' rates"? "danger money"? 30% discount for new entrants like trenitalia
Mastodon (masto.ai)
@bovine3dom Last I did the Toulouse-Paris run (May 2025) was on old IC Coradias, though admittedly I was looking to stop at smaller towns there, such as Brive-la-Gaillard.
That being said, I apparently did a Tolouse-Narbonne on a TGV in August 2019, on the Tolouse-Lyon run which only does high speed for about 40 mins from Nîmes
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Damn this exceptionalism in France
“"C'est unique au monde, nous sommes les seuls à pouvoir le faire": comment la SNCF prolonge la vie de ses TGV afin de répondre au besoin croissant de trains”
Errr EVERY railway does this to some extent!
"C'est unique au monde, nous sommes les seuls à pouvoir le faire": comment la SNCF prolonge la vie de ses TGV afin de répondre au besoin croissant de trains
BFM Business a eu l'occasion de visiter le technicentre du Landy, près de Paris, où des TGV en fin de vie, normalement voués à la casse, sont remis à niveau pour être utilisés encore plusieurs années en toute sécurité. Globalement, la compagnie va prolonger la vie de 104 rames, pour 600 millions...
BFM BUSINESS (www.bfmtv.com)
@jon there was an article a few years back comparing the French Sybic locomotives to the Swiss Re 460, one was being refreshed with new electronics to improve efficiency, the other scrapped. Guess which one was scrapped.
I would claim the most impressive refurbishing was the BLS Jumbo B carriages. -
@bovine3dom Last I did the Toulouse-Paris run (May 2025) was on old IC Coradias, though admittedly I was looking to stop at smaller towns there, such as Brive-la-Gaillard.
That being said, I apparently did a Tolouse-Narbonne on a TGV in August 2019, on the Tolouse-Lyon run which only does high speed for about 40 mins from Nîmes
@moof corail not coradia, coradia are the new ones
imo the TGVs on these slow routes should be replaced with frequent TERs. then you can run many more passenger-km on the bits where TGVs are actually useful
an unpopular opinion in France because the SNCF has trained french people that connections between trains don't work
