Right then.
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As for the line from Durrës and the airport to Laprakë... they have sort of laid some track, partially, at Laprakë, since I was last there in 2024
But it is still a hell of a long way from being finished
Some minor works were happening there today
Overall I have the impression that Albania is building this railway so as they can show to the EU and other international partners that they are "modern" and a token effort is being made against road congestion
It's rather similar to their bike lanes. "Look we have bike lanes!"
No one can reasonably use the bike lanes, and not many will be able to use the train, but that's not the point
The point is to have these things, for credibility
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@jon Nobody expects you to do a backflip on a folding bike, but a quick mid-air fold should be possible, even with panniers and a water bottle
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As for the line from Durrës and the airport to Laprakë... they have sort of laid some track, partially, at Laprakë, since I was last there in 2024
But it is still a hell of a long way from being finished
Some minor works were happening there today
@jon clearly abandoned.
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Overall I have the impression that Albania is building this railway so as they can show to the EU and other international partners that they are "modern" and a token effort is being made against road congestion
It's rather similar to their bike lanes. "Look we have bike lanes!"
No one can reasonably use the bike lanes, and not many will be able to use the train, but that's not the point
The point is to have these things, for credibility
@jon cargo cult civil engineering?
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@jon clearly abandoned.
@zugkatze There were half a dozen people doing some work on the far side of the station, but I couldn't photograph them without drawing attention to myself
Something is sort of happening, but neither well not intensely! -
Tirana bike lanes
@jon What, no bunker at the end of the path to nowhere?
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@jon What, no bunker at the end of the path to nowhere?
@Infoseepage Ha. There was one bunker alongside the line, but it was too dangerous traffic to stop to photograph it!
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@Infoseepage Ha. There was one bunker alongside the line, but it was too dangerous traffic to stop to photograph it!
@jon I'm next door in North Macedonia and am struck by many similar things.
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@jon I'm next door in North Macedonia and am struck by many similar things.
@Infoseepage Right. But Albania is just one level more weird and more chaotic than North Macedonia
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@Infoseepage Right. But Albania is just one level more weird and more chaotic than North Macedonia
@jon There is a pretty high degree of basic infrastructure failure in much of the Balkans. My apartment in Skopje overlooks a big construction pit that has been rapidly turned into a place for people to heave their household trash, since municipal trash collection barely seems to exist here.
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@jon There is a pretty high degree of basic infrastructure failure in much of the Balkans. My apartment in Skopje overlooks a big construction pit that has been rapidly turned into a place for people to heave their household trash, since municipal trash collection barely seems to exist here.
@jon The one that cracks me up though is Novi Sad in Serbia. Second biggest city. They've got a bridge over the Danube and there is like 2 blocks worth of pedestrian sidewalk extending out from it and then it just ends and you're left to walk several miles to the train station in Petrovaradin tromping through high grass on a completely unimproved narrow road shoulder. And this is because the station in Novi Sad is closed because a chunk of it collapsed and killed a bunch of people.
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@jon The one that cracks me up though is Novi Sad in Serbia. Second biggest city. They've got a bridge over the Danube and there is like 2 blocks worth of pedestrian sidewalk extending out from it and then it just ends and you're left to walk several miles to the train station in Petrovaradin tromping through high grass on a completely unimproved narrow road shoulder. And this is because the station in Novi Sad is closed because a chunk of it collapsed and killed a bunch of people.
@Infoseepage I didn't actually (yet!) try to walk to Petrovaradin. I only passed through in the train. But this does not surprise me, sadly.
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Cows grazing in front of half completed tower blocks
Tirana
@jon did you teleport to India by chance?
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How have they resolved the issue on the road to Kamez, I wondered
It’d need a level crossing on a dual carriageway
Ah. They haven’t.
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@jon With a perfectly placed concrete barrier, I see!
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@jon With a perfectly placed concrete barrier, I see!
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Overall I have the impression that Albania is building this railway so as they can show to the EU and other international partners that they are "modern" and a token effort is being made against road congestion
It's rather similar to their bike lanes. "Look we have bike lanes!"
No one can reasonably use the bike lanes, and not many will be able to use the train, but that's not the point
The point is to have these things, for credibility
@jon Potemkin infrastructure
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@jon did you teleport to India by chance?
@ajinkyapdahale @jon bc of the cows? India has way better train service I suppose. I mean over 90% electrification rate is quite something
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@Infoseepage I didn't actually (yet!) try to walk to Petrovaradin. I only passed through in the train. But this does not surprise me, sadly.
@jon It's not a great walk in from the Petrovaradin train station to Novi Sad across either of the Danube bridges. I did it once via each bridge coming and going. Takes you through some questionable neighborhoods with lots of very heavy gang graffiti. Would have taken a taxi on the inbound journey, but the driver wanted 20 bucks for the about 4 km journey. Highway robbery.
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@jon It's not a great walk in from the Petrovaradin train station to Novi Sad across either of the Danube bridges. I did it once via each bridge coming and going. Takes you through some questionable neighborhoods with lots of very heavy gang graffiti. Would have taken a taxi on the inbound journey, but the driver wanted 20 bucks for the about 4 km journey. Highway robbery.
@jon Would have taken a taxi from town back to the train station on the day I left, but couldn't seem to flag one down and so just gave up and hoofed it. Carrying a 75l pack frame and a separate reinforced grocery bag for food. Not fun to be walking that far in the hot sun on bad pavement and sometimes just flat out dirt.
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@pvdrijst I have been here in 2019, 2024 and now, and the level of traffic has always been hellish. Cycling in the north in 2024 - to the border with Montenegro - was fine in comparison!
@jon I cycles from Macedonia (sorry Greece) along the coast to Montenegro, and traffic never was a problem even in Dürres.
