Martin Hoffmann

Today’s winner at Headlines.

The next stop is Kazincbarcika. The one after that is Kazincbarcika alsó. #SorryNotSorry

@tml@mementomori.social I watched a video about the train to Kars recently and am I not convinced. The train has one couchette which according to the youtuber is always sold out months in advance, but he booked a whole compartment for himself. I couldn’t do that. I’m assuming the tourist train to Kars isn’t included in Interrail?

Someone lost bits of their train.

Worth it!

Oh, look, one of ŽSSK’s renovated Citynightline sleepers. (I think that work is being done here in Vrútky?)

Yes, the railways got a blåhaj, too.

Good morning from the futuristic station of Poprad-Tatry. This red GTW as the reason why I rushed here last night. I think we already established that Slovakia’s #CrossBorderRail an be … challenging. This train goes north from here into Poland. There are two trains a day. On weekends. During the holidays. So, yeah: I couldn’t have taken my time and be here tomorrow, because the train isn’t. Anyway: we’re going to Poland, everyone!

It could all be worse. The train from Slovakia arrives 11:48, the train to Katowice leaves 11:45. Maybe timetable planners need to be forced to use the trains they plan?

I left my cozy sleeper compartment in Trebišov for this. We should probably talk about the plan. I have nine Interrail days to get home. Let’s see how many countries I can travel through. But as always, we’re not going to race around in fast express trains. Rather, keep it interesting. Hence this little tiddler.

The cool thing about being on a two and three quarter hours local train trip with 37 stops all announced by the machine three times is that you pick up a lot of pronunciation. Now I just need to remember it past the Slovak border (where the rules change completely).

Final transfer of the day is a three minute connection in Liptovský Mikuláš from a Panther back onto a real train. (Both trains are even labelled S3. Apparently, the Žilina people don’t trust the Poprad people with their shiny new train.) I thought it was seven minutes, otherwise I wouldn’t have gone and taken a picture.

Oh no! I guess I have to walk up there. Doesn’t look that bad. (Narrator: It was that bad.)

The border river for border number three with the railway already on the Polish side on the right, so, country number three. Yes, this line is electrified. Maybe a daily Košice – Krakow train would actually work?

The train might still be red but in a minute we are going to cross border number five into country number four, the country of the blue trains. (Yes, I’m taking too many pictures of these Škoda locomotives. They won’t be around for long …)

Border number four back into country number one is just down there in the tree tunnel after the bridge.

Zwardoń, at the end of Poland. You see a fair portion of the village in this picture. Because #CrossBorderRail is what it is, I now have ninety minutes until the onwards train.

Good morning from Katowice station which looks like something someone built in Satisfactory. My idea for today was to head further west in Poland and then cross into Czechia somewhere interesting. But between the busy trains and the line to Linz in Austria being closed, I decided to head south instead. Going straight to Bohumín is too boring, though, so I’ll do the other cross border line between Poland and Slovakia instead. (There is a third one far east, but it is currently closed for upgrades or something.)

Didn’t expect to spend the night here in Katowice, but at least I have a room with a view. This is my second time in this hotel. Last time my evening train to Wrocław was ninety minutes late (after I had missed a connection in Žilina earlier) and I just gave up.

This is the TLK (fast train) to Nysa? Kinda happy that they were all sold out. It’s not the weather to spend four hours in a crowded second hand German 1970s train.

Bit worried where the train thinks it is going.

Quick room tour while we wait for departure time to roll around. Very classic sleeper compartment, this.

Fancy that: Made it before the blue train that isn’t even blue arrived. It will take me across border number seven back into country number four.

Koleje Śląskie (who run regional trains in the Silesian Voivodeship around Katowice) was the first company that couldn’t scan the Interrail code. They made up for it with a very thorough manual check including passport check. Conversely, their train was the first one today that the Interrail app knew about and I didn’t have to add manually.

I have to be in Poprad tonight for reasons that will become apparent tomorrow. This can be easily achieved via Košice. But then I noticed some wiggly railway lines to the west. The really wiggly route via Kremnica didn’t work out (I think there are busses?) but the one via Banská Bystrica isn’t shabby either. Probably. I have a hard time staying awake …

And here is my chariot for tonight. Boringly bland locomotive, six sleepers (three old, three new), one couchette, and three seating cars. We’re heading to the east of Slovakia. The train is going to Humenné, but I’ll jump off a couple stops early for timetabling reasons.

Slovenské Nové Mesto (“Slovak New Town”) was created from the parts of the Hungarian town of Sátoraljaújhely (which may also be New Town?) that had spilled over the river when that river became the border in 1920. It also has the railway station on the important main line. The line from Hungary runs to it, but that last bit isn’t electrified, so the passenger trains end in Sátoraljaújhely which is a half hour walk away. So, border number one into country number two crossed on foot.

For the end of the day, I picked Břeclav. You’d think it would be a large city, given how prominently it appears in the railway network. But, no, small town of 25,000. It has got a big old pile of stones, though.

For variety, the Interrail app knows about the Zwardoń – Skalité train while DB Navigator does not. I will never understand how these things work. (Railfinder does, so somehow DB must have lost them somehow? Maybe they didn’t believe a daily two-hourly cross border service between Slovakia and Poland could be real?)

Okay, maybe Zwardoń is a bit bigger than I made it out to be. Anyway, down there is the train station.

The walk could be over after twenty minutes, but the Slovak trains don’t stop at their border station. Admittedly, it is out nowhere.

Here we go. Border number two back into country number one. Incidentally, this is the third time I walked across the Hungarian border. I once walked from Szentgotthárd to Mogersdorf in Austria. While there was a train, the connection was so terrible and so little happening in Szentgotthárd that I got bored and walked one stop.

Feel free to accuse me of taking the piss, but here is border number six back into country number three. I had a bit of a wait in Český Těšín, noticed that my train was coming from Cieszyn across the border in Poland and that there was just about enough time to walk there. So, here we are. Let’s hope the map isn’t wrong; this thing is only going every other hour.

It looks like trying to get somewhere in Poland on a Sunday afternoon on short notice is a fraught undertaking. All long-distance trains between Tarnów and Opole (let alone to Nysa) are booked solid and it is too far to make by local train. I may have to downgrade Poland to Unplanned Trains D tier, if not worse.

If you guessed I’d go to Romania next, I thought about it. But there are replacement busses that way. So, a merry band of Hungarian tiddlers (called Bzmot here after their original designation) it is instead.

As I am yet again on a bus on a twelve lane motorway: What is the widest motorway in Europe?

That said, if you amble around Czechia, don’t skip the railways east of the Ostrava – Břeclav main line. The landscape isn’t breathtaking but very gezellig.

Oh good: ČD’s terminals can’t read the new standard codes that Interrail is now using and the conductors are confused because they used to be able to. This is going to be fun. (Maybe avoid Interrailing in Czechia for a bit.)

Random observation: Interrail doesn’t want your full passport number for the mobile pass any more, but only the last three characters.

@q@glauca.space Please yell. This is embarrassing for both the train crews and me. Least they can do is tell their staff that this isn’t working.

@interrailinfosvenska@mastodonsweden.se They probably don’t. I am decidedly off piste again.

These are the Żywiec Beskids. With the highest peak at 1725 metres, they are not ot be pooh-poohed.

@swoonie@mastodon.ie No idea about a), but for b), all the station signs are also bilingual in Czech and Polish. I was wondering about that but didn’t bother research.

@geeeero@mastodon.social Yes! Particularly in this red livery.

@HaTetsu@mastodon.com.pl @kupfers@mastodon.social Sorry, I should have been more clear in the original post. But yeah, after my experience earlier this year, I consider PKP Intercity trains as “reservation de facto necessary.”

@owiecc@en.osm.town Interesting. Not a single terminal worked today.

Good morning from Kostoľany nad Hornádom, where the train stops for half an hour to wait for the sun to rise.

Shouldn’t it be Звардонь, though?