Ah, bonus points for this route - station names in France are a total mess
Trainline:
Valence TGV
DB:
Valence TGV Rhône-Alpes Sud
SNCF Connect:
Valence Tgv Rhone-Alpes Sud
And the other end…
Trainline, SNCF Connect:
Armentières
DB:
Armentieres
nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpqlauccman4qjgv0lhyhpqq9f4fl70ncel2ag902eu499yaaxv7u6qs3dr5j it doesn’t necessarily - there is now (occasionally) a Bruxelles-Venezia night train.
For the day trains: the service re-opens 1st April between Paris and Milano (track has been blocked by a landslide the past 15 months), and always use Trenitalia rather than SNCF on that bit nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpqtwh6nyxpf4d2m5e2c3ncynctetzpgxxl9k9f4xz4t4rgdvhmv72sc69374
SNCF Connect cannot show me routes with more than 2 changes, and does not even seem to know the bus to the TGV station exists - it just shows the TGV station even if I enter Valence Ville and not Valence TGV
Trainline fails similarly, even though it could *theoretically* route me onto a Frecciarossa (they have Trenitalia data) they do not
Hi nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpqy98u6vcmvnxz0vt0z6d37827zxwzt7zy3dxzxr60x9sd9awh62mq3vc5n8 do you have any advice on the London-Berlin day train and London-Venice sleeper train routes? How reliable are they? Are they well-established European infrastructure we can rely on, or are they still at the holiday adventure stage? Thank you.
#EuropeanRail #trains #EuropeTravel #SleeperTrains
nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpqtwh6nyxpf4d2m5e2c3ncynctetzpgxxl9k9f4xz4t4rgdvhmv72sc69374 London - Venice, I assume you mean changing in Brussels onto the European Sleeper Bruxelles - Venezia? If so then... you might need some patience. It is not yet a solid service, and the chances of delays or partial cancellation are quite high. Definitely leave a couple of hours spare after its scheduled arrival.
Hi nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpqy98u6vcmvnxz0vt0z6d37827zxwzt7zy3dxzxr60x9sd9awh62mq3vc5n8 do you have any advice on the London-Berlin day train and London-Venice sleeper train routes? How reliable are they? Are they well-established European infrastructure we can rely on, or are they still at the holiday adventure stage? Thank you.
#EuropeanRail #trains #EuropeTravel #SleeperTrains
nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpqtwh6nyxpf4d2m5e2c3ncynctetzpgxxl9k9f4xz4t4rgdvhmv72sc69374 London - Berlin is better than Berlin - London, as you're more likely to get delays in Germany, and there are more trains later in the day. So providing you don't try to route onto the last train of the day, that ought to be fine.
So why do I want this *perfect complicated route*?
I want it so as to test train planning and ticket sales platforms
How do they handle it?
Deutsche Bahn - of course! - gives me a series of solid routes, even telling me when Trenitalia trains (see FR 6654) go, and offering me bus routes to Valence TGV
On criterion 4 there'd be no way by any means other than train to complete a Valence - Armentières trip in less than 6 hours
And criteria 1, 2 and 3 are fulfilled by a bunch of routes
Starting with 5, that basically means you have to have Paris - Lyon as part of the route, where Trenitalia competes with SNCF
That means your route has to be somewhere south-ish of Lyon to somewhere north-ish of Paris
Valence Ville also helps with 6 - in that a bus to the TGV station outside town is a useful additional way to complete the trip
... BUT I think there ought to be some more criteria
CRITERION 4
A trip of a length plenty of people would take
CRITERION 5
Part of the route with some operator *other than* SNCF
CRITERION 6
Some part of the trip where a short non-rail leg would help as a passenger, but all rail options are possible too
I wrote about something similar in this post: https://jonworth.eu/bundling-trip-planning-and-ticketing-together-its-not-in-the-passengers-interest/
But I chose Haguenau - Arcachon as my route, but it's not perfect for a few reasons…
CRITERION 1
A trip that would in some cases need 2 changes, and in some cases 3 or more (the latter options would not be shown by SNCF Connect due to too many changes)
CRITERION 2
A mix of fix fare local trains, and yield managed long distance ones
CRITERION 3
A transfer across Paris, with time correctly calculated for a transfer between terminals
Haguenau - Arcachon complies with all of those…
I wrote about something similar in this post: https://jonworth.eu/bundling-trip-planning-and-ticketing-together-its-not-in-the-passengers-interest/
But I chose Haguenau - Arcachon as my route, but it's not perfect for a few reasons…
Bear with me here, but I am seeking the *perfect complicated train route in France*
Valence Ville - Armentières is the best I can do currently
Can you help me find better (worse)?
Here's a selection of routes from DB for this trip:
nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpqy98u6vcmvnxz0vt0z6d37827zxwzt7zy3dxzxr60x9sd9awh62mq3vc5n8 a better criteria could have been "The website provides a way for users to input origin, destination, and date of the trip". And that would have given SNCF zero points.
Instead, they use *app store ratings* which can be easily bought
nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpqg2e325x6thmcx0yt4wwsspftsgnd3vzt59q2vlj9aucpqunq7geqausut0 Also I find the VR rating really weird. It has an *excellent* booking system, but scores very low - I presume - because Trainline doesn't sell it as it's geographically isolated.
Look at these T&E criteria for “Booking Experience” - this is just a total dog's dinner. Trainline probably doesn't sell VR (Finland) because it's a small population country connected to no others. And what about super cheap tickets that cannot be cancelled? How is that accommodated?
nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpqnscpp9lzx8qglw7g7r0tycgjj4kx75m4xleyrtmajqc2skgc5qkq5lkgrr Or how do you compare walk up and get on fares with book a month ahead fares? On the latter GWR would do better than NS, on the former NS would do much better.
nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpqnscpp9lzx8qglw7g7r0tycgjj4kx75m4xleyrtmajqc2skgc5qkq5lkgrr And also don't seem to reflect what low cost passes are available - which are numerous and very cheap for CP.
But this is really the crux of it - where do you draw a line here to assess this?
Of course there’s something especially grim that *the worst* #CrossBorderRail ticketing absurdities I can find are TO STRASBOURG.
Seat of the European Parliament.
Sums up the whole sorry mess.
How many MEPs or staff - and I know some do go by train - have been fleeced as a result of this insane ticket bug?
From this report from the Committee of the Regions in 2017
Then 161000 people a DAY cross the Belgium-France border Lille/Kortrijk/Tournai, but only 3000 of them do it by train 😳
#CrossBorderRail
