Oct 16, 2026, 9:11 PMQuick note from the road: Lake Bled. I can neither confirm nor deny that we mostly went there for a kremšnita.
- Oct 16, 2026, 9:11 PM
Replies
- Oct 17, 2026, 3:32 PM
Quick note from the road: Haven’t done one these in decades.
- Oct 18, 2026, 1:35 PM
Quick note from the road: Crossing from Bosnia back into Croatia on a Sunday afternoon was a bad idea.
At least the Croatian mobile network reaches far enough …
- Oct 18, 2026, 3:21 PM
Two hours fifteen. Could have been worse, I guess.
- Oct 19, 2026, 6:00 AM
Time to go home.
There are three options to go from Zagreb to Maribor. The normal one via Dobova and Zidani Most, the long one via Čakovec, and an intermediary one via Ðurmanec.
I would obviously want to take the long one, but there are only two trains a day across the border and the morning one is half an hour too early, so the intermediary route it is.
First up: Leaving the Zagreb commuter train at a foggy Zaprešić.
- Oct 19, 2026, 8:08 AM
The Croatian train ends in Ðurmanec where the Slovenian train will continue eighty minutes later. I had hoped the town would be a little more exciting, but thanks to Croatian delays, I will “only” have an hour.
- Oct 19, 2026, 8:19 AM
The Croatia-Slovenia border strikes me as a possible candidate for @erpu’s Easy To Fix Cross-Border Railways project. All they really need to do is extend the services the now end before the border to the next junction on the other side. There are a couple of these cases up here in the north plus Istria down south.
Edit: Oh, and, fix the ticketing issues. Not sure how it is here, but Divača – Pula was only available at a booking office.
- Oct 19, 2026, 8:42 AM
And if you are asking: “But who would use these trains?” – both the motorway and the regular highway are rather busy.
- Oct 19, 2026, 9:48 AM
While the train is slow, it just is regularly slow and I can make the five minute connection in Stranje to Imeno, and cover this roughly twenty minute branch line while I am here.
- Oct 19, 2026, 10:21 AM
Imeno isn’t the end of the line but merely the Slovenian border station in the middle of a field. The line continues down to the Zagreb – Ljubljana main line. But because it runs in the valley of the river Sutla, which serves as the border, it crosses the border twenty-seven times (if I counted right) and that apparently was too much for continued service. Maybe after Croatia finally joined Schengen this year, trains may continue again?
- Oct 19, 2026, 11:38 AM
And now with this rattly old Italian thing from Celje up to Maribor. (Not on purpose. It just happened to be the next train.)
Formally coming from Ljubljana, the train is being bustituted to Celje, presumably because of the horrendous state of that line.
- Oct 19, 2026, 3:09 PM
Turns out I will get to use the Koralmbahn – the new quick connection between Graz and Klagenfurt – after all.
The Railjet was late, filthy, and all the good seats taken (the interior layout in first class is kind of bad, and second was packed). So I decided to wait for the competition.
That’s Westbahn and their train has a classic Swiss layout and at least first class – which you can now use with a first class Interrail – is very quiet, so the properly aligned vis-a-vis bays are great.
- Oct 19, 2026, 4:06 PM
Had a look at the two other classes
as well – I think the Westbahn Smiles have a nicer, cleaner interior than SBB’s Giruno variant. They don’t offer level boarding, though, which may be the reason for the less cluttered layout.
- Oct 19, 2026, 4:08 PM
These singles with their very own window are a very Swiss detail, though.
Maartjemaartje@blahaj.socialOct 19, 2026, 4:36 PM@partim why is there a no trash icon on the trash bin
- Oct 19, 2026, 4:42 PM
@maartje Because it’s not a trash bin?
Not sure if it really isn’t one or if they just sealed them. But you can’t open them in any case.
- Maartjemaartje@blahaj.socialOct 19, 2026, 4:44 PM
@partim pretty sure at SBB they are trash bins…
- Oct 19, 2026, 4:45 PM
@maartje They certainly look like the typical SBB bins.
Stefan Lindbohmstefanlindbohm@mastodon.socialOct 19, 2026, 4:52 PM@partim @maartje I heard somewhere that these sets are actually to be delivered to SBB after Westbahn has leased them for a bit. So the bins will get unsealed then.
Westbahn needs them while waiting for the full line between Vienna and Villach to get their new sections with a larger loading guage. Once done they’ll use their Kisses everywhere again. If this makes sense..?
- Maartjemaartje@blahaj.socialOct 19, 2026, 4:55 PM
@stefanlindbohm @partim oh yeah they are SBB trains awaiting delivery at low low 2nd hand prices… though the same level boarding being cut in this version worries me…
Wrzlbrnftwrzlbrnft@troet.cafeOct 19, 2026, 4:56 PM@stefanlindbohm That's correct. These Stadler SMILE vehicles might go to SBB when WESTbahn will be able to operate with doubledecker trains through the new Semmering- Basistunnel. @partim @maartje
- Oct 19, 2026, 5:02 PM
Turns out these trains are nearly exactly the same as the SBB trains and I was just in a different part of the train – I do remember walking through one and not finding a nice seat, though. But that probably was my mood of the day.
As it happens, Westbahn has leased three of them from Stadler because their double deckers are too big for the current Semmering route. Once the new tunnel opens, they will return them and use their own trains.
The trains even have numbers as Swiss class 501s.
- Oct 19, 2026, 5:54 PM
In my accidental new project to spend the night in places primarily known from railway timetables, I give you Spittal an der Drau or, to use its railway name, Spittal-Milstättersee. And yes, that’s the Drau or Drava from a couple days ago. Its source is in the mountains of South Tyrol, it then crosses Tyrol, Carinthia, Slovenian Styria, being the border between Hungary and Croatia for a bit before flowing into the Danube at Osijek. It’s one of those rivers that are at the heart of many regions but nobody else ever heard of.
- Oct 20, 2026, 5:48 AM
Good morning from Spittal-Milstättersee (or Spittal/Drau-Milstätter See Bahnhof as ÖBB calls it online or Spittal-Milstätter See as DB calls it).
Today should be a quick ICE hat-trick. Ideally there will be nothing much to report, but we’ll see.
- Stefan Lindbohmstefanlindbohm@mastodon.socialOct 20, 2026, 6:21 AM
@partim Well there goes my principle of station names ”as written on the signs at the station” 😅
- Oct 20, 2026, 6:39 AM
@stefanlindbohm It’s a good principle. No idea why DB thought they have to “fix” it (the lake is apparently spelled “Milstätter See”).
- Stefan Lindbohmstefanlindbohm@mastodon.socialOct 20, 2026, 6:52 AM
@partim I’ll still try to keep close to it. But in this case I’d wonder if not the ”Drau” would be good to add too since ÖBB added it, that’s what I was thinking of.
Also is there some German spelling rule that adds an L when combining the word? EDIT: I see now that the lake and town across the lake have two L’s so nevermind.
FWIW the data in Merits is exactly as on the physical sign (with two L’s)
- Oct 20, 2026, 7:04 AM
@stefanlindbohm I suspect the Drau happened when they merged station and bus stop – the “Bahnhof” at the end points towards that.
Not sure what the right thing to do here is. Maybe having subtitles for stations? I think in the UK they sometimes subtitle with “for,” so “Spittal-Milstättersee for Spital an der Drau.”
(The double t is for shortening the preceding vowel. But don’t ask me for the exact rules. German spelling sadly isn’t as straightforward as Dutch.)
Oliver Blanthornbovine3dom@masto.aiOct 20, 2026, 7:52 AM@stefanlindbohm how far would you take this
Londonderry station's sign just says "North West Transport Hub" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derry_~_Londonderry_railway_station to try to reduce vandalism
(no-one can agree if the city is called Derry or Londonderry)
- Oct 20, 2026, 8:07 AM
@bovine3dom @stefanlindbohm You can’t even solve this with locales. Unless there are separate sub-locals for en_IE?
- Oliver Blanthornbovine3dom@masto.aiOct 20, 2026, 8:14 AM
@partim en_ie_protestant en_ie_catholic
- Oct 20, 2026, 6:57 AM
It is kind of nice of ÖBB to have introduced the dedicated train category Interregio as a warning for horrible rolling stock so they can be avoided. It is less nice that that blocks a couple of nice mountain lines.
(Switching to those Desiro ML also seems to have reduced the capacity on those lines quite a bit, which makes it even worse. The trains have only a few good window seats and if they are very busy, those are likely to be taken already.)
- Oct 20, 2026, 8:13 AM
Left Freilassing spot on time. Apparently the railways finally convinced the cops to do their illegal border checks en route between Freilassing and Traunstein.
- Oct 20, 2026, 10:42 AM
Here at Deutsche Bahn, a large coffee definitely is large.
- Oct 20, 2026, 12:13 PM
Because the Big Dig in Stuttgart isn’t done yet, the new Ulm to Stuttgart high-speed line ends in the middle of nowhere with a connection curve to Wendlingen on the conventional network.
But since this was all meant to be temporary, the curve is only single track. Worse, it joins with the high-speed line in a tunnel and they didn’t want to build a complicated cross-over between the tunnel’s two tubes. Of course this particular tunnel is rather long and the next cross-over is nine kilometres away, so now there is essentially an eleven kilometre single-track line God only knows for how long.
So now you have a new high-speed line but it ends up causing more issues than it solves.
Oct 19, 2026, 5:55 PM@partim All Giruno trains only have a couple of step free doors. The rest is high floor.
The only step free throughout high speed train is… well, for 76cm platforms… and yeah, that has *many* other downsides!
- Oct 19, 2026, 5:58 PM
@jon It’s kind of hard to figure out from the picture, but do they have a separate sliding step for 760 mm to bridge the gap?
I should probably work those trains into my next trip through Germany.
- Oct 19, 2026, 5:59 PM
@partim For the 760mm wheelchair door, yes. Any other doors, no, not AFAIK.
- Oct 19, 2026, 6:04 PM
@jon I suppose if DB would have gone for it, they would have made a step-free 760 mm version which would have been perfect for Germany and the Netherlands. (No idea if Stadler actually bid the Smile back then.)
- Oct 19, 2026, 6:07 PM
@partim But the standard floor height is between 940 mm and 1150 mm in the Smile (as Stadler calls it). Maybe you could have engineered a few more step free doors, but I doubt if you could have managed that for all doors.
Suzanne Veermansmveerman@zug.networkOct 19, 2026, 6:19 PM@jon @partim the reintroduction of the Jacobs bogie for trains has made them a lot more accessible. But the problem with them is that they cannot be motorized, and with trains reaching more than 160 km/h or longer trains, you need more than two motorized bogies, and those don't fit underneath a 760 mm floor. That's why the Stadler SMILE and also the 200 km/h version of the Coradia Stream have additional high-floor sections.
- Oct 19, 2026, 6:21 PM
@smveerman @partim Right, exactly. And there are also rules re. speed and minimum wheel size I never fully understood. But in short: it’s complicated, which is what makes it interesting 😄
Moritz Krähemoritzkraehe@zug.networkOct 19, 2026, 6:30 PM@smveerman @jon @partim That's not true. DB's 423/424/425 family of trains has powered Jacobs bogies, as do Talent 2's with four or more sections, all lengths of Coradia Continental, and I'm sure many others.
- Oct 19, 2026, 6:32 PM
@moritzkraehe @smveerman @partim But with what diameter of wheels?
And Régiolis has ramps up over the powered wheels in the middle as well, not steps, so that is doable.
But again all of these (inc Régiolis) are 160km/h EMUs I think.
What about the Trenitalia IC Coradia 200km/h? It was at Innotrans but I did not walk through all of it.
Walter van Holstwhvholst@eupolicy.socialOct 19, 2026, 6:36 PM@smveerman @jon @partim One wonders whether the latest electric motors meant for BEVs might not fit after all, they are much smaller than they used to be.
- Oct 19, 2026, 6:39 PM
@whvholst This is the thing I am not sure about. I think it is not necessarily the motors, but the wheel diameter that causes the issues. @smveerman @partim
- Oct 19, 2026, 6:45 PM
@whvholst @smveerman @partim So the formula for minimum wheel size is:
150 + 1.8 × v mm
Where v is the speed
And this applies to any speed between 100 and 250km/h
So
160km/h - 438mm min
200km/h - 510mm min
250km/h - 564mm minBut Stadler Smile uses 920mm (new) and 840mm (worn) wheels… Much larger than the minimum.
Oct 19, 2026, 6:44 PM@jon @partim what do you mean with 'more/all step-free doors'?
As long as you accept steps in the train, it should be possible to make a 200 km/h train, like the smile, with a 760 mm no-step-door on every car.
You will then have steps towards the bogies.
I guess you mean step-free through-out the whole trainset, or at least for 90% like the talgo 230?- Oct 19, 2026, 6:46 PM
- Oct 19, 2026, 6:09 PM
@partim OK, SBB fits a lot of first class seats, but the SBB version has only just over 400 seats for a 200m long train. That’s *few*. A ETR1000 of the same length has 459.
- Oct 19, 2026, 6:00 PM
@partim Also you remind me: at some point I am going to write a huge explainer about why trying to make 200km/h+ trains step free entirely is such a massive pain.
And this is going to piss *everyone* off.
- Oct 19, 2026, 5:58 PM
@partim Yep, 27. The most of any line in Europe between two junctions 😄 https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-all-the-borders_935041#12/46.007097/15.683327
But it’s HZPP, and Slovenia and Croatia, so I would not bet on it getting fixed.
