Aug 19, 2026, 8:20 AMIt's summer, which means a lot of you are probably taking a train somewhere for vacation. Where did you go? Was it a short trip to the seaside? A cross-border journey to see the eclipse? (Or, did you end up driving or flying because the train didn't work out?)
@erpu I have been to France (Montpellier) and the Nordics (Copenhagen & Lund). In the autumn, I'm going to Austria via Zürich...
@s1m0n4 @erpu We have a few train-journeys on our list we would like to do. They are not extreme. Like Amsterdam- Strassburg , Nancy or Dijon.
Our apartment-building will be renovated, opportunity to do work in our apartment too.
Visiting the "Canadians" next year is priority, if "World" allows it. While I worked on sleepertrains, I think we stick to traveling during the day.
Anyway, just "whishing" so far.
@hanktank61 There are a few things ÖBB could improve. For instance I was anxious about the controller keeping my printed ticket until morning. And I don't even understand why they have to keep it.
Also the train back home had too strong air-conditioning. We tried to lower it in the cabin control panel but it had absolutely no effect whatsoever. It was chilly.
@erpu visiting Leicester, Exeter and Plymouth from the Netherlands. Using Interrail, it all went pretty smoothly
@erpu Still to come: London-Amsterdam (Eurostar) then Nightjet (ÖBB) to Wien, and back.
Aug 19, 2026, 8:47 AM@erpu I couldn’t convince my partner to get on a boat, so had to fly to Mallorca rather than 16 hours of train plus an overnight ferry. (Did ride a nice heritage railway between Palma and Sóller though.)
Aug 19, 2026, 9:01 AMI am constantly travelling throughout Germany, despite the many problems with infrastructure, timetables and other incidents.
I would have been out today, but D Bahn notified me that my train was delayed before it had even begun the previous journey, and I would have missed a connection (again).
Back out on Friday, and at least three times each week.
@erpu Longer #CrossBorderRail trip to my sister's family and back via Switzerland. Emmen Zuid 🇳🇱 to Hendaye 🇫🇷 in one day (14 hours). Was amazing.
@erpu Tallinn - Stockholm with #interrail
No problems until Denmark
@interrailinfosvenska @erpu What was the problem in Denmark?
@erpu train Cardiff-Portsmouth to catch ferry to Bilbao. Not the best service tbh!
@erpu
I went to the south of France, about an hour east from Bordeaux. Trains worked fine, despite the fires
@erpu from Kiel to Montpellier with a stop in Paris in the return. All by train. With a baby. Easiest journey.
Aug 19, 2026, 9:44 AM@erpu I am still enjoying my trip (right now I am in Hungary). Will do a smaller one to Milan later this year.
Aug 19, 2026, 9:47 AM@erpu Ended up driving because of unreliability and high costs when booking late (Deutsche Bahn).
@erpu still in the middle of my trip.
Aug 19, 2026, 10:03 AM@erpu the train is the destination no? 🤔
You take a train, to get another train and so forth.
14 destinations reached by train so far on this trip.
@erpu Trains to/from Bordeaux, then a rented EV to get us into the eclipse totality zone in Spain, as well as visiting a few other places (Basque Pyrenees, Bilbao).
In Europe we have an annual North <-> South vacation migration that puts the famous wildebeast migration to shame.
I suspect many people would love to use trains more, but primarily the cost and the inconvenience (esp. for longer cross-border journeys) are prohibitive: It is rare that a train trip will make "more sense" than a car, a bus and obviously airplanes (and combinations thereof).
But its not difficult to imagine trains playing a much bigger role 🙏
@erpu London to the Matarranya and back to watch the eclipse. Caught a bus for the final leg to get out to where the trains don't run. All was fine apart from Cerbère-Barcelona, both ways. I have never managed to travel that route on a service that has run as intended.
@erpu About to take a train to the Alps for a hiking holiday 🥰
Aug 19, 2026, 12:04 PMWe took the Nightjet from Basel to Berlin and then continued on the ICE to the seaside resort of Binz on the island of Rügen. We were looking to escape the heat for a while.
@erpu Took a trip to the Swedish west coast, Halmstad, by train. I had 3 connections to make both ways and all but the last train (which was delayed by less than half an hour) were perfectly punctual, so I had no major issues except for that the trains were old and consequently had a severe shortage of power outlets!
@erpu nowhere: i can't buy a ticket without giving my identity and pay with cash. I don't want the rail industry to spy my every move. When that will change? When will I be able to travel anonymously like everyone did in 90s and before?
Aug 19, 2026, 2:32 PM@erpu We did Copenhagen-Helsinki and back by train and cruiseferry. The outbound trip saw us stranded in Malmö for almost ten hours due to a heat-induced lack of power for the trains, meaning we arrived at our Stockholm layover hotel at 03:30 rather than 17:35. The return trip went really well all the way to Hästveda where it abruptly ended due to fallen branches taking out the lines west of Hässleholm. Thankfully local friends drove us to the ferry in Helsingborg.
In short, extreme weather events aside it went well and we will be travelling by rail again - though we've given up on summer travel. With better passenger rights we may try again.
Aug 19, 2026, 2:55 PM@erpu Rented a car for the eclipse rather than deal with the uselessness of Renfe.
Having said that, will risk the uselessness of SNCF next month …
"Vacation"? "Vacation"!??
Sir, this is the _European_ Rail Passengers Union; the US Rail Passengers Union is *that* way.
👈🏼
Anyway - to treat myself for my birthday, I took a short early morning train trip to the midlands of Ireland, for a nice long cycle in the countryside along a riverbank, linking to a train home in the afternoon.
(We will overlook the fact that I had to abandon my cycle after less than an hour to quickly return home. Thankfully, the train service was excellent!)
@erpu Travelling with #Deutschlandticket to Schleswig-Holstein and Tønder 🇩🇰
total 1692 km on 37 trains, 24 h 16 min train ride
Highlight was the old railbus from Süderbrarup to Kappeln (a 40-minute, bumpy 15 km ride on old tracks).
@erpu Copenhagen - Amsterdam ⛴️ Newcastle Edinburgh Glasgow🚘Highlands Glasgow
@erpu Visiting various sites/cities in Normandy. Originally planned to go by rail, but poor/unstable connection from Copenhagen to Hamburg and (seemingly) poor rail connections along the coast in Normandy made us rent a car instead.
@erpu visiting grandparents with the kids, a short jump across the German-french border, enjoying border police check upon return to DBland.
