Posts by lewd@zug.network
(DIR) Post #B4U7Y0zyHWQEy6sBLE by lewd@zug.network
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The advantage of staying in the Komnata Otdika : You can watch all the cute :rzd: trains right from your window π₯°π₯°π₯° !My mission for today was to exchange enough Chinese yuan to Russian ruble that I can rebook all my trains - that's a complicated mission since Russian regulation officially does not permit to exchange more than 40.000 ruble (400 EUR) of foreign currencies per day.Despite trying several places, I could indeed only exchange 40.000 ruble sice apart from one Bank, they all could not process passports written in Latin scripts.I hoped I could just rebook my :rzd: online ticket but I learned it's only possible to refund them to the original payment card. Sad, since that was a foreign credit card which obviously doesn't work in the enemy's country thanks to the solidary sanction regime.After all, the kind employee at the :rzd: Kassa gave her best to help me. She was so kind and friendly, she really made my day. And damn, my Russian is getting really much better here. I actually understood everything she said apart from the fast numbers.After all, I could afford all preliminary tickets up to π·πΊ Sankt-Peterburg by booking two days in 2nd class Kupe. Once I'm able to exchange more money I'll consider rebooking the tickets - after all the travel stress I'm not so keen to spending 52 hours in a compartment with crying children.So far so good. Now I need to rebook my hotel and move some appointments. Fingers crossed π€π½.So far, day 7 of my journey : I did not make any travel progress but lots of paperwork.Oh, and after I haven't eaten anything yesterday and today, I *finally* bought some food.Having all tickets up to the border in my wallet, I'm looking forwards to be back in a democratic country π΅βπ«.πβπ½#FOSSRail #TeamNightTrain
(DIR) Post #B4U7Y1HhDcbHr5AKy8 by lewd@zug.network
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The new tickets were 56.000 RUB (570 EUR) in total. 3.5 days in second class Kupe and 1.5 days in first class SV.I still have 10.000 RUB (110 EUR) left so I'll urgently need to exchange some more of my 5.000 RMB (650 EUR) to Russian rubles. I hope I'll find a bank with Kassa in π·πΊ Chita tomorrow morning during my 1.5 h transfer because otherwise the 40.000 RUB limit will hit me hard the day after when I need to rebook tickets, buy some groceries and most notably pay my hotel stay in π·πΊ Irkutsk.I'm really proud of πͺπΊ Europe how hard we've made it to use Russian rubles - we did everything correctly ! (And yes, that means my trip will be more complicated but that's how it should be. Solidarity with Ukraine !)πβπ½#FOSSRail
(DIR) Post #B4U7Y1lpPahfMXGOw4 by lewd@zug.network
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After 1.5 days of forced break, I'm finally back on track. Leaving the adorable railway station I spent the last full day in behind, I'm boarding the :rzd: 393Ρ train from π·πΊ Zabaikalsk to π·πΊ Chita-2 where we will arrive around 8 a.m. after 12 hours of travel time.The train is composed of old, comfortable Ammendorf carriages with the sweet smell of slight smoke from the coal heating - by far my favorite night train rolling stock π₯°.I'm sharing my Kupe with an elderly woman also traveling to π·πΊ Chita (I mean, where else would you want to go in Transbaikal ?) and I guess I will have a relaxed night with sweet dreams of democracy and Ukrainian victory ππ.Sleep tight, Fedi π΄.πβπ½#FOSSRail #TeamNightTrain
(DIR) Post #B4U7Y2EXgpfinahKgy by lewd@zug.network
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After 12 hours, I arrived in π·πΊ Chita-2 the next morning where I got a transfer to the Trans-Siberian-Railway on the famous :rzd: 001Π "Π ΠΎΡΡΠΈΜΡ" composed of 20 modern :rzd: carriages on it's 6 day journey from Valadyvoshock to Moskva bringing me to my next destination, π·πΊ Irlutsk next to Lake Baikal, the world's biggest freshwater reserve with a surface slightly larger than Belgium.After 33 hours in a Kupe with stinky food, loud music and lots of beer consumed I'm happy to have some rest in a hotel after I arrived here at 3 a.m. local time.So far, so good. So far day 8 (or already day 9 considering the time of the night ???) of my journey. My mission for tomorrow remains unchanged : I still need to find a place to exchange my remaining 5.200 RMB to Russian rubles.Good night everyone π΄.πβπ½#FOSSRail #TeamNightTrain
(DIR) Post #B4U7Y2qTPo0shERcoa by lewd@zug.network
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One day on π·πΊ Irkutsk to get everything settled. Groceries and railway tickets acquired after a long hunt for a bank which does foreign currency exchange.At the :rzd: Kassa, the prompt "Cancel my direct ticket and sell me two separate tickets for the same route with just one hour transfer in between" left the employee in confusion. It took a while until I could explain how this way there are still SV compartments free instead of a fully booked Kupe.After the past three unpleasant rides in filled up 4-berth compartments I'm really looking forwards to my own, calm space again.The :rzd: 009Π, the cheap transsiberian through-train, will leave tomorrow afternoon so that I can still catch some sleep and some good food before the final 4-day sprint from π·πΊ Irkutsk via π·πΊ Novosibirsk and π·πΊ Ekaterinburg to π·πΊ Sankt-Peterburg.πβπ½#FOSSRail
(DIR) Post #B4U7Y3RhBPmsYfrLpg by lewd@zug.network
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My progress so far :- 9 trains- 8.000 km- 3 nights on trains (5 night trains though in which I also just slept at day time)- 8 travel days- 4 countriesππΉππ±π¦π¨π³π·πΊStill 6.000 km and four nights on trains until I'll reach πͺπͺ Narva and cross back into the πͺπΊ EU - I'm looking forwards to traveling my last 3.000 km in democratic countries with these cool things like human rights, independent justice, fair elections and freedom of speech and press.Always remember how much it's worth fighting for this. How much it's worth supporting πΊπ¦ Ukraine - because Europe's freedom is defended in Charkiv, Cherson and Zaporizhzhia !Russia's terror regime will not stop after Ukraine. Estonia, Lithuania and Moldova will be next - while the domestic enemy in Hungary, Serbia and Slovakia will continue weakening our fraternity.πβπ½ππ#FOSSRail #SlavaUkraini #RussiaIsATerroristState
(DIR) Post #B4W4JKFwUNRGnxZDea by lewd@zug.network
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I wrote the following post a couple of days ago while I was crossing China by train.I did not dare to send it while staying in China considering the oppressive surveillance dictatorship there.Now that I left China a couple of days ago, I can finally share my anger about our perception of Chinese railways - and I'm happy to announce a talk on the topic of human rights violation in railway industries and how we're all fooled by Chinese propaganda about their trains and railways on the next opportunity on a Chaos event.
(DIR) Post #B4W4SCQwwT2n9MwmAa by lewd@zug.network
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I can't believe how Europe, Australia and pretty much everywhere else people believe the propaganda about China's supposedly amazing railway network and rolling stock industry, shared all over the place by the dictatorship's business initiatives.It hurts my soul to defend Alstom, Siemens or Stadler but if you every looked closer to a CRRC train, you will soon understand how European rolling stock is decades ahead of what China builds.Let me explain and start with the economics.- Westbahn ordered 15 Stadler KISS trains for 300 mio EUR (20 mio per trainset)- Westbahn leased four CRRC DDMU02 trains for 70 mio EUR for a period of 10 years including maintenance (18 mio EUR per trainset)- Leo Express ordered five Stadler FLIRT trains for 60 mio EUR (12 mio per trainset)- Leo Express ordered three CRRC Sirius trains for 200 mio EUR (70 mio per trainset)We keep hearing how European manufacturers cannot compete with Chinese prices. Yes, the trains are cheap and the overall offers good - but there is definitely no unreasonable price gap. And all that despite CRRC as a state-owned enterprise profiting from any kind of financial and political support, humans rights violating exploitation in the employees and large scale forced labor in the supply chain.But if we compare the prices, it's not such a huge difference. The key factor is rather the delivery time : As a Chinese state company, the priority is always supplying foreign offers first in hope to permanently establish a supply chain. Therefore, CRRC can immediately start building newly ordered trains - a lure offer to establish China on international markets.So far the business side.Let's talk about the rolling stock itself.As a brief history, CRRC was established from the so-called "Harmony" (Hexie) initiative of China's dictatorship regime. Hexie refers to the first generation of Chinese high-speed trains built by European and Japanese companies locally in China using technology-transfer. This way, CRRC got all the knowledge from Alstom, Bombardier, Kawasaki and Siemens to develop their own future trains.Chinese trains are incredibly fast and amazing press pictures, mock-ups and even prototypes carrying to narrative of comfortable, modern and affordable trains dominate the western view on Chinese railways. These narratives are repeated, prayed over and over with no evidence.Yes, trains are fast. That's it. CRRC has combined and improved the foreign technology to operate at higher speeds of 350 - 400 kph. The rest of it is propaganda. The trains technology is not advanced. The trains are bumpy, unoptimized and shaky - even on the most modern tracks at medium speed. The hardware is unreliable, everything is optimized on low cost, neither on safety nor on quality and sustainability.Despite that, railways are incredibly expensive in China. They are configured in budget airline style with the cheapest interior possible in 1st and 2nd class. The exception is the business class (surprise : That's what the propaganda machine feeds to the international news). While we believe the song of affordable railways accessible to everyone, tickets here are at the same price and often more expensive than on the flagship high-speed networks in Europe - absolutely unaffordable for the average Chinese citizen who's not living a privileged higher class life.I don't know why we all believe this, but seeing western companies falling into the trap of CRRC's lure offers for cheap trains is entirely incomprehensive to me. Chinese rolling stock is not the long awaited new wind for modern and affordable railways but a pitfall into the scrapyard of deprecated, crappy and unthoughtfully built rolling stock covered by a beautiful mask and pipe dreams.Crappy trains sold at over expensive prices despite the dictatorship's government subsidies, cruel exploitation of the workers and forced labor in the supply chains.China is not just a business partner with another culture. It's a cruel dictatorship putting all effort in propaganda, business and dependency of the western world.If we're serious about railways, about liberty and human rights, we buy rolling stock in democratic countries with worker's rights, independent human rights organizations and real innovation in building trains.China is not an alternative source of rolling stock but a cruel dictatorship eliminating its own population in concentration camps and supporting slavery through forced labor to reach its economic power.All information in this post was researched at best effort. I'm not a train manufacturer not an economist or human-rights expert. I'm just an individual concerned about what's happening. Especially the human-rights situation in China is hard to proof due to the absolute surveillance and repression against anyone speaking up.Cynically, I wrote this post while traveling aboard of a :cr: CR400AF-Z train in China.#China #CRRC #Railways #Souvereignity #HumanRights
(DIR) Post #B4iunn5TO2LqQL2N8q by lewd@zug.network
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@stux I'm glad I'm thereby officially not gen Z.
(DIR) Post #B4n7It8kuMJsFw0Vyy by lewd@zug.network
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Progressive German rail nerds be like : Abolish Β§ 218 :br218_db_a_0: :br218_db_a_1: :br218_db_a_2: βοΈβπ½ !
(DIR) Post #B55AbSyyBQzPL4G7fM by lewd@zug.network
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:car_ter: :pride_fluo: :omya_db: :omya_fluo: :omya_sncf: Replacement bus drivers who insist on stopping at the railway station rather than just quickly opening the door in the village center ... Do we know more about them ? :omya_sev: :omya_bus: And an entire month of this bullshit still pending π΅βπ«.#Bienwaldbahn #LackGesoffen #XDaysSevLeft #CrossBorderRail
(DIR) Post #B5BLrD9n3RwTKnn2qO by lewd@zug.network
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I'm notably impressed how since the last update of DB's special terms of sale for international travels include basically all over France again. Yeah, no SNCF discounts (they were dropped on DB side in 2023) but still - that's a really huge improvement again.:omya_sncf: :omya_db: #CrossBorderRail
(DIR) Post #B5BNfox6uENizLYVQO by lewd@zug.network
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TIL : DB can sell :fs: Trenitalia France tickets in Reisezentrum (not ODSM).
(DIR) Post #B5BY74mLAgJJQv9Y4u by lewd@zug.network
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I guess π±πΉ Vilnius - π¨π GenΓ¨ve could be one of the longest journeys you can buy in a single online ticket, right ?
(DIR) Post #B5BeUNqL3VKMwiWJVo by lewd@zug.network
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Oida, :cfl: International (via :sncb: B-Europe obviously) offers the discount type "100% discount Luxembourg (CFL)". Great. That's what I'd actually need for international TGVs to and from Luxembourg, along with SNCF Carte LibertΓ©. Sounds good. Both selectable, both applied.Guess who fails at calculating the right fares ? Yeah, for sure 100 % discount is *not* applied to the price in first class. Oida, why do you even offer this ?And why for hell is Deutsche Bahn as always better at selling foreign tickets than the involved railways on their own.* walks to :db: Reisezentrum ...Idiots. Idiots. Cross border ticketing is something they simply don't care about.#CrossBorderRail #CrossBorderFail
(DIR) Post #B5BeUObqCtKDK2kFYO by lewd@zug.network
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Also how the fuck can :sncf_connect: fail at selling a ticket from Metz to Bettembourg in TER, second class ????Regular fare is EUR 9.50, if I search for a ticket with Carte fluo jeune and Carte Liberté/Avantage the idiots insist on selling me an Avantage fare with 25 % discount rather than carte fluo fare with 50 % discount because it's an international train. Joking ? Transport is free of charge on the section abroad, and I'm entitled to fluo 50 % up to border points anyway. I can't believe how much SNCF fails at selling their own tickets.In any case - DB can sell me the tickets correctly at the vending machines - even in first class. And I'll check if they can sell me the fare up to Bettembourg frontière with 50 % discount and without CFL share in the :db: Reisezentrum later.Idiots. This railway is just completely dysfunct.:omya_sncf: :omya_fluo: :omya_sncf_connect: #CrossBorderRail #CrossBorderFail
(DIR) Post #B5DPv5SQPYFwkKWuNE by lewd@zug.network
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I'm really not addicted to trains but I somehow *do* need to compensate for two months abroad π₯Ίπ₯Ίπ₯Ί.
(DIR) Post #B5DPv61sHkc2WH7Dd2 by lewd@zug.network
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And this, dear Talgo, is a *real* high-speed train ...:ice_3_velaro: :neocat_hug_ice_3_velaro: :rosahaj_hug_plushie: ...
(DIR) Post #B6g9pPcJ6h4p0sWnXU by lewd@zug.network
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@maartje Maartje !
(DIR) Post #B6l8Gi8X89lu9UI4Po by lewd@zug.network
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:fs: Trenitalia France finally accepts Interrail on their Frecciarossa trains to and from France, as well as domestic legs within France !Reservation fares are lower than on domestic journeys in Italy, they charge 10 - 13 EUR depending on the travel class and itinerary.https://www.interrail.eu/en/plan-your-trip/tips-and-tricks/trains-europe/trains-country/trains-france#tabs-da0dadc90f-item-e60edbc8d3-tab#CrossBorderRail #Interrail