Recent content by jamesontheroad

DSB has ordered their Talgo sets with no catering provision other than some vending machines. So it's likely that the best we can hope for on daytime trains Oslo-Copenhagen will be some kind of trolley.

Over on the Swedish-language Postvagen forum are some posts about SJ, Vy and Snälltåget's applications for train paths in the 2026 Swedish railway timetable. These are not (yet) public documents but they are visible to certain members of the railway community. TLDR (or DSSDR... "Don't Speak...

"No issues" <:D Not customs. There are no customs checks on internal EU borders. "Temporary", "proportionate" and "targeted" border checks, norally conducted by the Swedish police in your example, are permitted. When SJ or Snälltåget night trains from/to Germany change direction in Malmö...

I slept badly last night (in CET) so popped AirPods in and drifted in and out of sleep listening to CBC Radio coverage. As of this morning, Elections Canada has paused counting for a couple of hours. Poillievre made his speech long before the count in his riding was complete. As you say, @Acfb...

It has been quite a remarkable election campaign to watch. Carney could not have played it better in terms of strategy. Poilievre has been extremely complacent in handling his new Liberal opponent. It will be an interesting final few days of campaigning.

This is quite common. Since SJ high-speed, intercity and night trains are all reserved, ticket inspections are not normally needed. The guard will check that the seats or berths are occupied according to the live seating plan on their tablet. The only negative here - in Stockholm - is that the...

The only information that I can find online is that different rules regarding lying in apply to different night trains and you should ask the conductor when you board. Maybe someone here has first hand experience of the train and can comment. The early-evening southbound Umeå - Stockholm night...

This thread now contains many fascinating stories. They prompted me to recall a memorable border I did not manage to cross by train. Apologies for going off topic... In 2010, I was on a three-week postgraduate university exchange in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The exchange spanned the long weekend...

SJ doesn't handle cash anywhere. Tickets are only sold digitally (or at Pressbyrån newsagents in Sweden). On board, SJ charges in SEK and customers' debit or credit cards handle the conversion.

We're in dad joke territory. My old man, bless him, still laughs at his joke when he tells the story about his first trip by car through Germany in the 1950s and saw that every autobahn exit was pointing to the same mysterious city of Utfart.

Lovely memories, thank you. It was possibly Pythion.

The US/Canada rail border crossing has always been a bit odd, not least because it varies between every one of the regularly scheduled passenger trains that cross the border. The Amtrak Cascades (Vancouver, BC - Seattle, WA and Portland, OR) is the only one with juxtaposed border controls in...

Like @Watershed going in the opposite direction, I was lucky enough to have a Greek-speaking hotel manager two nights earlier in Sofia. She found this taxi dispatcher. The driver also shared his direct number with me. But he did not speak much English. (Appears rotated - click for full size view).

I replicated this journey as best as I could in February 2023. Sofia - Kulata on the afternoon "international" train that terminates in Kulata. Walked to the frontier and spent a night in a mad casino hotel on the Bulgarian side. (Multiple channels of hardcore porn on the TV; completely free bar...