Shredder's latest report has prompted me to join the noble army of reporters and enthuse about Czech and Slovak rail travel. If you want shed visits, numbers and such you'll be disappointed, so please press the back button now. I note the class of loco and stock, punctuality and loading, but basically I enjoy travelling over interesting and scenic routes. And sorry, I don’t like beer – my tipple is wine.
It all started a couple of years ago when we had a family spring break to Prague and Ceske Budejovice; despite the seemingly inevitable Rail Replacement Buses we all enjoyed the rail journeys. Engineering work meant I missed out on loco haulage from Ceske Budejovice to Cesky Krumlov, and as Arriva had won the local franchise for 2017 (or not, as it turned out) I decided to have another try - a solo trip so I could do obscure lines and long days. So I found a slot in the diary over Spring Bank Holiday, and started planning. I wanted to check out possible holiday destinations, include Slovakia to get my senior citizen free pass, and incorporate an OeBB sleeper.
In the end Slovakia got most of my attention, as you will see in part 2.
To get there I decided on a return flight from Manchester to Duesseldorf with Flybe.
Duesseldorf Airport was almost deserted at 20.30, and the Skytrain monorail and an S-Bahn got me to the Hauptbahnhof for 21.00. The OeBB Sleeper to Vienna was still loading (with to large numbers of motorbikes) and eventually departed an hour late. I had plenty of time for a good meal on the station, as the CNL Munich sleeper was running 20 late from Amsterdam. The class 101 had 15 on, and most of the stock was in need of a repaint. I’d not used a Comfortline sleeper before; it was perfectly OK inside, and I slept well (though I would have preferred red wine to unchilled prosecco for a nightcap – I was travelling first, for the ensuite and other benefits).
Thursday 26 May
I woke briefly in the half-light to discover the train going very slowly – which I realise now was the Geislinger Steige beyond Stuttgart, and I assume we were being banked. Breakfast arrived at 6.30 – plenty of food, and reasonable quality, in a cardboard box, so I drank the coffee and took the food with me. The train was right time into Munich, a bonus for any sleeper service it seems!
My aim for the day (Corpus Christi, a public holiday in Roman Catholic Bavaria) was the seasonal Ilztalbahn from Passau, with its cross-border bus connection to Nove Udoli. I had fortunately rechecked the timetable and discovered that there was engineering work and SLW which would delay me by an hour. No great problem, so instead of the 7.24 to Passau I took the 7.44 Regensburg (a class 111 and 5 double-deckers, lightly loaded as it was a holiday). At Landshut I had a 30-minute wait for a connection to Platting (a pair of new class 440 emus, equally lightly loaded), and from there an ICE-T (class 411) headed to Vienna; here first class was an advantage, as the train was busy. So I was into Passau just over an hour late, which entitled me to delay repay – done on the spot after a little humming and ha-ing.
The Ilztalbahn tourist service is operated by two Waldbahn Regioshuttle railcars, and there was one due around 10.50. My revised timings allowed for 2 hours delay in total, so no problem – except that it was cancelled owing to a train defect. We were told to go outside for a replacement bus – of which there was no sign. After a lot of timetable consulting, I decided there was no sensible alternative route. It was a beautiful day, so I went for a wander round Passau, which is well worth it, even if it is filled with river-cruise passengers, got myself some lunch, and finally went up the Ilztalbahn to Waldkirchen at 13.04 – a very pleasant line into the Bavarian Forest.
I had realised that I would need a taxi to the border (having missed the bus), and while I have fluent German, I struggle on the phone. The staff at Waldkirchen kindly ordered a taxi for me (which more than ate up my delay repay – holiday rates no doubt), in exchange for which I had to try and explain to two middle-aged Bavarian railwaymen why so many Brits thought leaving the EU was a good idea – they couldn’t understand it! The half-hour taxi ride dropped me just short of the border, about 100m from Nove Udoli CD; I walked past a bar formed of old goods vans and the world’s shortest international railway (you can pedal a platelayer’s trolley on it...) – part of the pre-war continuation to Waldkirchen. There was a lot of cross-border traffic, foot and cycle, as the border crossing accesses the Bohemian Forest (Sumava) National Park, but unsurprisingly very few joined the waiting 15.44 train – a class 754 “Goggles” Bo-Bo, 2 elderly double deckers and a BD (BSO in UK-speak).
It was a delightful trundle through woodland and marshland and alongside the artificial Lake Lipno (where we crossed a late-running down train at Cerna nad Posumavi (Black in the Foothills if you let Google translate) down to the tourist hotspot of Cesky Krumlov. Here we stopped for another crossing, and attached a class 810 railbus on-rear (off a school train). The line is steadily being modernised (thank you, EU) with standard height platforms, cwr and colour lights.
From Ceske Budejovice I had an hour’s run to Tabor, my overnight destination: after the class 113 station pilot (what’s one of those?) had shunted the coaches of our train, it picked up an elderly corridor second to add to the Rychlik (semi-fast) from Linz to Prague. This came in behind an OeBB 1216 electric which was exchanged for a dual-voltage Skoda class 362, the standard loco for that line. EU money is helping a substantial upgrade of the main line, and a 15 late departure from C Bud turned into a 6 late arrival at Tabor. The owner of the Pension (U Kocek) I had booked kindly met her with her Smart car – after checking in (and discovering enough food in the fridge for breakfast and lunch and then some!) I wandered up into the historic town centre for a meal. A quick check on the forum, and bed.
Friday 27 May
I couldn’t face a 5am loco-hauled round trip on the Bechyne branch (the first electric railway in CZ), so I opted for a leisurely start and then the 10.02 south to Veseli nad Luznici (362 plus 6) and picked up the cross-country Plzen-Brno service, 5 elderly corridors behind a class 242, 12 late, which pottered along (line speed limit 70km/h IIRC) to Jindrichuv Hradec. My objective was the 76cm gauge JHMD system, one of only two surviving NG passenger routes in CZ; its two branches (one going south, the other north) share the main line track out of JH, so there was no chance of missing the connection. The narrow-gauge terminus was busy, with two departures (I wasn’t alert to the photo ops) and an arrival in 10 minutes. My train to Nova Bystrice, almost on the Austrian border, was hauled by the standard Czech T47 bogie diesel, with 2 trailers and a bike van. The line meanders pleasantly south, the traffic is very seasonal (with regular steam in summer) but there was some intermediate traffic. I did the 3½ hour round trip, though it would have been much quicker to come back by bus.
Back at Jindrichuv, the 14.44 north to Obratan, was worked by one of the three weird-looking rebuilt railcars with porthole windows (all 3 are theoretically diagrammed SX, but they are notoriously unreliable), so I opted to walk into town (well worth a visit) and catch the next train – this time the T47 had just one coach. The journey to Obratan proceeded uneventfully till the last station, Cercenice, where we waited, everyone alighted – and then the driver switched off. Mildly alarmed, I looked around, and someone was heading my way to point me to the RRB outside the station. It would have been nice if the guard had told me when he checked my ticket... Fortunately, there was plenty of time to make the connection back to Tabor (a class 814 Regionova, rebuilt from a railbus and trailer, with a friendly conductor who spoke English – unusual on regional trains).
From Tabor I went straight into Prague, got a meal, and headed back to Hlavni for EN445 to Slovakia. I had booked in the through sleeper to Banska Bystrica – which turned out to be an ancient non-airconditioned car in winter sport livery. Old Eastern Bloc sleepers with real opening windows have something of a cult following, so I wasn’t totally disappointed, but at the speed this train went, the ride was dreadful, and it was a choice between sweltering and quiet or cool and noisy. It wasn’t a good night – but we’re into Slovakia now and part 2 follows.
It all started a couple of years ago when we had a family spring break to Prague and Ceske Budejovice; despite the seemingly inevitable Rail Replacement Buses we all enjoyed the rail journeys. Engineering work meant I missed out on loco haulage from Ceske Budejovice to Cesky Krumlov, and as Arriva had won the local franchise for 2017 (or not, as it turned out) I decided to have another try - a solo trip so I could do obscure lines and long days. So I found a slot in the diary over Spring Bank Holiday, and started planning. I wanted to check out possible holiday destinations, include Slovakia to get my senior citizen free pass, and incorporate an OeBB sleeper.
In the end Slovakia got most of my attention, as you will see in part 2.
To get there I decided on a return flight from Manchester to Duesseldorf with Flybe.
Duesseldorf Airport was almost deserted at 20.30, and the Skytrain monorail and an S-Bahn got me to the Hauptbahnhof for 21.00. The OeBB Sleeper to Vienna was still loading (with to large numbers of motorbikes) and eventually departed an hour late. I had plenty of time for a good meal on the station, as the CNL Munich sleeper was running 20 late from Amsterdam. The class 101 had 15 on, and most of the stock was in need of a repaint. I’d not used a Comfortline sleeper before; it was perfectly OK inside, and I slept well (though I would have preferred red wine to unchilled prosecco for a nightcap – I was travelling first, for the ensuite and other benefits).
Thursday 26 May
I woke briefly in the half-light to discover the train going very slowly – which I realise now was the Geislinger Steige beyond Stuttgart, and I assume we were being banked. Breakfast arrived at 6.30 – plenty of food, and reasonable quality, in a cardboard box, so I drank the coffee and took the food with me. The train was right time into Munich, a bonus for any sleeper service it seems!
My aim for the day (Corpus Christi, a public holiday in Roman Catholic Bavaria) was the seasonal Ilztalbahn from Passau, with its cross-border bus connection to Nove Udoli. I had fortunately rechecked the timetable and discovered that there was engineering work and SLW which would delay me by an hour. No great problem, so instead of the 7.24 to Passau I took the 7.44 Regensburg (a class 111 and 5 double-deckers, lightly loaded as it was a holiday). At Landshut I had a 30-minute wait for a connection to Platting (a pair of new class 440 emus, equally lightly loaded), and from there an ICE-T (class 411) headed to Vienna; here first class was an advantage, as the train was busy. So I was into Passau just over an hour late, which entitled me to delay repay – done on the spot after a little humming and ha-ing.
The Ilztalbahn tourist service is operated by two Waldbahn Regioshuttle railcars, and there was one due around 10.50. My revised timings allowed for 2 hours delay in total, so no problem – except that it was cancelled owing to a train defect. We were told to go outside for a replacement bus – of which there was no sign. After a lot of timetable consulting, I decided there was no sensible alternative route. It was a beautiful day, so I went for a wander round Passau, which is well worth it, even if it is filled with river-cruise passengers, got myself some lunch, and finally went up the Ilztalbahn to Waldkirchen at 13.04 – a very pleasant line into the Bavarian Forest.
I had realised that I would need a taxi to the border (having missed the bus), and while I have fluent German, I struggle on the phone. The staff at Waldkirchen kindly ordered a taxi for me (which more than ate up my delay repay – holiday rates no doubt), in exchange for which I had to try and explain to two middle-aged Bavarian railwaymen why so many Brits thought leaving the EU was a good idea – they couldn’t understand it! The half-hour taxi ride dropped me just short of the border, about 100m from Nove Udoli CD; I walked past a bar formed of old goods vans and the world’s shortest international railway (you can pedal a platelayer’s trolley on it...) – part of the pre-war continuation to Waldkirchen. There was a lot of cross-border traffic, foot and cycle, as the border crossing accesses the Bohemian Forest (Sumava) National Park, but unsurprisingly very few joined the waiting 15.44 train – a class 754 “Goggles” Bo-Bo, 2 elderly double deckers and a BD (BSO in UK-speak).
It was a delightful trundle through woodland and marshland and alongside the artificial Lake Lipno (where we crossed a late-running down train at Cerna nad Posumavi (Black in the Foothills if you let Google translate) down to the tourist hotspot of Cesky Krumlov. Here we stopped for another crossing, and attached a class 810 railbus on-rear (off a school train). The line is steadily being modernised (thank you, EU) with standard height platforms, cwr and colour lights.
From Ceske Budejovice I had an hour’s run to Tabor, my overnight destination: after the class 113 station pilot (what’s one of those?) had shunted the coaches of our train, it picked up an elderly corridor second to add to the Rychlik (semi-fast) from Linz to Prague. This came in behind an OeBB 1216 electric which was exchanged for a dual-voltage Skoda class 362, the standard loco for that line. EU money is helping a substantial upgrade of the main line, and a 15 late departure from C Bud turned into a 6 late arrival at Tabor. The owner of the Pension (U Kocek) I had booked kindly met her with her Smart car – after checking in (and discovering enough food in the fridge for breakfast and lunch and then some!) I wandered up into the historic town centre for a meal. A quick check on the forum, and bed.
Friday 27 May
I couldn’t face a 5am loco-hauled round trip on the Bechyne branch (the first electric railway in CZ), so I opted for a leisurely start and then the 10.02 south to Veseli nad Luznici (362 plus 6) and picked up the cross-country Plzen-Brno service, 5 elderly corridors behind a class 242, 12 late, which pottered along (line speed limit 70km/h IIRC) to Jindrichuv Hradec. My objective was the 76cm gauge JHMD system, one of only two surviving NG passenger routes in CZ; its two branches (one going south, the other north) share the main line track out of JH, so there was no chance of missing the connection. The narrow-gauge terminus was busy, with two departures (I wasn’t alert to the photo ops) and an arrival in 10 minutes. My train to Nova Bystrice, almost on the Austrian border, was hauled by the standard Czech T47 bogie diesel, with 2 trailers and a bike van. The line meanders pleasantly south, the traffic is very seasonal (with regular steam in summer) but there was some intermediate traffic. I did the 3½ hour round trip, though it would have been much quicker to come back by bus.
Back at Jindrichuv, the 14.44 north to Obratan, was worked by one of the three weird-looking rebuilt railcars with porthole windows (all 3 are theoretically diagrammed SX, but they are notoriously unreliable), so I opted to walk into town (well worth a visit) and catch the next train – this time the T47 had just one coach. The journey to Obratan proceeded uneventfully till the last station, Cercenice, where we waited, everyone alighted – and then the driver switched off. Mildly alarmed, I looked around, and someone was heading my way to point me to the RRB outside the station. It would have been nice if the guard had told me when he checked my ticket... Fortunately, there was plenty of time to make the connection back to Tabor (a class 814 Regionova, rebuilt from a railbus and trailer, with a friendly conductor who spoke English – unusual on regional trains).
From Tabor I went straight into Prague, got a meal, and headed back to Hlavni for EN445 to Slovakia. I had booked in the through sleeper to Banska Bystrica – which turned out to be an ancient non-airconditioned car in winter sport livery. Old Eastern Bloc sleepers with real opening windows have something of a cult following, so I wasn’t totally disappointed, but at the speed this train went, the ride was dreadful, and it was a choice between sweltering and quiet or cool and noisy. It wasn’t a good night – but we’re into Slovakia now and part 2 follows.
