Balkan states

[rvdborgt]

The day train only runs during the summer months. I took it this summer and I'll admit it was not a premium experience by any stretch of the imagination, with the train overcrowded despite being "reservations compulsory",

Only compulsory between Trakiszki and Mockava.

 

[Watershed]

Only compulsory between Trakiszki and Mockava.

I think we might be talking at cross-purposes there - are you thinking of the thread about the new Poland-Lithuania service?

 

[rvdborgt]

I think we might be talking at cross-purposes there - are you thinking of the thread about the new Poland-Lithuania service?

Oops, my bad. My thoughts were elsewhere obviously...

 

[Bungle965]

Has anyone had any recent experience with MŽ? (North Macedonia) The limited information that I can find on Facebook points towards trains being few and far between and instead of being added trains are being removed from the timetable.

 

[dutchflyer]

NO own exp recently-last visit must have been some 7-8 yrs ago, but the usually very well informed sources on the german DSO forum did confirm what you write here and painted an even worse situation: expect just 1 or 2 trains to run. There appears to be a long running deep dispute about wages and work conditions between staff and managers.
In general-though this seems sometimes hard to accept for some- this does not mean that noone can move. BUSes have since at least 2000 or even before been the main source of public transport. Often quicker, much more frequent but not cheaper as trains. These could only survive by lower fares and generous discounts to various groups. This applies to most of the Balkan countries.

 

[iknowyeah]

Does anyone have any advice on how to find out about buses in that part of the world, i.e what routes are available and what the timetables are? Train services, such as they are, are conveniently set out (at least in outline) in the European Rail Timetable, and presumably there's usually only one main train operator (two in Bosnia) per country who may have information on their website, but is there anything equivalent for buses?

I just used the Flixbus and the globtour Medjugorje Websites. They both took you to the same booking engines, these were for buses in Croatia and Bosnia. Our apartment overlooked Mostar railway station and we thought the shortcut through the station would be a good idea until we got to the platforms and realised it's locked up unless a train is due! Cue a detour through the signal box carpark and a confused looking Bosnian security guard

 

[Hoofhearted]

Do sleeper trains still run from Eastern Europe (Belgrade/Bucharest/Sofia) to Istanbul, or have they too been withdrawn?

 

[rg177]

Do sleeper trains still run from Eastern Europe (Belgrade/Bucharest/Sofia) to Istanbul, or have they too been withdrawn?

Sofia to Istanbul runs all year - through carriages from Bucharest is a Summer-only thing.

Nothing from Belgrade anymore. The only International service from Belgrade is to Bar.

 

[Watershed]

Albania does technically have a very limited passenger service operating 3 times a week on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from Elbasan to Plazh and return.

They usually also run a service once a week in the spring from Shkoder to Lac and return altho it remains to be seen whether this runs in 2024.
Unlikely to be of use to you, but having been on it myself, it certainly is a novelty, if very dilapidated, no lighting, graffitied and smashed windows, tracks that look abandoned. Ex deutsche bahn coaches from the 80s hauled by old chzech locos.Quite surreal, and very cheap, usually less than a pound for a single ticket

The train does run! I saw it a Plazh a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately not useful for where I wanted to go. 145 LEK (£1.25) for any brave enough to sample the 2h50m to Elbasan. Track laying for the new line to Tirana has commenced at Durres and reached ~1km so far.

Sampled the eastbound working today. Rudimentary would be a generous description; the first photo was taken out of what was ostensibly a closed window (it no longer had any glass )

Still, it pretty much ran on time, and it was rather entertaining sitting behind the loco blasting the horn at the many cars that ran level crossings. They - quite understandably - must have assumed that trains don't run!

 

[Gag Halfrunt]

Deutsche Welle produced a documentary about the Albania's railways in 2020 which I was going to ink to, but it is no longer available on YouTube.

New documentary: Albania's last trains

Deutsche Welle (DW) has just published a new documentary with an English narration called Albania's Last Trains. It's a rather beautiful and poignant film about the decline of the railway system there. Look out for the famous picture of the HST in the poster at Düres, and the ex-DB Regio rolling...

www.railforums.co.uk

Instead here's a video of a train ride in 2022.

 

[Richard Scott]

Sampled the eastbound working today. Rudimentary would be a generous description; the first photo was taken out of what was ostensibly a closed window (it no longer had any glass )

Still, it pretty much ran on time, and it was rather entertaining sitting behind the loco blasting the horn at the many cars that ran level crossings. They - quite understandably - must have assumed that trains don't run!

Loco same one I had, only one serviceable loco too?!!
Were the same crazy people on board?
Was raining when we did it so seats were wet as most windows had no glass or smashed glass.

 

[43094]

T669-1041 on the 1400 from Plazh today.