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Liechtenstein: one whole month without any trains

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Adlington

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Liechtenstein is probably the only country in the world which temporarily closed down its entire rail network. All 35,000 Liechtensteiners are having a train-free month of June.

There is only one railway which crosses Liechtenstein. It is the line which links Feldkirch (in the Vorarlberg district of Austria) with Buchs (in the Rhine Valley in eastern Switzerland). That might sound as though it's no more than a quaint Alpine branch line, but the reality is that this is the principal east-west route through the Alps. The sleek red Railjets which dash from Vienna to Zürich come this way. Sit on a summer evening by that railway which cuts through Liechtenstein and you'll probably see Czech, Croatian, Slovenian and Hungarian carriages on overnight trains heading east.

But not this month. For the Austrian rail infrastructure company (which looks after the tracks in Liechtenstein) has decided to have a summer festival of track renewal. The line through Liechtenstein is closed until Monday 3 July.

To clarify: the cross-Liechtenstein line is 9.5 km long.

Full story (Hidden Europe)
 
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Gordon

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Not a fan of this type of journalism.

The line is not owned by Leichstenstein and has little relevance to the 'country'. It is not a 'national rail network' so the supposed joke falls a bit flat on me.

just a purely personal opinion

.
 
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Adlington

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The line [...] has little relevance to the 'country'.
From the original article:
On Mondays to Fridays there are normally nine local trains between Feldkirch and Buchs, and nine in the return direction, all serving a handful of local stations on Liechtenstein territory.
"a handful" means actually 4. Not bad for an under 10 kilometre stretch of line (ok, not exactly a network...).
 

rf_ioliver

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If we're playing that game, Mum might have gone to Iceland, as the advert goes, but she definitely didn't go by train!

Maybe your great-great-grandmother went by train? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_Iceland and possibly the in future your children...

I think the only European countries without rail ever were Andorra and Faroe Islands (and Greenland) depending upon your definitions of country/sovereignty

t.

Ian
 

Groningen

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Schaan-Vaduz has shortly after 9 hours a train to Buchs, than 12.37 to Feldkirch and than wait untill it is past 16 hours to Buchs and Feldkirch. Bucha is on a walking distance (2 kilometers) and Feldkirch has a bus connection (line 11 and 14; each 1 time an hour).
 

Calthrop

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Not a fan of this type of journalism.

The line is not owned by Leichstenstein and has little relevance to the 'country'. It is not a 'national rail network' so the supposed joke falls a bit flat on me.

just a purely personal opinion

.

Bryan Morgan's The End of the Line (a work which I am perhaps over-fond of citing) mentions in this connection -- in the course of observing that Europe's "micro-states" have always been a bit disappointing railway-wise: "Liechtenstein happens to have the Arlberg route running through it, but has never troubled to build a spur to Vaduz."

A pity: such a line, though short -- the putative Liechtenstein State? Princely? Railway -- could have been a delight: preferably narrow-gauge, and, one hopes, having had the good luck to survive till the present day.
 

Groningen

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They have avoided the busreplacement if they detoured the train over Sankt Margrethen.
 

Howardh

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Isn't Monaco connected to Nice by rail, and if so, is Monaco the terminus or are there through routes?
As for other micro-states with railways...the Vatican?

Wonder what the largest country is without any kind of passenger or freight rail (standard gauge or similar)...and the largest country without any rail track whatsoever?
 
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U-Bahnfreund

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Isn't Monaco connected to Nice by rail, and if so, is Monaco the terminus or are there through routes?
As for other micro-states with railways...the Vatican?

Wonder what the largest country is without any kind of passenger or freight rail (standard gauge or similar)...and the largest country without any rail track whatsoever?

The Vatican City has a spur from Roma San Pietro station, but it's not in regular passenger use.

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_transport_network_size and some own research, these are the countries not to have railways, listed by size:

1. Libya (had in the past)
2. Niger (under construction?)
3. Somalia (had in the past)
4. Yemen (had in the past, thanks to Calthrop)
5. Papua New Guinea (had in the past)
6. Oman
7. Suriname (166 km not in use)
8. Iceland (had in the past)
9. Guinea-Bissau
10. Soloman Islands
11. Rwanda (had in the past / under construction?)
12. Kuwait
13. East Timor
14. Vanuatu (had in the past)
15. Qatar
16. Cyprus (had in the past)
17. Trinidad & Tobago (had in the past)
18. Mauritius (had in the past)
19. Comores (had in the past)
20. Tonga (had in the past)
21. Micronesia
22. Andorra
23. Malta (had in the past)
23.5. Macau (to China)
24. Marshall Islands
25. San Marino (had in the past)
26. Tuvalu
 
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Calthrop

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Yemen (no. 4 on U-Bahnfreund's list), could be claimed to (just) qualify as "once railwayed". Since 1990, former North Yemen (capital Sana'a) and South Yemen (once the British territory of Aden) have been merged as one and the same nation of Yemen. Aden under British rule had for an ephemerally short time (1922 - 29), a metre-gauge public rail line running some 50 km. from Aden city to El Khudad. As said -- making the list only by a hair's breadth !
 

MarcVD

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Afghanistan has a couple of short spurs for traffic from Uzbekistan, less than 100km total.

One from Uzbekistan and one from Turkménistan. Plus one under construction from Iran.

Envoyé de mon GT-I9505 en utilisant Tapatalk
 
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gazthomas

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Isn't Monaco connected to Nice by rail, and if so, is Monaco the terminus or are there through routes?
As for other micro-states with railways...the Vatican?

Wonder what the largest country is without any kind of passenger or freight rail (standard gauge or similar)...and the largest country without any rail track whatsoever?

A through route to, I think Ventimiglia just across the Italian border
 

Howardh

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I'm surprised by that as Greenland has left the EU but Denmark hasn't, but wiki confirms it's still part of Denmark

Similar to the Isle of Man (and Channel isles) as I don't think they are part of the EU. The IoM didn't have a referendum vote.

I suppose, technically, one day they could vote in!

EDIT
The Bailiwick of Jersey and Bailiwick of Guernsey—which form the Channel Islands—are Crown dependencies, under the sovereignty of the British monarch. The islands take part in the EU freedom of movement of goods but not labour, services or capital. They are outside the VAT area, but inside the customs union.
so if they can have that situation with the EU, why can't Britain as a whole?
 
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Gordon

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Isn't Monaco connected to Nice by rail, and if so, is Monaco the terminus or are there through routes?

Monaco's station, called Monaco-Monte Carlo is a through station on the Cote d'Azur coastal line (famous for the Blue Train, Mistral etc) Marseille - Cannes - Nice - Monaco - Menton - (Ventimiglia - Genova (I))

The railway has been rerouted twice since the first station in Monaco opened in the 1860s


.
 

Gordon

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Well, Greenland is part of Denmark, and Denmark has railways.

This is one of the conundrums of this type of discussion: does one classify by geographical land mass, or political 'ownership'.

Brings to mind one of my personal rail travel conundrums: I travelled by train through the Soviet Union, but have never been to Russia.

Maybe someone would like to guess how I did that?


.
 

Calthrop

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This is one of the conundrums of this type of discussion: does one classify by geographical land mass, or political 'ownership'.

Brings to mind one of my personal rail travel conundrums: I travelled by train through the Soviet Union, but have never been to Russia.

Maybe someone would like to guess how I did that?
.

The same way that I did – Polish State Railways “corridor“ train between Zagórz and Przemyśl through a corner of the Ukraine, in times past when such workings used to run?
 

johnnychips

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Surely if you travelled in Lithuania, Latvia etc. prior to the disbanding of the USSR you have travelled in the Soviet Union, but not Russia.
 
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