Most Interesting Border crossed by Train (Land)

[parkender102]

For me the Russia - China Border in 1989. Took the Trans Manchurian Train 20 from Moscow to Beijing (Russian Train). On the 4th or 5th day we crossed this Border at Zabaikalsk / Manzhouli. I remember Chinese Guards (Armed) in the darkness outside the train in the no mans land between the 2 Countries. The Train was full of Chinese Students etc returning home. The atmosphere was joyous once we crossed into China and the Chinese Dining Car was attached to replace the Russian one. Souvenir postcards were purchased in the station and we watched as the Bogies were changed from Russian to Chinese Gauge. Then the party started! The Russian Dining Car didn't sell Alcohol due to drunkenness (although you were allowed to consume your own bizarrely). The Chinese Dining Car sold Bottles of Brandy etc.

 

[StephenHunter]

Austria-Slovakia for me via Marchegg when the line was still diesel loco-hauled. Nothing like a certain Bond movie (it's very flat), but when we entered Slovakia, some guy was casually walking along the other track without a hi-vis on. I am not sure if he was a worker, but I somehow doubt it.

 

[MarcVD]

I crossed à lot of them. The most interesting one was the border between Burgaria and Greece. Stopped at the Bulgarian border station of Kulata, where the 25 kV catenary ends, to replace the Bulgarian electric loco by a Greek diesel one, and remove the Bulgarian cars that did not travel further. That took some 40 minutes that I used to wander around the station and take pictures, getting suspicious looks along the way. And then the cross border section, between Kulata and the Greek abandoned station of Promachonas. The real border is following the river Pirinska Bistritza, that the railway crosses on a small bridge. On each side of the bridge, a gatehouse, painted in the respective national colors, not manned anymore, but still standing. And in the middle of said bridge, several spotlights, to examine the underframe of the train carriages, still brightly lit, as if we were still crossing the iron curtain. Really felt like a travel back in time... Sadly there are no passenger trains crossing this border anymore.

 

[nwales58]

Monaco - entirely in tunnel from one border to the other. Unique.

Brenner - ever since the border moved to accommodate the shopping centre car park it runs between the tracks for a few hundred metres. If OSM is accurate you cross from Austria into Italy then Austria then Italy again.

Biggest impression, as a child, was Oebisfelde. Train stops in a compound with very high barbed wire fences and gates across the track shut behind us.

 

[The exile]

My memory of crossing the inner-German frontier in 1989 is sketchy - so first place has to go to crossing the Hungarian/Romanian border at Valea lui Mihai on the diverted “Corona” almost exactly 9 years ago. I was the sole sleeper passenger and had dutifully surrendered my passport to the attendant. The Hungarian side of the branch from Debrecen was bucolic on a beautiful spring evening - by the time we reached VLM the light was almost gone and it was like stepping back 20-30 years. Only sounds were the wheeltapper, a couple of burbling locos and what seemed like scores of dogs. Attendant disappears off to customs post in the station clutching my passport and comes back almost immediately without it. After loco change etc we set off again and I realise I haven’t seen anyone bring my passport back from the station. A worried night ensued - much relief in the morning when there’s a tap on the door just before Brasov and the attendant is standing there clutching the vital document.
I’ve also crossed the DE/NL border by falling off my bicycle, but that’s another story.

 

[Cross City]

At the Serbian/Bulgarian border just south of Demitrovgrad in late late 2000s as a part of my overland journey from Birmingham to Fethiye in Turkey.

An older Bulgarian couple got on the train at Nis and proceeded to unscrew the ceiling panels in our compartment and stuff 1000s of cigarettes into the roof. The woman in the couple clocked me looking at them and just said "It's business" with a wry smile and her strangely attractive eastern European James Bond villainesque accent.

Predictably, at the border crossing the passport inspectors and the customs agents ripped the carriage apart and questioned everybody (bordering on) unreasonably thoroughly. Obviously they found nothing as it was all for show because no doubt they were in on the act, and they questioned me whether I was bringing anything into Bulgaria I shouldn't be a firm "no sir" seemingly was enough for them.

Having been an easily led university student and therefore a smoker at the time I can confirm that cigarettes in Serbia were incredibly inexpensive. I was almost cheaper to be a smoker than to not be . I had lunch in (the now sadly gone) delightful Belgrade station with a few beers and a 20 pack of cigarettes for less than £5.

Must've been a lucrative business for the Bulgarian couple even with paying bungs to the border guards.

 

[jamesontheroad]

I crossed à lot of them. The most interesting one was the border between Burgaria and Greece. Stopped at the Bulgarian border station of Kulata, where the 25 kV catenary ends, to replace the Bulgarian electric loco by a Greek diesel one, and remove the Bulgarian cars that did not travel further. That took some 40 minutes that I used to wander around the station and take pictures, getting suspicious looks along the way. And then the cross border section, between Kulata and the Greek abandoned station of Promachonas. The real border is following the river Pirinska Bistritza, that the railway crosses on a small bridge. On each side of the bridge, a gatehouse, painted in the respective national colors, not manned anymore, but still standing. And in the middle of said bridge, several spotlights, to examine the underframe of the train carriages, still brightly lit, as if we were still crossing the iron curtain. Really felt like a travel back in time... Sadly there are no passenger trains crossing this border anymore.

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 and food downstairs in the casino). Woke early, walked across the border and took a taxi to Strymon for the morning train to Thessaloniki.

 

[CW2]

A couple of Polish "Corridor" routes for me:

Firstly, in the far south-east of Poland when I was bashing steam back in the 1980s, there used to be a daily return steam-hauled mixed train between Przemysl and Zagorz, transiting through what is now Ukraine. Apart from the inherent interest of it being a mixed train, it also featured Soviet soldiers joining the train at Malhowice and clinging to the outside of the coaches and goods wagons for the transit part of the journey via Chirov. A couple of Ty2 2-10-0s, corridor coaches, and a bunch of freight wagons, on a mixed-gauge railway, with a load of armed soldiers in Arctic gear and goggles clinging to the outside. Very entertaining. The "San" dated train also ran that way, but without the goods vehicles.

Secondly, the German / Polish border. Trains running from Gorlitz to Zittau pass into Poland along the eastern side of the River Neisse. In Poland the track was shared by the German trains using it as a corridor route and by Polish trains running to / from Bogatynia, a town in the far south eastern corner of Poland, neighbouring both Germany (or the DDR as was then) and the Czech Republic (or Czechoslovakia). There was (and still is) an intermediate station at Krzewina Zgorzelecka, served by both German and Polish trains. The German trains called there to serve the village of Ostritz, which is on the western bank of the Neisse. A German border guard would meet every German train and escort German passengers to the footbridge across the river. Of course, it was possible to beat the system. I once alighted at Krzewina Zgorzelecka from a Polish train, and caught a German train to Zittau, thus totally evading the border controls. Having done that, on a subsequent visit I decided to see if it worked just as well in the other direction, so I alighted from a German train and boarded a Polish one to Wegliniec with again no problems. I did get one or two odd looks on my way out of Poland when they couldn't locate the entry stamp in my passport!

 

[mugam4]

Woke early, walked across the border and took a taxi to Strymon for the morning train to Thessaloniki.

How easy was it acquiring the taxi from the Greek side?

 

[Watershed]

How easy was it acquiring the taxi from the Greek side?

I did the same thing a few years ago in the northbound direction. I prebooked a taxi by phone with the help of the reception staff at my hotel in Thessaloniki. Not much English was spoken by the locals.

IIRC there were some taxis hanging around the Greek side of the border.

 

[duesselmartin]

in 2000 on the Polish/Slovak border. POSB service from Krakow to Budapest.
the usual loco change, Polish dining car was shunted out of the middle of the train. Slovak-Hungarian border: Dining car was shunted into the middle of the train.

 

[rvdborgt]

Secondly, the German / Polish border. Trains running from Gorlitz to Zittau pass into Poland along the eastern side of the River Neisse. In Poland the track was shared by the German trains using it as a corridor route and by Polish trains running to / from Bogatynia, a town in the far south eastern corner of Poland, neighbouring both Germany (or the DDR as was then) and the Czech Republic (or Czechoslovakia). There was (and still is) an intermediate station at Krzewina Zgorzelecka, served by both German and Polish trains. The German trains called there to serve the village of Ostritz, which is on the western bank of the Neisse. A German border guard would meet every German train and escort German passengers to the footbridge across the river. Of course, it was possible to beat the system. I once alighted at Krzewina Zgorzelecka from a Polish train, and caught a German train to Zittau, thus totally evading the border controls. Having done that, on a subsequent visit I decided to see if it worked just as well in the other direction, so I alighted from a German train and boarded a Polish one to Wegliniec with again no problems. I did get one or two odd looks on my way out of Poland when they couldn't locate the entry stamp in my passport!

Friends of mine once tried this (German train -> Polish train) to catch the evening train to Bogatynia, but were sent back to Germany by the German border guard because the border was closed (it was only open during the day). Next time they tried this, they made sure to arrive in Krzewina Zgorzelecka while the border was open and that worked. Both attempts were after the German reunification.

 

[Geswedey]

Zimbabwe - Zambia both on steam hauled specials and Normal service train over the Victoria Falls bridge.

 

[jamesontheroad]

How easy was it acquiring the taxi from the Greek side?

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).

 

[route101]

At the Serbian/Bulgarian border just south of Demitrovgrad in late late 2000s as a part of my overland journey from Birmingham to Fethiye in Turkey.

An older Bulgarian could got on the train at Nis and proceeded to unscrew the ceiling panels in our compartment and stuff 1000s of cigarettes into the roof. The woman in the couple clocked me looking at them and just said "It's business" with a wry smile and her strangely attractive eastern European James Bond villainesque accent.

Predictably, at the border crossing the passport inspectors and the customs agents ripped the carriage apart and questioned everybody (bordering on) unreasonably thoroughly. Obviously they found nothing as it was all for show because no doubt they were in on the act, and they questioned me whether I was bringing anything into Bulgaria I shouldn't be a firm "no sir" seemingly was enough for them.

Having been an easily led university student and therefore a smoker at the time I can confirm that cigarettes in Serbia were incredibly inexpensive. I was almost cheaper to be a smoker than to not be . I had lunch in (the now sadly gone) delightful Belgrade station with a few beers and a 20 pack of cigarettes for less than £5.

Must've been a lucrative business for the Bulgarian couple even with paying bungs to the border guards.

Had the same experience with border guards taking apart the train looking for cigs. I think a 20 pack of cigs was around 50p.

 

[Gag Halfrunt]

Firstly, in the far south-east of Poland when I was bashing steam back in the 1980s, there used to be a daily return steam-hauled mixed train between Przemysl and Zagorz, transiting through what is now Ukraine.

Polish trains continued to operate over that route until 1994. Work started in 2022 to reinstate the connection between Przemysl and Khyriv (Chirov).

Work Continues On Restoration Of Khyriv-Przemysl Railway Link On Polish Border

An automobile checkpoint is also expected to begin operation there next year.

en.cfts.org.ua

Trains between Sanok and Khyriv ran until 2010.

SKPL Cargo Ready To Launch Train Services From Sanok To Polish Border Town Of Kroscienko And Ukraine’s Khyriv

Regional trains from Sanok to Khyriv last operated in 2010.

en.cfts.org.ua

 

[Bemined]

From a legal point of view the line from Schaffhausen to Zürich is interesting as well as that line crosses into Germany for a few kilometres only to cross back into Switzerland. Through trains technically enter the EU customs area here for a few kilometres.

 

[Railsigns]

At the Serbian/Bulgarian border just south of Demitrovgrad in late late 2000s as a part of my overland journey from Birmingham to Fethiye in Turkey.

An older Bulgarian could got on the train at Nis and proceeded to unscrew the ceiling panels in our compartment and stuff 1000s of cigarettes into the roof. The woman in the couple clocked me looking at them and just said "It's business" with a wry smile and her strangely attractive eastern European James Bond villainesque accent.

Yep, I did that border crossing in 2008.

I didn't see the contraband being stuffed into the roof of our train, but I remember watching while the border guards removed it all and piled it up on the platform.

 

[endecotp]

Canada to the US, on the Toronto to Chicago train, about 20 years ago.

The train stopped somewhere and border officials got on. We were all moved into the back half of the train and told to make our ways forward through the makeshift border control in the buffet and take new seats at the front.

The passport checks were rudimentary but three of us were asked to get off onto the platform: me, an American woman who had lost her passport while she was in Canada, and a US citizen whose name happened to be Mohamed.

We went into a room where a guy took our passports and tediously read out the details into a phone (well, except the woman who didn’t have one - I’m not sure what happened to her, I think she was sent straight back to the train). We sat waiting. Time passed. After about an hour, Mohammed asked if maybe the guy should phone up again and ask what the delay was. He got shouted at - SIR ARE YOU TELLING ME HOW TO DO MY JOB?. We sat meekly for a while longer. The guy picked up the phone and called again. We could hear both sides of the conversation: “Hey, sorry we couldn’t find your phone number, you should have called us back sooner! What, the train is still waiting? No, no problems with the alien or the immigrant.” So we got back on the train, and got a round of applause from the other passengers.

 

[jamesontheroad]

Canada to the US, on the Toronto to Chicago train, about 20 years ago.

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 Vancouver's Pacific Central Station. US-bound passengers pre-clear customs and immigration before boarding the train. Canada-bound passengers do it on arrival. The platform is fenced off. This is easily the smoothest and most passenger-friendly of the three current trains.

The International (Chicago, IL - Port Huron, MI - Sarnia, ON - Toronto, ON) that @endecotp refers to ran from c. 1982 to c. 2004, and the border controls took place on board. Today Amtrak and VIA Rail both have domestic trains on their portion of the route. It's difficult but not impossible to the Blue Water to Port Huron, stay in a hotel and then get a taxi over to Sarnia for the morning train. Miles in Transit did it recently.

The Maple Leaf (New York, NY - Toronto, ON) is different from the Cascades and Adirondack in that Amtrak and VIA Rail share operation. It's an Amtrak train (with Amtrak staff and products in the café car, for example) in the USA and a VIA Rail train in Canada. It also makes additional stops between the border and Toronto. I haven't take it in almost 20 years, but my recollection from recent reports is that border controls are handled in the stations on either side of the border, so you need to detrain and bring luggage with you. (That may be incorrect - I welcome updates).

The Adirondack (New York, NY - Montréal, QC) is more like the Cascades, in that it only makes one terminal stop in Canada. A juxtaposed customs and immigration facility on one of the underground platforms at Montréal Gare Centrale has been planned for years, but it still has not been inaugurated. Southbound, the train stops for a long time in Rouses Point, NY, during which time passengers must remain seated and not move about the train or use the toilet. Border control goes from one end of the train to the other and passengers who require additional processing or removal are taken to the café car. Northbound, the Canadian authorities drive over from the nearest border post and similarly check the train at an unmarked flag spot adjacent to a level crossing.

My first trip to the USA was by train, from Montréal in 2004. At that time, with a British passport, I was sent from my seat to the café car to pay the < $20 fee for a visa waiver. US dollars only, no change.

 

[gordonthemoron]

1986 Hoek van Holland to Berlin, crossed the DDR border at Helmsted, east of Braunschweig, DDR border guards stripped the sides off the compartments to check for contraband/stowaways, then locked the doors and rode with us until the Berlin border at Wannsee. I don’t remember much about the outbound night train from Berlin to Munich, apart from passport control at the West German border

 

[AdamWW]

The Maple Leaf (New York, NY - Toronto, ON) is different from the Cascades and Adirondack in that Amtrak and VIA Rail share operation. It's an Amtrak train (with Amtrak staff and products in the café car, for example) in the USA and a VIA Rail train in Canada. It also makes additional stops between the border and Toronto. I haven't take it in almost 20 years, but my recollection from recent reports is that border controls are handled in the stations on either side of the border, so you need to detrain and bring luggage with you. (That may be incorrect - I welcome updates).

Certainly how it seemed to work a couple of years ago.

Northbound, everybody off at Niagara Falls to be processed in the open air on the platform, then crammed into a waiting room that presumably wasn't designed for an entire trainload of passengers, to ultimately be let back onto the platform with tickets checked again at the exit doors from the waiting room.

On the plus side, if starting at Niagara it means a good chance at a decent seat if you can manage to be near the start of the scrum to get on.

Essentially you change trains there, it's just that both trains use the same rolling stock.

Even back in the days when you stayed on the train, you got two tickets - one for Amtrak and one for VIA.

 

[Calthrop]

A couple of Polish "Corridor" routes for me:

Firstly, in the far south-east of Poland when I was bashing steam back in the 1980s, there used to be a daily return steam-hauled mixed train between Przemysl and Zagorz, transiting through what is now Ukraine. Apart from the inherent interest of it being a mixed train, it also featured Soviet soldiers joining the train at Malhowice and clinging to the outside of the coaches and goods wagons for the transit part of the journey via Chirov. A couple of Ty2 2-10-0s, corridor coaches, and a bunch of freight wagons, on a mixed-gauge railway, with a load of armed soldiers in Arctic gear and goggles clinging to the outside. Very entertaining. The "San" dated train also ran that way, but without the goods vehicles.

I also did this run in that period, in 1984. Took the mixed train in the Zagorz -- Przemysl direction (d. Zagorz 0632). Hauled indeed, by a Ty2 "Kriegslok" 2-10-0. Despite the ugly and sinister aspects, this journey struck me as a basically cheery happening: it was a glorious summer day, and per what I sensed, or thought I did -- the then "troubles" in the Soviet bloc, notwithstanding -- all concerned, both Polish and Soviet, were feeling like "chilling" and behaving in a friendly fashion. The military-type guys -- frontier guards, or whatever -- accompanying the train through Soviet territory: looked to me, many of them, about twelve years old, and not the slightest bit menacing; found self hoping that they would play nicely together, and take fair turns as regards riding on the loco footplate...

The main settlement on the Ukraine "leg" -- Chirov / Chyrow / Khyriv / whatever-the-heck -- was back then, of interest to railway enthusiasts: as of 1980s, everyday steam on the Soviet Railways was very much on the way out, but not completely finished: still active then around Chirov -- "transit" passengers might, if lucky, witness it in action thereabouts. I didn't have that good luck: passing through Chirov station, there was out in the open on a siding, a specimen of the Soviet version of the "Kriegslok" 2-10-0: class TE (can't do the Cyrillic) -- in good condition, but not in steam. Also within a small shed, visible through windows thereof, another loco -- steam, but otherwise unidentifiable. The journey was on a Sunday: maybe less hopeful for general "action" -- wouldn't know, though, how much import that stuff would have in the officially atheist Soviet Union.

 

[route101]

Certainly how it seemed to work a couple of years ago.

Northbound, everybody off at Niagara Falls to be processed in the open air on the platform, then crammed into a waiting room that presumably wasn't designed for an entire trainload of passengers, to ultimately be let back onto the platform with tickets checked again at the exit doors from the waiting room.

On the plus side, if starting at Niagara it means a good chance at a decent seat if you can manage to be near the start of the scrum to get on.

Essentially you change trains there, it's just that both trains use the same rolling stock.

Even back in the days when you stayed on the train, you got two tickets - one for Amtrak and one for VIA.

We remained onboard northbound on the Maple Leaf. Passport stamped for Canada, which I don't think still happens?

 

[sh24]

North Korea into China at Sinuiju/Dandong. Intense North Korean exit customs inspections, then rumbling across the Yalu river to the glittering lights of China. Stark contrast.

 

[DanielB]

From a legal point of view the line from Schaffhausen to Zürich is interesting as well as that line crosses into Germany for a few kilometres only to cross back into Switzerland. Through trains technically enter the EU customs area here for a few kilometres.

That area is also interesting when it comes to stations: Lottstetten and Jestetten are German towns, but the stations are completely Swiss in appearance. And it's also impossible to get anywhere by train from those stations without entering Switzerland.
In contrast: the stations Neuhausen Bad Bf, Beringerfeld, Beringen Bad Bf, Neunkirch, Wilchingen Hallau and Trasadingen are located in Switzerland but completely German in appearance though only Swiss trains stop there.

The whole area has more quirks. In Konstanz for example the station is in Germany but the sidings are in Switzerland.

 

[The exile]

A couple of Polish "Corridor" routes for me:

Firstly, in the far south-east of Poland when I was bashing steam back in the 1980s, there used to be a daily return steam-hauled mixed train between Przemysl and Zagorz, transiting through what is now Ukraine. Apart from the inherent interest of it being a mixed train, it also featured Soviet soldiers joining the train at Malhowice and clinging to the outside of the coaches and goods wagons for the transit part of the journey via Chirov. A couple of Ty2 2-10-0s, corridor coaches, and a bunch of freight wagons, on a mixed-gauge railway, with a load of armed soldiers in Arctic gear and goggles clinging to the outside. Very entertaining. The "San" dated train also ran that way, but without the goods vehicles.

Secondly, the German / Polish border. Trains running from Gorlitz to Zittau pass into Poland along the eastern side of the River Neisse. In Poland the track was shared by the German trains using it as a corridor route and by Polish trains running to / from Bogatynia, a town in the far south eastern corner of Poland, neighbouring both Germany (or the DDR as was then) and the Czech Republic (or Czechoslovakia). There was (and still is) an intermediate station at Krzewina Zgorzelecka, served by both German and Polish trains. The German trains called there to serve the village of Ostritz, which is on the western bank of the Neisse. A German border guard would meet every German train and escort German passengers to the footbridge across the river. Of course, it was possible to beat the system. I once alighted at Krzewina Zgorzelecka from a Polish train, and caught a German train to Zittau, thus totally evading the border controls. Having done that, on a subsequent visit I decided to see if it worked just as well in the other direction, so I alighted from a German train and boarded a Polish one to Wegliniec with again no problems. I did get one or two odd looks on my way out of Poland when they couldn't locate the entry stamp in my passport!

No longer possible as Krzewina Zgorzelecka is no longer served by Polish trains.

 

[Route115?]

Basel Bad is in Switzerland but operated by DB and German in appearance. It used to be that you could travel from Basel SBB to Basel Bad on an SBB train and have to walk through customs (although it was never staffed in my experience). Back in the day immigration checks were done between Basel Bad & Freiburg.

 

[railfan99]

For me the Russia - China Border in 1989. Took the Trans Manchurian Train 20 from Moscow to Beijing (Russian Train). On the 4th or 5th day we crossed this Border at Zabaikalsk / Manzhouli.

I did this in the reverse direction (i.e. mainland China to Russia) in 2011.

The border crosing took hours: about five.

A group of us walked to a Russian restaurant. Predictably, the menu was notable more for items 'not available' than stocked.

Another interesting border crossing was on the train ex Sirkecki station in Istanbul in 2007: out at about 0400 hours onto a chilly Kapikule platform, although it was quite efficient. There weren't many passengers.

 

[BruceTee]

This sole carriage was our "cross border" train from Istanbul to Thessaloniki in 1987. My memories are a bit vague, but we certainly began the journey hooked up to a Turkish Express going somewhere in the general direction of northern Greece. When we awoke next morning this is what our "train" looked like. After some passports checks, we were some time later hitched to a Greek train and completed rest of journey. Sadly, I don't have any real idea of where was. No services run that way nowadays.