Post · bonfire.cafe

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Welcome to today's thread - #CrossBorderRail 2026 Tour Day 05 - 20 Feb - Genève - Coppet - Divonne - Crassier - Nyon - Paris

New borders:
Crassier-La Rippe 🇨🇭 - Divonne-les-Bains 🇫🇷

Borders already crossed:
Russin 🇨🇭 - Pougny-Chancy 🇫🇷

A former cross border railway line at Divonne les Bains – and oddly it looks to be more intact in France than in Switzerland. I wonder if there is any way to re-activate it? Then back to Paris on a Lyria.

Today's routes on the routes map:
https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-2026-spring-tour_1361108#8/47.489406/4.305239

uMap

#CrossBorderRail 2026 Spring Tour

Tours in Spring 2026. Each day of the project is a Layer in the map - these should be displayed by default, or if not click the three layered diamonds icon "Open browser" to the left side of the map. The icons are all for borders, roughly coloured to differentiate the borders. A cross through a track means NO TRAINS CAN RUN. A cross through trains but not track means TRAINS CAN RUN BUT NO PASSENGER TRAINS. And TRAIN AND TRACK (no crosses) means there is a passenger service.

Jon Worth

@jon@gruene.social · last week

Today’s #CrossBorderRail I’m doing the opposite way to how I first planned it. Nyon - Divonne - Coppet. The data and mapping will have to wait!

Jon Worth

@jon@gruene.social · last week

Damn this exceptionalism in France

“"C'est unique au monde, nous sommes les seuls à pouvoir le faire": comment la SNCF prolonge la vie de ses TGV afin de répondre au besoin croissant de trains”

Errr EVERY railway does this to some extent!

https://www.bfmtv.com/economie/entreprises/industries/c-est-unique-au-monde-nous-sommes-les-seuls-a-pouvoir-le-faire-comment-la-sncf-prolonge-la-vie-de-ses-tgv-afin-de-repondre-au-besoin-croissant-de-trains_AV-202602200066.html

BFM BUSINESS

"C'est unique au monde, nous sommes les seuls à pouvoir le faire": comment la SNCF prolonge la vie de ses TGV afin de répondre au besoin croissant de trains

BFM Business a eu l'occasion de visiter le technicentre du Landy, près de Paris, où des TGV en fin de vie, normalement voués à la casse, sont remis à niveau pour être utilisés encore plusieurs années en toute sécurité. Globalement, la compagnie va prolonger la vie de 104 rames, pour 600 millions...

Olivier Roux (moose)

@otolithe@mastodon.social · last week

@jon @cstross yes, but we do it while smoking Gitanes and drinking wine, it makes all the difference 😅. Also, we French kiss our trains.

Charlie Stross

@cstross@wandering.shop · last week

@otolithe @jon I like TGVs (when they're running on time and the ticketing works) but I couldn't eat a whole one!

Olivier Roux (moose)

@otolithe@mastodon.social · last week

@cstross @jon it’s true that they look like giant baguettes… and they’re full of meat 😆

Charlie Stross

@cstross@wandering.shop · last week

@jon Meanwhile, in Scotland:

An HST (InterCity 125) in modern ScotRail livery, still in service in the Highlands for non-electrified routes. Manufactured 1975-82, so up to 51 years old …

acb

@acb@mastodon.social · last week

@cstross @jon I’ll be catching one of those (well, a cousin) in Australia in a couple of months. Given that Australia’s national motto is “she’ll be right, mate”, I doubt anyone I know will live to see the Melbourne-Sydney line electrified, or even brought up to 1970s British Rail average speed.