It's a go! Two days of #CrossBorderRail (and a little sea): Messina - Villa San Giovanni - Milan - Paris - Brussels. Extreme business travel, really (about 2,500 kms), but this is where we are now with the #ClimateEmergency .
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A perk of slower travel and #CrossBorderRail is looking up friends and re-exploring cities that used to be familiar. In these past few years, #Milan managed to pedestrianize Via Paolo Sarpi, the beating heart of the city's Chinatown. It's really flourishing now! Today I continue on to Paris and then Brussels.
The lack of passengers' rights for rail travellers rears its ugly head on day 2 of 2 of my current #CrossBorderRail journey. I boarded the TGV InOui 9246 in Milan at 12.10, and it is currently running with an 80 minutes delay. I rescheduled my trip by Eurostar from Paris to Brussels to accommodate the delay, but it was a one-off: if I miss this connection, there are no later Eurostars, and I'll have to sleep in Paris and fend for myself. Hopefully @EUCommission comes through with this file.
And indeed, with the TGV INOUI's delay at 110 minutes and counting, I am officially stranded in France for the night, with no passenger's right to invoke since my ongoing journey would have been with a different carrier.
New plan: got off the TV at Mâcon TGV, then I will hopefully reach Lyon, overnight in a hostel there and catch an early TGV to Brussels tomorrow. Ironically, TGV stranded me and I am paying it, instead of it paying me.
@alberto_cottica @EUCommission
If it wasn’t that late (for French train travel) you could have taken the TER to Nuits-sous-Ravières and stayed with us for the night. But the last direct train from Lyon is long gone :-/.
Hope it is not too expensive and complicated.
@samy wow, that is very sweet, thank you so much! Nah, I'll live. It's not my first rodeo, it's not even the first time THIS YEAR that SNCF leaves me stranded. But I believe #CrossBorderRail is the way to go, and I trust the @EUCommission to come through.
Wrapping up day one of two of #CrossBorderRail in Milan with minimal disruption. Good job ItaloTreno.