OM the Rails 🇵🇸

NEW VIDEO! A ride on Europe’s strangest train, the Dutch Koploper!

Link: youtube.com/watch?v=5ima...

📍 Newcastle

A quick stop here to check out the old and new on the Tyne & Wear Metro…

Now it’s time to head home.

A few photos from the open day today at Newton Aycliffe - many thanks to Hitachi Rail for organising a great day out. Was also great to meet up with @coastwaywill.me again as well as meet the @ukrailadventure.bsky.social duo for the first time!

📍 Darlington

Made it bang on time - now off to my next destination, which involves a hell of a lot more variations of these… 😬

📍 York

Final leg for this morning’s outbound is an Azuma further north - would seem LNER have FINALLY listened to the passenger and introduced softer headrests in first class, they are a bit big though… 😅

You just missed me, ended up on the 180 to York 😅

📍 London King’s Cross

Haven’t travelled with Grand Central in a while and tbh I much prefer a 180 over an Azuma by a longshot comfort wise. Shame the catering side is lacking though!

Kind of bittersweet these are now gone - on the one hand, Benelux and ICD services have seen significant improvements with the ICNGs but on the other hand, the TRAXX ICRm sets were true icons that will no doubt be missed in Belgium and the Netherlands…

Eurostar/Ouigo to Brussels, where the Nightjet still runs to Vienna and European Sleeper runs to Berlin en route to Prague

*Sigh*

At this stage, SNCF may as well exist solely to discourage people from rail travel 🙃

📍 St Pancras International

And thus another Euroventure comes to an end - quite pleased to have gotten the main objectives of this trip done 😁

Now off for a month before an exciting trip to new horizons begins… 👀

Weirdly enough, I just saw one of the Siemens Velaro MS units destined for work in Egypt stabled at Brussels’ Vorst depot!

Anyone know why?

📍 Bruxelles-Midi

Forever glad this service exists (even if it uses Amsterdam Zuid instead of Centraal), long gone are the days of relying solely on Eurostar for the fasts between the Netherlands and Belgium…

With that, it’s time I headed back to the UK 🫡

📍 Rotterdam Centraal

Right on time, which gave me a decent amount of time to grab some lunch ahead of continuing onwards with the EC direct. Brussels bound 🇳🇱 ➡️ 🇧🇪

📍 Schiphol Airport

Given the last minute nature of this trip, I failed to get a Eurostar reservation from Amsterdam or Rotterdam, but I did manage to get one from Brussels…

First though, I’m off to Rotterdam on a VIRM, finally getting to properly check out a refurbished one! 🤩🇳🇱

📍 Hoofddorp

A pretty good place to spend the night, not to mention a great photography spot…

Let’s get into Amsterdam!

📍 Schiphol Airport

Last train of the day - an SLT to my accommodation for the night…

Why? This route can and should be faster

📍 Amsterdam CS

Made it 2 minutes early, would’ve been earlier but it was a snail’s pace on the final stretch to deal with Centraal’s traffic…

Regardless of the interior, this is such an improvement to the AMS-BER route, here’s hoping the 3neos are kept on it instead of the Talgos!

📍 Deventer

Arrived almost 10 mins before departure - hopefully once the full ICE rollout is done the timetable will be slashed further for faster journey times…

Would also seem that it’s not only the passengers who are happy with the ICE 3neo switchover, the staff are too! 😁

250km/h… probably the fastest IC in Germany? (It doesn’t become an ICE until a few weeks from now 😉)

And the best part - the Bordrestaurant is finally back on the Berlin-Amsterdam line after a two year absence! 😁

📍 Berlin Ostbahnhof

I’m off back to Amsterdam now on the new daily ICE 3neo, full takeover on Berlin-Amsterdam commences sometime in mid-to-late October.

Not recording this one this time, it’s the old interior which I have several videos on already 😭 So for now I’m just enjoying the ride… 🇩🇪 ➡️ 🇳🇱

Sights soon to disappear from the Berlin rail scene - the NS/DB loco hauls are in the process of being replaced by the ICE 3neo (the first of which entered service several days ago) and the ICE 2s are rapidly dropping in use as of recent pending their 2027 withdrawal…

If that were the case, SNCF wouldn’t be trying to nerf a lot of their own services 😂

Probably the same “rail reform” crap that the Tories were trying to shove on our railways

📍 Berlin Hbf

That’s right on time into Berlin - a great journey? Yes. Great staff? Yes. Worth almost €500? Absolutely not 🙃

That being said, the train was fully booked the entire journey - begs the question why SNCF want to pull the plug on it!

…and through sheer coincidence, I’m on the Paris-Berlin Nightjet tonight.

Literally made no difference if I booked 2 days ago or 3 months in advance - the prices were still more or less the same, even with my Interrail pass. Time to sit back, relax and enjoy the next 14 hours… 🇫🇷 ➡️ 🇩🇪

Protests outside of Paris Est this evening - with news of the Nightjets to Vienna and Berlin potentially being axed due to reduced funding from SNCF, it would seem the community’s come together to send them a message… @seatsixtyone.bsky.social

📍 Paris Nord

Made it on time - thankfully that gives me a bit more of a breather before continuing my journey onwards…

A short walk to Gare de l’Est next

📍 Lille Flandres

Bang on time arrival despite being delayed by 5ish mins at Courtrai - good to have gotten this done as I’ve been trying to fit it in for quite a while now!

TGV to Paris Nord next 🇫🇷

📍 Kortrijk/Courtrai

Here is where the train splits - the front 6 carriages continue on to Poperinge, whilst the last 3 are what I’ll be using to go on to Lille…