amrtf 🏳️‍⚧️ (@amrtf)

Jon Worth @jon@gruene.social

3w

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This week:
Analysis: Wunderline turns to farce, and accountability collapses

Bullshit Meter: Croatia - Greece trains on an EU funded coast line

Good week: Battery trains for Niedersachsen, new tracks for Brandenburg

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Jon Worth @jon@gruene.social

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Also a good week: Portugal starts building a broad gauge high speed line

Unexpectedly good week: New high speed line opens in European Türkiye

Bad week: More than a Renfe AVE 100 power car in danger of going up in flames

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Jon Worth @jon@gruene.social

3w

Mitigations against a bad week: RegioJet has backup plans in case its new Pesa EMUs are not ready in December

Photo of the week: Frecciarossa at Gallese Teverina

Calendar: TGV-M launch 6 November

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Jon Worth @jon@gruene.social

3w

And of course 🇵🇹 building a broad gauge high speed line got all the whingeing going

Here’s why re-gauging lines probably makes no sense:
jonworth.eu/why-you-probably-should-not-re-gauge-railways-in-europe/

And were Portugal to build a 1435mm HSL, then they’re going to need gauge changing trains, and look at Talgo’s mess currently

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Jon Worth @jon@gruene.social

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It’s not that complicated

1) You cannot re-gauge all of 🇪🇸 and 🇵🇹 railways to 1435mm in a cost effective & timely manner, and you should not try

2) So if 🇵🇹 is to build a HSL, you either have multiple breaks of gauge nationally, and have to buy Talgo trains, or you leave the break of gauge somewhere in 🇪🇸 where fewer of your passengers go (and Renfe doesn’t give a shit about 🇵🇹 anyway)

So 1668mm HSL makes sense

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amrtf 🏳️‍⚧️ @amrtf@net.amr.tf

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@jon Making HSL in 1435 mm was a big mistake: IIRC they planned to regauge massively the 1668 mm network to standard gauge at the 90s, but we had an economical crisis

Also, as they opened HSL, they began to close or abandon the 1668 mm lines which passes side by side

Doing that makes the network way unreliable just like happened a few days ago that a Class 100 was burnt on the most used and the main high speed line of all Spain, forcing to go on single track for 25 km with speed restrictions

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Jon Worth @jon@gruene.social

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@amrtf Right, I agree. And the only international high speed line Spain has - Figueres-Perpignan - stands there chronically under used.

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amrtf 🏳️‍⚧️ @amrtf@net.amr.tf

3w

@jon The Barcelona-Girona-Figueres-Perpinyà line has many people using it between BCN and Figueres with Avant trains, because it was more reliable than Rodalies

But even with that it’s just a joke how underused it is and also don’t go up to Perpinyà, and that’s only on the HSL because if you watch on freight it’s worse: you don’t want to see what is happening on 1668 mm freight services

Up to the level that they closed down the Renfe maintenance base in Portbou, the possible closure of the freight centre of Transfesa at Cervera de la Marenda and the Serveo centre at Portbou to move containers from one gauge to another

Edit: I forgot to send you the link to the news (in Catalan) about it

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