Welcome to today's thread - 2025 #CrossBorderRail Finale Day 13 - 22 June - Oslo - Grums - Öxnered - Herrljunga - Falköping - Nässjö, onto night train
Today's new borders:
None
Borders map, inc. borders re-crossed:
https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-all-the-borders_935041#11/55.5584/12.7750
Today's trains on the routes map:
https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/crossborderrail-2025-finale_1163738#7/56.867/11.980
The geniuses at Trafikverket in Sweden have managed to close both lines from Norway (towards Stockholm and towards Göteborg) on the same weekend, so instead I am crossing the border by bus, and then heading south east across southern Sweden before boarding the night train southwards.
Here's today's #CrossBorderRail music track
Hugo Alfven: Swedish Rhapsody No.1 "Midsommarvaka"
Frédéric Zosso
Thanks @Jonas_Bostrom for this one - the right time of year!
Here's this morning's intro video, explaining what I am trying to do today!
Over there a recovery truck is picking up a FlixBus, presumably the one that was meant to operate my service to Grums…
We’re delayed 30 mins.
Now a further 30 mins delay announced
If I miss the train in Grums... my only option is to stay longer on the Flixbus, as far as Örebro
Might be an interesting argument: "Your bus was late, so I missed my train, so now you need to let me stay on it longer!" 🤔
It's almost like a real live case of the problems of Multimodal Digital Mobility Services the Commission is trying to legislate about!
#CrossBorderRail Finale Bus 12 of 22
Flixbus
08:00 Oslo S - Grums 10:36
Bus type: Volvo 9700, 2 axles
⛽️
🚲: ❓ (not officially, but there would be space in the hold)
🦽: ⛔️
🛜: ⛔️
🍽️: ⛔️
🧳: 🙂 (hold is huge)
🧽: 🙂
But rather than getting us going a bit earlier, the driver is now smoking a cigarette
Priorities 🤷♂️
I simply do not see why anyone *by choice* would favour a bus over a train
Other than Lux Express in the Baltics (that strikes me as a genuinely good company) I’d very happily give all the others a miss
Edit: as people are going “but buses are cheaper!” - I get why then you’d take a bus! But if all else were equal?
@jon Depending on the bus, there can definitely be reasons. Back in the Megabus days, they were extremely relaxed on luggage quantities and so this made it easy to carry a lot of stuff across the Channel.
And the atmosphere is usually pretty different too; trains tend to be very quiet, isolated, individualist whereas long-distance buses are often more lively, with passengers being more open to conversations and general horsing around. Especially in the front of the bus! If that's your thing, a long-distance bus can be a great option.
@jon (The Megabus policy was "one large piece of luggage guaranteed, anything more than that only if there is space left" and there were basically always copious amounts of space left)