I bought a couple of 10-day 1st class Interrails in the Black Friday sale, knowing I should be able to use them sometime this year and catch up on some travels. My daughter had a week's leave which she planned to use for an Alpine walking holiday and suggested I come too. We agreed on the Dolomites which was new territory for both of us, and I decided to add on a few nights around Austria - but not to use all 10 days because of prior engagements. So:
Friday 5 June: up unconscionably early for the 0638 off Shipley, which was formed 5 cars vice 9 - fortunately it was a Friday so wasn't heaving! LNER breakfast as usual, served after Leeds.
Next was the 1104 to Brussels, for which we had booked Passholder fares to Amsterdam to get Plus seats. It arrives in one of the through platforms so no scrum. The meal has shrunk a bit, but is at least interesting and a second bottle of wine now seems routinely to be offered.
1425 Brussels-Frankfurt was busy as expected (we'd reserved) and ran well until the outskirts of Frankfurt when it got caught up in congestion and arrived 18 down. Still time to catch our Berlin-Stuttgart-Munich as far as Augsburg; this was about 10 late arriving Stuttgart but we were then told the high-speed line was blocked by a "Notartzteinsatz im Gleisbereich" which is DB for a person hit by a train. We were diverted via the historic Geislinger Steige route, lost our path and ended up +55 (so not enough to claim compensation!). We patronised the Bordbistro for our third onboard meal of the day.
Saturday: we'd chosen Augsburg as a convenient stopover, intending to take the secondary Munich-Garmisch-Innsbruck route with its spectacular descent into the Inn valley. A good thing, as checking our plans a couple of weeks before we discovered the line out of Munich had engineering works. The (slightly slower) alternative was the cross-country route to Weilheim, which was a DMU and, being a Saturday morning, pretty busy. It's a very pleasant run via the Ammersee, still mechanically signalled in part.
From Weilheim it was on to Innsbruck via Garmisch-Partenkirchen, then to Brenner where we changed to Trenitalia for the run down to Chiusa/Klausen which was the most convenient point to pick up our bus to Ortisei in the Val Gardena (an unexpectedly spectacular high level route). This was covered by our guest card, which is electronic so you can use it to arrive (and covers public transport throughout Südtirol/Alto Adige - we used it later in the week to visit Bolzano and the Rittnerbahn in pouring rain, and also to do a scenic circular tour including rail from Brüneck/Brunico to Klausen on the Valtellina line). Regional trains in the area are nearly all the modern FS class 626 or the SAD (regional operator)'s similar 170s. Older push-pull sets with E464 work to Bolzano from the south and some through to Brennero.)
Saturday 13th: We were headed in different directions, but had decided to take advantage of our guest passes to take a scenic alternative using a couple of routes that had long been on my agenda. From Ortisei we squeezed onto a bus to Waidbruck/Ponte Gardena, then a 626 to Bolzano and 170 to Merano. Merano to Mals/Malles is newly electrified, and new EMUs are under test at the Malles end, but for us it was a Stadler GTW 2/6 DMU as far as Laas, then a RRB.
Here we switched to a Postbus for the run over the spectacular Ofenpass in SE Graubünden, discovering en route that Mals looks worth visiting and that the bus squeezes through some delightful village streets before climbing to the pass. 10min recovery time at the end helped a punctual arrival at Zernez. We'd discovered by chance that Postbus offer a considerable discount if you buy a specific-time ticket even a couple hours ahead, so of course we did (from the border only).
Next leg was to Landquart in a RhB Capricorn EMU. In typical Swiss fashion the train was long (2 units, plus a third attached rear at Klosters from Davos) and not busy.
From Landquart my daughter headed to Zurich and home via Strasbourg, but my next goal was the Appenzellerbahn (ex SGA) rack line from Altstätten to Gais and St Gallen. A SOB Traverso unit formed my Interregio to Altstätten; it's a type I hadn't sampled and a very nice unit indeed. The street-running section across Altstätten is long gone, and I decided to walk it through the pleasant Altstadt as I'd just missed a bus. From Altstätten the line climbs steeply (Abt rack) and - a bonus - the company runs an open-sided observation coach and (equally important, judging by the load) a bike wagon.
At Gais I swapped to a very busy modern AB unit down to St Gallen (it includes a tunnelled diversion that eliminated another rack section), and after finding a self-service restaurant I headed on to Rorschach for the RHB rack line up to Heiden which was new to me (also now part of the AB group). This one has Riggenbach's "ladder" rack, superb views over lake Constance - and another open observation coach.
I came back downhill immediately and went on to St Margethen and Bregenz where I had time to watch the sunset before boarding my next objective, a new Nightjet set to Vienna. I'd booked a single-berth sleeper for a reasonable EUR120, and was very impressed overall - even the shower attachment works in the confined space, though the floor didn't drain very quickly.
Next morning I woke on time approaching Vienna; I'll post that another day.
Photos show the two rack lines, the NJ ensuite, and the very damp Rittnerbahn at Soprabolzano.
Friday 5 June: up unconscionably early for the 0638 off Shipley, which was formed 5 cars vice 9 - fortunately it was a Friday so wasn't heaving! LNER breakfast as usual, served after Leeds.
Next was the 1104 to Brussels, for which we had booked Passholder fares to Amsterdam to get Plus seats. It arrives in one of the through platforms so no scrum. The meal has shrunk a bit, but is at least interesting and a second bottle of wine now seems routinely to be offered.
1425 Brussels-Frankfurt was busy as expected (we'd reserved) and ran well until the outskirts of Frankfurt when it got caught up in congestion and arrived 18 down. Still time to catch our Berlin-Stuttgart-Munich as far as Augsburg; this was about 10 late arriving Stuttgart but we were then told the high-speed line was blocked by a "Notartzteinsatz im Gleisbereich" which is DB for a person hit by a train. We were diverted via the historic Geislinger Steige route, lost our path and ended up +55 (so not enough to claim compensation!). We patronised the Bordbistro for our third onboard meal of the day.
Saturday: we'd chosen Augsburg as a convenient stopover, intending to take the secondary Munich-Garmisch-Innsbruck route with its spectacular descent into the Inn valley. A good thing, as checking our plans a couple of weeks before we discovered the line out of Munich had engineering works. The (slightly slower) alternative was the cross-country route to Weilheim, which was a DMU and, being a Saturday morning, pretty busy. It's a very pleasant run via the Ammersee, still mechanically signalled in part.
From Weilheim it was on to Innsbruck via Garmisch-Partenkirchen, then to Brenner where we changed to Trenitalia for the run down to Chiusa/Klausen which was the most convenient point to pick up our bus to Ortisei in the Val Gardena (an unexpectedly spectacular high level route). This was covered by our guest card, which is electronic so you can use it to arrive (and covers public transport throughout Südtirol/Alto Adige - we used it later in the week to visit Bolzano and the Rittnerbahn in pouring rain, and also to do a scenic circular tour including rail from Brüneck/Brunico to Klausen on the Valtellina line). Regional trains in the area are nearly all the modern FS class 626 or the SAD (regional operator)'s similar 170s. Older push-pull sets with E464 work to Bolzano from the south and some through to Brennero.)
Saturday 13th: We were headed in different directions, but had decided to take advantage of our guest passes to take a scenic alternative using a couple of routes that had long been on my agenda. From Ortisei we squeezed onto a bus to Waidbruck/Ponte Gardena, then a 626 to Bolzano and 170 to Merano. Merano to Mals/Malles is newly electrified, and new EMUs are under test at the Malles end, but for us it was a Stadler GTW 2/6 DMU as far as Laas, then a RRB.
Here we switched to a Postbus for the run over the spectacular Ofenpass in SE Graubünden, discovering en route that Mals looks worth visiting and that the bus squeezes through some delightful village streets before climbing to the pass. 10min recovery time at the end helped a punctual arrival at Zernez. We'd discovered by chance that Postbus offer a considerable discount if you buy a specific-time ticket even a couple hours ahead, so of course we did (from the border only).
Next leg was to Landquart in a RhB Capricorn EMU. In typical Swiss fashion the train was long (2 units, plus a third attached rear at Klosters from Davos) and not busy.
From Landquart my daughter headed to Zurich and home via Strasbourg, but my next goal was the Appenzellerbahn (ex SGA) rack line from Altstätten to Gais and St Gallen. A SOB Traverso unit formed my Interregio to Altstätten; it's a type I hadn't sampled and a very nice unit indeed. The street-running section across Altstätten is long gone, and I decided to walk it through the pleasant Altstadt as I'd just missed a bus. From Altstätten the line climbs steeply (Abt rack) and - a bonus - the company runs an open-sided observation coach and (equally important, judging by the load) a bike wagon.
At Gais I swapped to a very busy modern AB unit down to St Gallen (it includes a tunnelled diversion that eliminated another rack section), and after finding a self-service restaurant I headed on to Rorschach for the RHB rack line up to Heiden which was new to me (also now part of the AB group). This one has Riggenbach's "ladder" rack, superb views over lake Constance - and another open observation coach.
I came back downhill immediately and went on to St Margethen and Bregenz where I had time to watch the sunset before boarding my next objective, a new Nightjet set to Vienna. I'd booked a single-berth sleeper for a reasonable EUR120, and was very impressed overall - even the shower attachment works in the confined space, though the floor didn't drain very quickly.
Next morning I woke on time approaching Vienna; I'll post that another day.
Photos show the two rack lines, the NJ ensuite, and the very damp Rittnerbahn at Soprabolzano.
