Yep, not to be confused with Upper Volta, the old name for Burkina Faso.
Indeed. Upper Volta being the country where the Battle of Mboto Gorge took place where the finest soldiers in the British Army massacred the peace-loving pygmies and stole all their fruit. At least that was the case in the history of Blackadder.
Thought the same and that there was a new railway in Burkina Faso...probably a contentious name though.
with a lot of details about tickets and the stations it calls at, and a link to their own web site to buy tickets.
... because NS refuse to sell tickets for GoVolta, just as they refuse to do that for European Sleeper. They're trying to make a good impression with this page and the booking link from their booking page, but that's as far as they want to go.
The general public and to the government. The latter to make them think that no new (EU) legislation is needed to improve international ticket sales.
NS have the main ticket sales channel for international train journeys from the Netherlands. For European Sleeper, which they also refuse to sell, both NS staff and passengers want to be able to book through the NS international booking website. People keep asking about it. Belgian railways however don't see a problem and are selling European Sleeper tickets. Since NS use the same backend system, there's hardly any effort involved to start selling, but they don't want to.
Well, there is a new line in Ghana from Tema to Lake Volta, so genuine potential for some confusion.
I tried booking a European Sleeper via SNCB. They offer a choice between Seating, Couchette and Sleeper. However, the description they give for a sleeping car is "Comfort Standard with Washbasin", whereas ES say Comfort Standard is a Couchette car with reduced occupancy, and a sleeping car is "Comfort Plus". So what do you actually get if you book via SNCB a "Comfort Standard Sleeping Car"? Who knows.
I very strongly suspect if you book a Comfort Standard Sleeping Car then Comfort Standard is indeed what you'll get. SNCB aren't doing anything wrong here, it's European Sleeper that have chosen to 'upgrade' some of their couchettes and classify them as sleepers (i.e. Comfort rather than Classic). If you go through the ES booking system you'll find it split into three classes with Comfort Standard in the top tier in exactly the same way, it's just that that tier is called Comfort rather than Sleeper these days, whereas SNCB have kept the old terminology. If you disagree that it should be in the top tier in the first place, that's something to take up with ES...
Regiojet have done that with their couchettes too.
The photos are clearly of couchettes.
Unofficially however, from what I’m told by European rail enthusiasts, the company is said to be behind on payments so cutting back loss-makers would put them in a more ideal position.
Not many UK open access operators doing 7+ hour journeys. I should imagine the cost (and risk) of starting multiple trains on such a route would be far too great.
How high are the wages though?
GoVolta has effectively killed off the Amsterdam-Hamburg already before that date by reaccomodating booked passengers onto buses.
I don't think GoVolta is going to reimburse an ICE replacement ticket. Most passengers won't fight.
www.railjournal.com
Via Gent / Ghent? Not the most obvious routing - the 'traditional' way would be via Brussels and Aulnoye - I can see why it takes so long. I guess running via the direct route would raise objections from SNCF / SNCBs' Ouigo classic service.GoVolta has opened ticket sales for its Amsterdam-Paris service from 14th December, with calling points at Haarlem, The Hague, Rotterdam Central, Lage Zwaluwe, Roosendaal, Antwerp Central, Ghent Sint-Pieters, Arras and Longueau, with one train in each direction per day. All tickets are priced from 19 Euros from what I can see on their website.
GoVolta opens ticket sales for Paris service
Dutch open-access operator GoVolta has opened ticket sales for its Amsterdam - Paris service which will start running on December 14.
They don't take local passengers so there's nothing to protest against. However, paths between Antwerp and Brussels are scarce (a few of the Eurostar paths are unused currently, that's basically it).
Often a prohibition on taking local passengers is a part of the authorisation for these operations. Do they have an equivalent to ORCATS in Belgium?
They can’t take local passengers due to the fact that the whole of Belgium and Netherlands is PSO so the EU rules forcing Open Access don’t apply
