A is for Albanian Railways and other Europe Transportation Tips

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Train
Getting TO/AROUND: You certainly know that you are in the poorest nation state in Europe when you consider travelling by the wonder that is Albanian railways.

The most useful section for tourists is probably the Tirana-Durres section

It was difficult to find the ticket office in Durres : a small hidden window that only opens on alternate tuesdays if you are wearing a red sock - but things may have changed by now and become more user-friendly more recently.

The rolling stock was all ex-italian and falling to pieces, but you can also spot some cast -offs from other countries such as China.

As the vast majority of people take the bus, so this option is fairly uncrowded.

If the train fails (not uncommon) en-route you can just jump off and pick up a bus from the main road which runs parallel for most of the way.

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Train
Getting TO/AROUND: To find ANY train journey, anywhere in Europe, this website will do the business.

It is one of the finest examples of the useful power of a website, which fueled by german effeciency, stands head and shoulders above any similar website.

Once you have found your train, you may then need to use other means to actually get price information and make the booking.

Just to give some idea of it's power, I put in Skegness to Istanbul (not a common journey). It immediately hit back with 64 hour journey with six changes - superb !

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Website: www.bahn.de

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Bus
Getting TO/AROUND: Got a low-cost flight to London ? Want a low-cost way in from the Airport to Central London ?

STANSTED
On the Train, The Stansted express (there's an oxymoron) charges 24 quid or so to take you from Stansted Airport (main low cost airport for London) into Liverpool street.

Now, Terravision (sounds life a horror film channel eh?) has a direct bus, that although slower will do it for only 11 pounds 50 p return. Unless you are desperate for time, this is a good bet.

They also have services to Victoria station for a couple of pounds more.

More info: http://lowcostcoach.com

LUTON

Stelios, who started the 'Easyjet' airline has gone much more down to earth with one of his lastest ventures.

The Easybus (or rather minivan) runs about every 45 minutes throughout the day into Baker Street, Central London. At Eight pounds one way it is not cheap, but book on-line and the cost drops to a mere two pounds, one-way - what a bargain !

Price includes one piece of luggage and one piece of hand baggage.

More info: http://easybus.co.uk

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Subway/Metro
Getting TO/AROUND: Brussels' (Belgium) integrated transport system is very impressive.

At first sight it appears to be an absence of trams in the centre – but then you realise that many of them have been put into tunnels under the city. This means they are remarkably efficient – avoiding most of the snarl-ups that city centre inevitably create.

Some of the stops in the centre are therefore down flights of steps and/or shared with metro stops. If you are not in a great hurry, then it is often possible to visit outlying sights by tram rather than by metro. For example route 81 takes you right out to the Atomium in the north.

When planning your route, don’t forget that on the transit maps buses and trams are shown in the same fashion, so you need to consult the more detailed information to see if it a ‘T’ (Tramroute) or a ‘B’ (busroute)

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Website: http://www.stib.irisnet.be

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Train
Getting TO/AROUND: LONDON and PARIS

Connections between London and Paris are superb. The Eurostar trains whisks you betwen the two cities, via the channel tunnel, in under three hours.

And most of that feels like the trundle through south London.

As the number of trains expands, it will be possible in time to get more direct connections, or even through trains from place like Peterborough or Doncaster. I can see Eurostar will have a ready market in those place for short-breaks in Paris, but the other way round ?

Can you imagine the advertising "Bored of Art , culture, fine architecture, superb food and elegant fashion ?.....then find the opposite in rainy Doncaster....once visted, never remembered."

ABOUT LONDON St Pankers :

The impressive station is in effect a very large airy glasshouse that snakes it way along the northern edge of the main Waterloo Terminal. Connections from here are excellent.

From Nov 2007 you will be able to arrive at the new Eurostar station built at St Pancreas/King's Cross, that will cut out the need to trundle through the South london Suburbs at about 20 Mph in a train built to do 200MPH +

ABOUT THE THE GARE DU NORD : IT is nowadays the Parisien terminus of the Eurostar trains coming in from London.

The station has recieved a 'makeover' in the last few years. Just consider these lines from a travel writer in the Guardian newspaper : "Arriving at the Gare du Nord by métro in the early '80's, was like ascending from a colorful coal mine to a dark hanger, full of smoke."

Few people hand around the place when coming or going, but it is worth looking at the Facade of the building which feature nine statues symbolising Nine Northern French towns or cities that can be reached from this station.

I also like the 'atmosphere' of the departure board, with destinations listed right across Northern Europe - London, Germany, Holland and even up to the Scandanavian countries.

A boring, ultilitarian name for a station it might be - but it does exactly what it says on the tin !

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Website: www.eurostar.com

'Mode': AROUND
Category: Subway/Metro
Getting TO/AROUND: Various musings on the Paris metro

LINE 14
One day all metro systems will look like this. Line 14, formally known as the Meteor (to give it a space age, modern type, grand-project name) is the newest Metro line in Paris. It is driverless, and sparkingly clean. The automated trains pull up at platforms with doors on the platform - rather like a kind of horizontal lift. The swish of the doors always reminds me of the door on star-trek. Gallic efficency at it's best.

A similar set up on the Jubilee line in London just doesn't seem to work in the same way - delays, mess and undecipherable tannoy announcements.

TRAVELCARDS
The Carte Orange is apparantly on the way out, to be repalced by a similar scheme. It is mainly aimed at workers. There is however, nothing stopping you buying it,and at less than 16 Euro, and useable on all Zone 1 Metro train, RER and buses it is an absolute bargain.
This is especially true if you arrive on a Monday or Tuesday, as they run weekly (properly called the carte hebomadaire)

All you must do is present the money and a passport photo of yourself to a ticket office - and then you're off. An added bonus may also be that 'dubious' characters hanging around public transport place are more likely to see you as an 'ex-pat' local and thus not an 'easy' target.

ELEVATED SECTIONS
One of the great disadvatages of using most metro systems is that you don't really get a good feel of a city when you are stuck in a tunnel.

Apart from a few brief glimpes of sunlight passing over water, the system only has two elevated sections of any length.

Line 6 has a long section, and running along the southern part of Paris towards the Eiffel tower is very useful. Meanwhile on Line 2 there are a number of stations on elevated structure: Barbčs-Rochechouart, La Chapelle, Stalingrad, and Jaurčs.

There is also a shorter section on Line 5 between Saint-Marcel and Quai de la Rapée, which is quite impressive as it snakes across the Seine.

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Airplane
Getting TO/AROUND: In the international contest to build an airport in a silly place, Gibraltar comes quite high.

I believe it is often used on training simulators as it is a testing approach.

It also exhibits the rather unusual feature of having a road go straight across the main runway. Thankfully unlike some other places (like Delhi airport used to) it is only vehicles, rather than herded cattle that make their way across

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Train
Getting TO/AROUND: Now that's what I call a toy...

The Children's railway is a wonderful narrow-gague line that runs through the Buda hills. The 12 Km track is worth visiting itself, but there are also several walks and viewpoints that are worth seeing if you stop off at some of the intermediate stations.

Built shortly after WW2 it acted as a kind of recruiting device for the Hungarian Railways. All of the jobs (apart from actually driving the trains) are still carried out by children aged 10-14 under the supervision of adults. The whole operation operates to the exacting standards of Hungary's grown-up railway.

I last travelled on it about five years ago, and in mid-summer it was a wonderful way to pass an afternoon.

A round-trip can be put together in this way :

The starting station - Széchenyi-hegy Station is reached by Tram Line 56 from Moszkva tér, the centre of the Buda side of Budapest, changing over to the Rack Railway at Városmajor ('Fogaskerekű Vasút' stop).
The single journey, ends on the Chlidren's railway ends in Hűvösvölgy, near the terminal of the city's public transport company and from where Tram Line 56 runs back to Moszkva tér.

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Other
Getting TO/AROUND: A few years ago the EU gave Ireland 45 million Euro for road improvements. One wag commented that this must work out to about 23cent a pothole !

Ireland is however preparing to massivley invest in it's transport infrastructure :

With the launch of the glossy 'Transport 21', Ambitious schemes are on the cards.

The largest chunk of the money will inevitably be spent in Dublin. A two line metro, extensions to the tram (LUAS) and DART systems will all go ahead. St Stephens green will apparantly becom Dublins' answer to 'Grand Central Station'. Therefore expect major delays all over the place (no change there then !).

Out in the country there will be motorways built from Dublin to Galway, Cork, Limerick and Waterford. There will also be a 'western corridor' stretching from Letterkenny in the north to Waterford in the south, by way of Sligo, Galway, Limerick and Cork.

Not to be outdone, the railways will also get a boost and the Western rail corridor between Sligo and Cork will be partially reopened.

All this work comes at a price - expect major delays in the years to come. Expect riches beyond your wildest dreams if you are a concrete supplier.

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'Mode': AROUND
Category: Car/Motor Home
Getting TO/AROUND: I must admit that this tip will only be useful to a very few. During an brilliant episode of the BBC motoring show 'TOP GEAR' (No, it's not about drugs for any Dutch readers) the boys took three supercars through France. A Ferrari, a Pagani Zonda and a Ford GT 40. Staying the night in Claridges in Paris they had enormous trouble getting out of the underground garage in the morning. The entrance onto the road was very tight and with little ground clearance a 'grounding' was almost inevitable.

With the use of a few broken bits of pallet, and careful inching forward the Zonda and the Ford eventually made it onto the street after causing a massive back up of bemused Parisien drivers. The Ferrari made it out - just, with a clearance equivalent to a gnat's backside.

Don't drive a supercar in Paris - if you want to get it out in one piece.

By the way, I can remember, years ago, watching in disbelief at a Parisian driver approaching his parked car, finding they was about three millimetres of clearance on one side and a gnat's whiskers on the other : he scratched his head.

He then repeatedly rammed his crappy Renault backwards and forwards until he had bumped the adjoining cars enough for him to get out of his predicament.

The moral of the story ?

If you have a hire car then, if possible, always put it in a car park rather than using on-street parking - it may save you a small fortune in fines imposed by the hire company for damages accrued under your hire period.

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