LaythA

I was wearing my 🇪🇸AVE t-shirt which I think attracted attention. The member of staff was really into his railways and history. Was a wonderful exchange.

There were quite a few other railway topics covered in the 15-20min.

Was buying some Navigo cards for a friend. @josephinea2024.bsky.social and I ended up having a good chat with a member of SNCF staff at La Défense.
Topics covered:
1st generation Eurostars,
British staff working on the French railways,
Intercity125,
Euston station

Told me to keep practicing my 🇫🇷😂

Can't blame you. If going beyond Paris to the South, Italy or Spain I have tended to skip Paris and do journeys in a day from London.

For me I use RER E for a hotel in the La Défense area which is handy, especially as the line has good lift accessibility. It saves me having to carry a child's pushchair up and down stairs.

I really like Line E. Very handy getting to and from GdN

And let's have a departing train as well.

La Défense RER Line E station

"First milestone met" as Eurostar and Virgin submit Temple Mills depot agreement Operators submit draft agreement to Office of Rail and Road for Virgin to use Temple Mills depot alongside Eurostar.

The only other company I know intending to order that product is Virgin Trains for it's CT services. I gather Virgin 'met' it's first milestone last month
www.railmagazine.com/news/-first-...

I've not heard much about the Ilisto project for a while. Must be struggling to secure the required finance.

Just passed Gare TGV Haute-Picardie @pglux.bsky.social . Car park looked very full. Wonder if Ilisto plan to chuck any money into expanding it.

Enjoy the WCML (assuming that's the route you are taking). It's HS1-CT-LGV Nord for me today.

Trenitalia France s'émancipe de la SNCF avec son propre site de maintenance - Déplacements Pros La compagnie italienne remporte un appel d'offres lancé par SNCF Réseau pour accéder à un centre de maintenance en région parisienne.

Thanks for the clarification Jon. I think I saw that TGV-M stabled up at Forest depot a few weeks ago when I went to Brussels.

On a cross channel note not sure if you came across this regarding Trenitalia
www.deplacementspros.com/transport/tr...

Quick question about picture 4. Does that badge imply certification in Italy and Switzerland is complete? If so they went about that quietly.

Obviously for use on capable infrastructure I must add.

I do hope Stadler one day produce a train capable of doing 300-320kmph.

I think the recently launched tram is going to help that station get more usage.

A very classic interior on that TGV Duplex. Have a great trip.

And from mid June Berne🇨🇭 and Milan 🇮🇹 on some days.

Just would have been nice had they made more use of the trains even if they didn't want to sell them to a competitor.

If only that unique skill could have been applied to the old TMST sets that have been scrapped.

Patisserie Gregoire (I can't take the credit for that name)

A bit more practice required to recreate the 1930s poster below for travel between the Netherlands and the UK by ferry and train. ⬇️

The previous logo was perfectly fine.

And still nothing more from Ilisto.

Whilst in Belgium over the extended weekend I was tempted to head down to Mons yesterday to go and look at the £300m station.

It's a really good point regarding families.

As a secondary point, of travelling from London SP, changing at Lille Europe is ideal.

Now it will either be break up the journey with a hotel or take Bus 91 in Paris and have lots of padding in the schedule.

And over the Medway we go

Got to say @eurostarjustin.bsky.social these e300s still do a bloomin good job. They still remain my favourite