@arturs.co.uk
Queer 22y/o working in a railway control room, and occasionally the voice of announcements. Views expressed here are entirely my own, and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer. 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🇵🇸🇺🇦 he/they
Now this is super exciting!
Did have a bit of a fright today when I got an email saying that our ICN 1959 was cancelled, but fortunately it was simply re-numbered and re-timed to be IC 37069 instead (whoever put the schedule in seemingly forgot to label it a night train)
bsky.app/profile/simo...
Dragging Simon off for a not-so-little (despite his claims 😆) jaunt down onto the continent 🚆
I think the joke has gone over Ben's head 😭
Photo of Oresundslinjen's "Hamlet" ferry docked in Helsingør, taken through a window of the pedestrian boarding bridge.
Photo onboard Hamlet, looking through the window out over the water.
Came up north for a few hours in 🇩🇰 Helsingør...
Then saw how quick, cheap, and convenient the ferry over to 🇸🇪 Helsingborg is, and have unexpectedly ended up on my way to Sweden... 😆
It is very obvious in person which one is correct, as the ones hanging off the walls (part of the artwork) are spinning very quickly. Like - a full hour on those clocks passes in about 1-2 seconds.
Photo taken from the platform at Havneholmen metro station looking up towards the mezzanine concourse and the ticket hall. On the walls and ceilings are various clocks, departure boards, wayfinding signs, bins, benches, and smartcard validators hanging sideways or upside down. The departure boards actually show real arrival information, mimicking the screens on the platforms themselves. The clocks are all spinning quickly showing different random times.
Selfie of me on an escalator at Havneholmen station, going down from the ticket hall to a mezzanine concourse, and again there are various bits of platform furniture littered across the walls behind me. I am wearing a white t-shirt, dark blue jumper, dark blue coat, and a dark cyan beanie hat.
Love this silly little metro station in Copenhagen that has a bunch of platform furniture littered all over the walls and ceiling 😆
Photo of a track trolley in the Danish Railway Museum. This particular one looks a bit like a bicycle, with two wheels, pedals, a seat and handlebars all above the right-hand rail, and a bar extending off to the left for one wheel on the left-hand rail. A dressed up mannequin sits on top of the trolley. In the background is an old train carriage with the letters DSB on the side.
Where can I get myself one of these 🤔
Photo of my hand holding a leaflet from the Danish Railway Museum. In the background is a replica of the first railway locomotive in Denmark, with the original having been scrapped centuries ago.
Photo of the entrance to an exhibit on Interrail in the Danish Railway Museum. Projected onto the wall is a map of Denmark with all the railway lines highlighted, and to the left is an introduction to the exhibit titled "Inexpensive train travel for the young generation" with lots of photos of young people travelling by train.
Photo of a red DSB diesel locomotive and a black steam engine, side-by-side. In the background you can see part of a brown freight trailer carriage.
Selfie of me inside the cab of the diesel engine from the previous photo. Projected onto the windows is a view of a station with passengers waiting to board this train.
Ticked off another railway museum, this time in Denmark 🇩🇰
140kr for adults, but there's plenty to see and read about - with most signage in both Danish and English, plus a bit of German.
You can go inside most vehicles including various cabs and carriages, and there's a whole exhibit on Interrail!
Photo taken out of a train window of a platform with a sign post showing the station's name: "Middelfart"
Hehe 💨
Screenshot of the Google Earth app, showing the Lindaunis bridge over the Schlei in north Germany. The land juts out with piers from the north and south, with a bridge connecting the two. The bridge has a visible gap in it for ships to pass when open.
Photo taken from the Lindaunis bridge looking towards the south. A train sits in the temporary station/platform with "Kiel Hbf" on its destination display. In front of the train is a set of temporary red/white road barriers to block access to the track from the bridge. It is very dark outside with the sky pitch black, and the only light coming from a few street lamps and from the train's red taillight.
A photo taken on Lindaunis bridge looking north, with the rails abruptly ending due to a temporary footbridge overlayed on top of the normal bridge deck. It's very dark outside, with bright white LED lights lighting up the bridge.
Photo taken from the north end of the bridge looking north. Like on the south end, in the distance a train sits in a temporary station/platform, this time with "Flensburg" on its destination display. Again there are red/white road barriers blocking access to the track for pedestrians.
Quirky interchange at Lindaunis bridge in northern Germany: the main bridge is being rebuilt, with a temporary bridge only open to pedestrians.
The Kiel-Flensburg railway line has been severed, with temporary stations constructed on either side to allow people to connect between the north and south
Photo of the Stena Hollandica ferry, as seen through a slightly dirty window of the Harwich International port waiting area. There is a pedestrian walkway bridge partially obscuring the ferry.
Selfie of me in my cabin of the Stena Hollandica ferry. I am in the foreground wearing a white shirt, dark blue jumper, making a peace sign with my other hand. In the background is the interior cabin with a large circular mirror on the back wooden wall, a double bed on one side, and the corner of a red sofa poking out of the other side.
First international trip of 2026! 🚢
My local Tesco closed permanently a few months ago and I'm still heartbroken 🥲
More detailed stats on my top operator - Eurostar. Distance travelled is 12,445km, spending about 75 hours across 29 total trips.
List of my most travelled metro systems, with London at the top, followed by Barcelona, Vienna, Stockholm, and Helsinki. No distances are shown.
Image of some of my travel statistics. At the top is a screenshot of a map showing all of my journeys around Europe. Below is a list of my top travelled countries (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, and Netherlands) and my top operators (Eurostar, Elizabeth line, Deutsche Bahn, SNCF, and Renfe). Below that are a few more stats: distance travelled is 96,047km; hours spent travelling is 1,283; countries visited is 26; and border crossings is approx 123.
List of 7 transport modes in order from most to least travelled: train at 87,359km; metro at 2,597km; plane at 2,465km; ferry at 1,224km; bus at 2,165km; tram at 225km; and aerialway at 12km. Each mode has a photo alongside it to represent that mode of transport.
List of my top 5 operators for the year - in photo grid form at the top, then as a list at the bottom. Eurostar at 12,445km; Elizabeth line at 10,430km; Deutsche Bahn at 9,194km; SNCF at 4,858km; and Renfe at 4,805km.
List of my most travelled on transport vehicles - in this case they're all trains. Eurostar e320 at 10,836km; Elizabeth line Class 345 at 10,413km; Germany's ICE 3neo at 3,254km; Austria's Class 1116 locomotive at 3,161km; and Germany's ICE 4 at 2,898km.
Finally up-to-date on logging all of my public transport travels in 2025... so of course I had to create a Spotify-style Wrapped for the year 😆
Photo of a decorated Christmas tree in the reception of Romford ROC. Stood next to the tree is a cute little gnome, with another smaller gnome on top of the tree.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays from the Romford ROC! Our reception tree has 2 cute little gnome friends 🎄
Screenshot of Spotify Wrapped, saying that "my listening age is 21, since I was into music from the early 2020s"
😇
See when our train planners made the mistake of introducing themselves to me, my first line of questioning was presenting them with the 8 LTP headcodes that we have which violate the timetable planning rules 🤪
...nevermind - I've just checked how long of a walk it is to the bridge to Sweden, and I have neither the willpower nor the number of sunlight hours required 😅
Photo of an entrance path to a forest with a big wooden sign, showing 2 posters about a hiking path. There's a small fence on either side, a thick layer of snow on the ground and atop the trees, and a pretty well-trodden path in the snow.
Photo of tall tree tops covered in snow, with light white and somewhat pinky-orangy clouds in the light blue sky
Photo of a long gap in trees, with a power line cutting through it off into the distance. The sun is setting in the background, and there's lots of snow on the ground and on the trees.
Went on a snowy hike through a forest, and now I shall cross the border into Sweden by foot! I am indeed on the southbound sleeper tonight, but only heading a few stops down for a hotel overnight, so I'll be in the seats instead of a cabin
Selfie of me on the bottom right, stood on a very snowy platform in Kolari, with the sleeper train behind me on the right. In the background is the grey station building with a few cars parked out front, and in the far background is a cloudy orange and light grey sky. I am wearing an orange hat and a dark blue windbreaker jacket
A very good (and cold) morning from Kolari - the northernmost point of Finland's public railway network!
Photo of a green VR locomotive at the country-end of track 8 at Helsinki station. Attached to the rear of it but mostly out of view is an old white and blue VR sleeper carriage.
Close-up photo of the information screen on the side of a double-decker VR train. It shows that this is coach 42 of train P269, with a destination of Kolari via Tammerfors.
Photo inside my sleeper room, with a bunk bed on the left; small seat, table, and window in the rear. Attached to the top bunk are 2 vertical black straps to prevent someone from falling off. On the wall on the left is a light switch, a plug socket, and a temperature switch. On the bottom bed are 2 towels, a bottle of water, and a paper menu.
Photo of my hand holding the key to my sleeper room, in front of the lock and door. The key is a rectangular piece of plastic divided in half horizontally. The bottom is a solid square, while the top has a bunch of punch-card holes in a unique pattern.
Well this is a rather exciting thing to be doing tonight! 🛌🚆💤
Good evening, that's not something I do anymore I'm afraid
It won't be able to show all the same info as Tiger though, given it is powered directly by Darwin instead of by the local Worldline CIS 😅
Just need to put a little more work into tidying it up (and stop testing in prod 🫣) and I'll make it publicly available!
Not stopping at SNCF...
Also massive thanks to @chiel.uk for putting some effort into helping translate several hundred GB cancellation reasons into Dutch 🤪
Oh and of course I couldn't miss this photo opportunity...
bsky.app/profile/artu...
Somehow managed to coordinate 11 other people to plan, buy tickets for, and go on a trip to France, and it feels like a miracle that it's all gone as planned...
...where does that go on my CV?
Failed a drug & alcohol test and was let go
The station names are manually translated by myself, and I've only done a handful so far - only the notices at the bottom are translated automatically 😅
