.

Had a breakfast of Melemen (Menemen?) dish with bread and tea. The menu is quite extensive. Understandably, no alcohol. Cards taken (subject to a signal). @seatsixtyone.bsky.social

A lot of intermediate stops and most passengers in my coach at least only travelled part way. No catering. I stay in Samsun tonight and head back to Sivas tomorrow. Really not much of a town to write home about, but a great fish dinner for just 350 TL!

Two tracks for the Marmary Commuter and one for mainline. Both trains lost time. Train to & from Adapazari was the Ada Express which connects with Marmary trains at Gebze. These have reserved seats, catering and security checks before entering the platforms. Same security for YHT too.

I'm not sure if the classic line will retain the regional trains. Suspect it will stay open for freight. Part of the new line east of Çerkezköy is already in use. Open Rail Map still hasn't been updated.

They were minimising trains on the classic line during the day, presumably to work on connections onto the high speed lines..

between Montréal and New York.

Heading to Bakirköy for my hotel for tonight. No surprise, but got basically no sleep on the train last night. YHT high speed train to Ankara tomorrow.

Border checks for Turkey as @seatsixtyone.bsky.social reported a couple of months back is Edirne. The train wasn't that full (50 pax?) so not much hanging around in the cold. I got off at Çerkezköy & train was less than 10 mins late. Backtracked to Uzunköprü which of course was a route into Greece.

The RMT press release is a bit sketchy. Onboard train crew, station staff or fleet engineering? Different roles walking out could have different impacts on whether Eurostar could partially run or just grind to a halt?

And the others? Apparently around here. There's plenty of floor space but no sign of any work to install them.

So a slow start. E* like airports etc. have until 10 April 2026 to be fully up and running.

Staff member near Premium check-in said a block of terminals here - opposite National Rail ticket office & Thameslink.

This was posted on an email group a few weeks ago

I'm not expecting much sleep but have gone for a solo cabin so I can at least see what's going on. When @seatsixtyone.bsky.social took the sleeper from Bucharest to Istanbul a few weeks back, the x-Ray machine had broke.

Its one of the few (only?) cross border trains that needs booking that can't be done online. Can't afford to take risk booking it a couple of days ahead in Sofia. Discover By Rail's Sofia agent, leaves paper ticket at hotel front desk.

That got rejected but attempt no.4 worked again after verification with banking app. I'm booking my last border crossing out of Bulgaria and first one into Turkey through Discover By Rail. Around equivalent €75 for single sleeper if you book it locally. £35 fee for agency.