Austerlitz ... remains a building site in hall 1, and a dark cavern that makes New Street's platforms feel positively friendly in hall 2. And it seems to be the last bastion of loco-hauled and coaches operation. Gare de Lyon was all units - singles which I think can run in multiple, or running as multiples. I have seen electric locos on coaches / push-pull with driving trailers on the front when the loco is on the rear in many other countries.
To solve the picture - yesterday morning was Porto Torres Maratime on Sardinia Ferry arrived at 07:30, train left at 09:55 with a handful of people on board. I took a break at Sassari to travel on one of the few remaining narrow gauge lines on the island.
Sharing here what I wrote on Facebook
Smoking, Vaping, Drinking, Sunning, Sweating, Sheltering, Socialising. Living in apartment blocks surround by randomly parked vehicles wherever they fit, busy roads with vehicles perhaps cruising to find spaces. They may be nice inside, but the external aesthetics shout functionallity. Local culture - there may be some but the bar names and menus are in English.
Alghero is at the end of a narrow gauge railway that's not on my pass, but I visited for and extra £5 as it's one of the few remaining parts of the narrow network on Sardinia. Even this has been cut back to the top of the town - you can see where the tracks used to go.
Finding out the train times was a challenge. The line starts in Sassari, where the station has three working platforms and a ticket office labelled "We do not sell tickets for Alghero". The standard European departure sheets don't show these trains either. The "Sardinian Green Train" website tells us about the weekly special excursions on some of the otherwise abandoned lines where they are still passable. The ARST website (they run the narrow gauge trains) proudly concentrated on their buses, but I *had* actually found a timetable. Trains differ totally on Sundays from the rest of the week, but they are all in one table there than needs very careful reading. When I reached Sassari, I bought my ticket at the station newsagent and tobacconist kiosk - where the gent checked my timings an reassured me I was correct in my reading, and I could make a round trip before the next main line train, some 4 and a half hours later.
A modern 2 carriage train, and it would seem that while I had some problems knowing when it ran, others did not. Before we set off, it was full (almost) and some standing. Made me feel old - VERY old - young people off for a day on the beach, well behaved and laughing and joking between themselves. No-one got off at intermediate stations; more joined at Olmedo where we passed a train going the other way.
The station at Alghero has clearly seen better / busier days. Apart from the platform we arrived at, two others are rusted and there's other track work that hasn't seen a train, I suspect, this millenium. A crossover to allow run-rounds, and a turntable - redundant too now that the trains are current generation diesel units. An hourly service is possible with the loop half way, and that's probably more than enough. And I note that trains can be coupled and run in pairs.
I bought myself a can of cold Sprite in the station cafe. Two big fridges full of beer, blokes sat at tables drinking been, smoking, talking back and forth. I eased my way through to the smaller fridge of soft drinks that was tucked behind. I really have no desire to dull my senses in the middle of the day which I know a beer would do in this heat. The return train was much quieter - still a goodly number of passengers through to Sassari. The countryside here is interesting. Low but steep hills with patches of trees between tree grown, and rocky limestone (?) outcrops. Some sections of the railway have been rebuilt to eliminate some twists and turns, but other sections are still torturous.
I'm glad I took a look at Alghero, but it's not on my list to return. Seen enough. Sassari may warrant a return visit; I had an hour to look around but felt there was still more to see; had to rush back to the station.
I will add that I respect other's rights to enjoy those pastimes - just not for me. And I do (now) know that there's some pretty parts in Alghero - just a long way from where the only station is now.
There are 4 trains a day Sassari to Cagliari and it's 260 kms - about the same distance as from Exeter to London. Other trains come in along the way from Olbia, and a further set start at Macomer. We set off on time at 14:37 but got held up on the approach to Ozieri-Chilivani - reason not clear to me but could well have been signalling issues - and we dragged into the station there about 20 minutes late which was enough to put us out-of-path
The line is single all the way from Sassari as far as San Gavino - three quarters of the way to Cagliari - and the policy is clearly than once a train is delayed, in waits at loops (and there seem to be a reasonable number of those) for other trains - having one train seriously delayed rather than knocking out the entire system. Even south of Macomer the service is sparse enough to do that without the next train catching up and being delayed as well.
We arrived into Cagliari at 19:05, versus a schedule of 17:50. And I am here today until a minute to midnight, on the ferry to Naples.
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