Yes, I thinks it was 588 metres above sea level (and, yes, I missed an attraction)


I'll have to take my big feet there some winter soon!

 

A follow up because these are important things for passengers.   It seems that the making of connections even at times of some disruption, and schedules that are gentle enough to get back on track, are the norm and not the exception.

Regular readers will have seen my Visit to Makov article which happened to be made the day of my (!) failed connection to the GWR conference ... but this is about getting there.

The junction with the main line is at Cadac from where the train leaves up the branch every hour. Clockface. And the platform (if you can honour it with that description) is off to one side, across the yard, very much a reminder of Liskeard.   We set off around 10 minutes late - the 4 carriage train already had a comfortable load of people on board, more joined during the delay, and we were finally dispatched by a red-hatted staff member waving a baton at us.   Connection maintained.

Our pacer bucked and bucketed up the valley, calling and wayside stops and crossing roads and paths with limited and varying protecion, and a few horn toots.  People hearabouts seem to know that they should not get in the way of the trains, and the mentality of everyone needing protection against Darwin Award tendencies is absent.

We pulled into Turzokva - on the way to Makov -  7 or 8 minutes late.  Turzokva looks to be quite a substantial town, and the service beyond there does not merit 4 carriages - so we piled out of the 4 car, some of us into a 2 car that was on the same track just ahead of us and others headed for their town business / homes.  And our 2 car set off perhaps 3 or 4 minutes late but with the connection maintained.  Again, a pacer and a series of stations now up to the top of the valley - I think I saw a sign that said "588 metres" but I could have been wrong, or that could have been the distance to some attraction I missed.

We headed back down, starting on time.  The upper valley 2 car set and the lower valley 4 car set both have 20 to 25 minute "runs" so timetables recover the odd delay of a few minutes here and there, and the arrangement with the train change at the intermediate station allows an hourly service all the way, without the need for point changes, passing loops operating, or excess capacity carrying too much fresh air in the upper valley.

The lower valley train arrived late into Turzokva on its upward run (but I noted that the upper valley train was held once again) and we set off back down a few minutes late.  Arriving perhaps 8 minutes late into Cadca, the connecting train to Zilina and beyond was already waiting, connection maintained.  Rather than rush up the platform to the subway, we all used the barrow crossing to get to that posh electric train taking us into the city, under the accepting eyes of the dispatch staff ... and so we set off, delay reduced and passengers happy.

On the approach to Zilina, part of the rebuild is a viaduct and there's just a single operational track over that at the moment.  We had a couple of minutes to wait while a train came the other way, so were perhaps 10 down into Zilina - not that it seemed to matter to anyone.  Passengers for Vrutky and beyond were accommodated for sure - it was the same train (!) and I can't tell you about long distance stuff to Kosice and Bratislava except to say that a 5 to 10 minute late departure for those is often flagged up, and I suspect connection are held.

 
I'm on an experience-gathering mission. Most of the time things run fine, but in every system / on every railway things can go wrong and delays happen. And it's interesting to see how connections work too.  I will leave it to the knowledgable reader to contrast and compare to the UK way in such circumstances.

Zilina Station is being rebuilt. There are only half of the tracks in use at present, and access is via a single long subway which is crowded with people as train platforms are only announced a few minutes ahead - standard practise in Slovakia and when you see how narrow the platforms are, you'll understand why you really don't want people waiting on them. 

Our 07:44 departure was called a couple of minutes before it was due to leave and it left about 3 minutes late - because of the trek out to the platform, and the incredible crowds - it would appear that all the young people here have broken up from school and parties are being taken for school trips - days and summer camps - and the station and trains were crowded to the extent they added to delays.

A further couple of minutes were lost as we snaked our way east along the remaining operation line through the building site that's the station throat at the moment, and we arrived in Vrutky around 5 minutes late.  Oops - "short connection" according to the journey planner, but the onward train to Banska Bystrica was held, people who needed to do so made the connection, and it then left - around 3 minutes late.

A lovely ride to Banska Bystrica, but the beauty is another story.  We were due there at 09:25 and can't have been far off that though I did not note the time - I left the station for a cup of coffee and a cake and returned in good time for my next train - the 10:17 diesel service to Margecany.

Arriving back into the station at Banska Bystrica, now caffeined up, an electric train - the 10:15 to Bratislava which starts from there is waiting. The incoming diesel - due at 10:12 - pulls in perhaps 4 minutes late but the Bratislava train waits until passengers have transferred before leaving.  Meanwhile another electric train, this from Bratislava pulls in and people come across to the diesel train, a modern 2 carriage train, and we set off a handful of minutes late on the 3 hour 36 minute (scheduled) journey to Margecany.  It's a thinly served line - just two trains go the whole way on winter weekdays, boosted to four trains at weekends and in summer.

We toddle along - not part of this story - until we get to Cervena Skala high in the valley we have climbed and just before the watershed into the next valley.

Everyone else is getting off and I do know that some short workings terminate here but, no, the line to the next station is closed for engineering works and we are transferred to a bus.  As one of the last people to leave the train (I don't speak Slovak) the staff helped ensure I found the bus, and I got just about the last seat in amongst a typically teenage population in there with bags, cases and camping gear. And we set off.

Not a very long drive - to Telgart where the bus drove up the station approach and parked to allow up off near the platform.  No train waiting, but a couple of minutes later one arrived, passenger going the other way got off and transferred to the bus, and our gang joined the train.  I would estimate that we pulled out around 15 minutes behind schedule.

Many more stations, little and big, people off and on. I had chosen the opposite carriage to the school parties so I don't know where they left us, and a sparsely occupied carriage got busier as we headed down the next valley, more people getting on than off. We pulled into Margecany - scheduled 13:53 still a little behind schedule.  Ongoing passengers for the local train onward to Kosice transferred over (it may have been held a couple of minutes) and the local train to Strba called too a few minutes later, with the return train up the valley picking up its connecting passengers before it left - back on time, I think - certainly a planned connection that made.

I took the express back along the main line to Zilina (it was a loop I had done) and it left on time.  We were around 15 minutes late into Zilina - delay caused by some single line working past engineering works; we had to wait for a train coming the other way, and then a very slow approach to Zilina itself as the train snaked in over the few tracks currently in place.

So there you have it - for me as a passenger, it worked as I would have wanted it to.  All connections worked and there were no unplanned long waits.  Necessary track-work carried on without wholesale closure, bus help was provided where needed and the whole thing was a very pleasant experience.  And, no, I really wasn't worried about being 15 minutes or so late back into my digs.