Отправлено: Head 12:25 25/04/04
У меня нашлось еще вот что - когда-то написал по-английски технологию посадки в поезд для интеррейлеров.
Boarding the train
The most important action for the InterRailer, especially when you go overnight. If you don’t buy a couchette, boarding determines living conditions for the whole trip. Your task is to find the best possible place and to be the first to take it. You should be well prepared for it.
1. Information is the most important thing in this imperfect world, so study the timetable. Learn departure time and the track number. Find out the departure time of the previous train going from the same track. Your train may appear several minutes after that. If your train doesn’t originate from this station, find the arrival timetable and learn your train arrival time.
2. Check if there are more trains going to your destination soon. If there are, and your selected train seems to you too crowded, you can wait for the next one.
3. Find the board where the composition of cars in trains is displayed. Learn the place of 2nd class sitting cars on the track - the sections of the platform are always indicated there. Also check if the whole train goes to your destination. If not, find out the place of your part of the train on the platform. If you can’t find this board, go to the station information office, usually they have this information.
4. If you stay more than one day in the city, you can just come to the station on the day previous to your departure day, and watch your selected train. You’ll know the composition of carriages and whether the train is crowded or not.
5. If your train stops at several stations in this city, go to the one where it stops first. It’s worth the trouble, you‘ll get a better place. I once took Berlin - Amsterdam train. It originates from Berlin Ostbahnhof and passes Berlin Zoologische Garten, where the main crowd awaits. I had a sleep that night only because I had started from Ostbahnhof and not from Zooligische Garten. Also, if your city is a busy one and your train stops just before it, you better go to that station. For example, trains often originate not from the main city station, but from the airport - go to the airport!
6. Go to the platform at least five minutes before your train arrives. Find the section where your cars stop. Within this area - it can take most part of the platform - stand at the point, which is the most remote from the entry to the platform. Most people have no idea of where their cars stop, so they concentrate in the middle of the platform or near the entry to it. With other conditions being equal, the back end of the train is preferable, because the majority of passengers won’t see it.
7. If your train is late or the previous train on this track is late, the track can be changed. Watch the station information board and go to the platform only after track information appears. Don’t hurry to the platform before, or you can say bye-bye to your train, departing from some other track.
8. As your train arrives, watch it carefully. If any changes of train’s composition took place, which is most unlikely, you are able to notice them. If the train doesn’t start from this station, watch which cars are crowded and which are not.
9. Boarding the train sometimes resembles taking a fortress by storm. Choose among cars that are close to you. Even if you noticed less crowded cars in the other end of the train, don’t run there - they will be occupied before you get there with your bags.
10. Capture the first empty compartment you see (or compartment with only one person inside), put all your bags on the seats to create the impression of a crowded compartment, and hurry along the carriage - probably you’ll find even better place. Make sure that the seats you liked aren’t reserved - it’s indicated on the compartment door. Even if they are, don’t panic and check if the reservation interferes with your route. If you go from Florence to Innsbruck, and the reservation is made from Rome to Florence or from Innsbruck to Munich, it’s no problem. (In countries like Greece or Slovakia they usually don’t put these reservation notes on the door, so it turns into roulette. Sit and prey that no one claims your seats.) Also check if the compartment is reserved for disabled people or mothers with children. I was going with an Austrian EuroCity train, and the conductor insisted on my leaving such a compartment despite the fact that the train terminated on the next station and no mothers or fathers with or without children could appear.
11. Choosing between smoking and non-smoking compartments is, of course, up to you, if such choice exists. Mind only the fact that in countries where smoking is not much welcomed, smoking compartments can be less crowded than non-smoking. If you’re a non-smoker but can bear one or two smoking persons, consider this opportunity. Besides, you can ask them to open the window for you to feel better. And in countries with low public culture you can find half of the inhabitants of non-smoking compartment enjoying their cigarettes and being absolutely sure that they have every right to do so.
12. After establishing your sovereignty over the compartment, try to prevent invasions. Turn off the light, close the door and curtains (so take the compartment where curtains still exist), and the passers-by will think that the compartment is fully occupied and everyone is sleeping. People usually feel awkward about disturbing those who sleep (I myself do) and don’t enter. This trick is a bit “unfair”, but try to forget about your conscience. You spend the whole month on trains and can have slightly better sleeping conditions than those that just go somewhere and return to their warm beds the next night.
13. In Spain and Portugal, omit points 1-12. Go to your reserved seat. It can’t be helped.
14. In Spain, if you have your reservation ticket, but your seat number is not indicated on it, omit points 1-13. (Such ticket presumes that there is at least one unoccupied seat somewhere in the train. No one knows if there is in fact, and least of all conductor and those who sold this “reservation”.) Just rush into all compartments, and choose the best place available. Spanish Railway can’t be helped.