• DebconfTravel2011
• Train

1. Train

Note: The train Munich - Zagreb continues along the Croation/Bosnien border. We could go until Novska (or Okucani) and organize a pickup bus from there for the remaining ~100 (70) km. (thkoch)

Easiest route seems to be: London - Paris - Munich - Zagreb - Banja Luka

Use www.bahn.de to get information up to Zagreb. Times between Zagreb and Banja Luka are available here: http://www.zfbh.ba/zfbhenx/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=56&Itemid=91 (Bosnian railways website as found on seat61; then select "Passenger traffic" and "International trains"; don't bother trying to book online or looking for a journey planner; the website is incomplete).

In the return direction journey takes about 26 hours; the Munich-Zagreb leg is a sleeper train. You may want to get together with other Debconf attendees to share a sleeper cabin.

According to www.seat61.com (the standard reference website for this kind of thing) the Zagreb-Banja Luka trains cost Eur30 for Zagreb-Sarajevo, so it will be less than that, and you can buy the ticket in Zagreb.

Paris-Munich and Munich-Zagreb can be booked at www.bahn.de, and are best bought as singles on the day bookings open, to get good prices; bookings open 92 days in advance. Total cost will be a few hundred euros each way.

Eurostar should be booked separately via the Eurostar website, after checking that www.bahn.de do not have a special offer for the connection you intend to make (they do sometimes have some very good deals from London). Eurostar tickets are cheaper if bought as returns; bookings open 120 days in advance.

UK domestic train timetables are only available 12 weeks in advance, which is shorter than the booking horizon for the other trains. So you will have to book your international trains before knowing what the situation is with the UK domestic services, and book the domestic trains later. If you buy a non-flexible domestic ticket make sure that it is to "London International (CIV)" as otherwise if your international trains are delayed and you miss your UK train, your UK train company is likely to insist that your ticket is invalid and you should buy a full price walk-up fare.

Ian Jackson has posted his schedule to the debian-devel and debian-uk lists: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2011/03/msg00769.html

1.1. Example itineraries

1.1.1. Outbound via Zagreb

Three changes and seven countries: Eurostar via Paris, then choice of overnight leg; either Paris to Munich, or Munich to Zagreb sleepers:

Most of the cost in this is the Eurostar. Price for the first of these routes London->Zagreb at 2011-05-6 was £179, or £225 with a cabin instead of a couchette.

• ## This is a tight connection, particularly as you'll have to buy a ticket too. If you miss this the next train is the 2124, so getting a bus instead makes sense. Or, you could plan to spend the day in Zagreb.

The daily bus timetable is: (from http://www.autobusni-kolodvor.com/en/timetable.aspx )

So one could perhaps plan to catch the early train, and not fuss about it too much if you miss it since the 10:30 bus is not too long a wait. You're not going to get the 09:00 bus though, since the stations are a short tram ride or 1.3km walk apart. The buses are actually quicker than the train. As for the option of going onto Novska or Okučani, Okučani only has one public bus a day, so if you're doing this you'll want to make your own arrangements, and for Novska if you're on the sleeper, you get in at 10:32 and the only useful bus is then the 11:30, which is actually the 10:30 from Zagreb, so the 09:00 will have driven past you while you were clunking along in the train. I suppose that there's a good chance that the bus stops at the train station in Novska though, but if you miss that one the next bus is late at night, so you'd be better off if you'd got off in Zagreb -- PhilHands

1.1.2. Return via Zagreb

Overnight either Bosnia to Zagreb and Munich to Paris/Cologne, or Zagreb to Munich and daytime back via Brussels.

As there are only 2 trains per day it may work better to get the bus to Zagreb first:

It is possible to do the whole journey by Train:

Zürich 20:42

1. # This is a very tight connection but there are lots of other connections. Ask bahn.de for trains from Munich to London and pick a set of trains you like.

2. * Ian Jackson & Phil Hands will be on these trains.

3. % Or change at Frankfurt airport, 10 minutes later with a shorter connection (both time and distance).
4. ^ Or board in Zurich at 20:42 to get two hours more bar time/sleep (leave earlier from Zagreb).