Slow train to Zürich

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Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 5:28 am

Last Sunday another diplomat claimed to have arrived in Zürich to meet his <strike>client</strike> victim and hand over the consignment (after receiving the required fees). Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned and the victim couldn't find him at the agreed meeting point. The diplomat texted to say that he had arrived at 16:30. Then over the next couple of hours there were various ignored calls and texts and at 18:30, this wonderful text

Quote:

Sir,how could you do such a thing?had being here waiting all time.I came in respect of you,being stranded here, and same time i left my family back home,and non place to pass the nigh cause am not with money on me here to pass the night in any of the hotel,pls can you just get me a ticket back to Belgium tonight?my wife she is upset to send me money for my hotel bills and ticket back home

All the time emails were coming from the main lad, which were replied to after a suitable time to say that the vic had been at the meeting point, but no one had approached him and he had heard nothing further from the diplomat.

I was still skeptical whether anyone had actually been in Zürich and if so, where they had come from (he uses his Belgian phone all the time). Last night, I received the below train ticket - he went for the "cheap" option of travelling by train, rather than the much quicker, but a bit more expensive option of flying.

That's €120 just for his journey to Zürich. I don't know where he stayed over night, but hotels are not cheap in Switzerland and nor is the food. I'm hoping to get a full breakdown of his costs so that I can reimburse him Twisted Evil

Timewise it's pretty much a 10 hour trip though Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany to Basel and then a change for a train to Zürich - assuming all his connections worked.

What a lovely way to spend your Sunday (and Monday). Pith Helmet

Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 6:39 am

Another great job! You're turning Zurich into quite the lad destination... Thumbs up

Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 7:56 am

Good job!

Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 8:18 am

Google Maps doesn't show distances for train journeys and the road journey is a lot more direct and for shorter, but another site I found shows the disance for some journeys and that came back with a distance of about 675km (about 420 miles for the metrically challenged).

Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 8:28 am

B8er wrote:

metrically challenged

Baiting Guru Joined: 10 Oct 2010 Posts: 3877

the fastest connections (6-7hours) I found used paris as hub, and depending on the distance, require either a nice walk or a ride with the taxi or with public transportation in paris.

but the TGV is quite expensive and the ticket doesn't indicate a ride on the TGV.

google has found an other connection, which requires to switch the train ~10 times, and gives laddy a 11 hour ride.

great work, I guess, he really hated it Very Happy

Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 9:08 am

^^^Google gave the trip via Paris as the first choice, but I think they went for the longer route as they said he would be leaving early morning

Fryer wrote:

quite the lad destination... Thumbs up

It's an ideal lad destination - cold (especially if you're wearing your "best" fake diplomat clothing - I doubt he though to wear proper winterwear), very expensive, difficult languagewise for your average lad (if you don't make an attempt to speak even basic German, many people will forget how to speak English, especially if you are the stereotypical fake diplomat).

Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 9:26 am

His ticket is routed :
Antwerp - Sterpenich - Luxembourg - Bettembourg - Remilly- Strasbourg.

The ticket inspection stamps show him travelling on trains :

3328 & 0091 in Belgium and 0091 in France.

Train 0091 is the 07:43 Bruxelles to Basels SBB
EC 91
VAUBAN 07:43 Basel SBB
Bruxelles-Nord 07:43 - Bruxelles-Schuman 07:50 - Bruxelles-Luxembourg 07:53 - Ottignies 08:16 • Luxembourg 10:50 - Thionville 11:20 - Metz Ville 11:41 - Strasbourg Ville 13:02 - Mulhouse Ville 14:09 - Basel SBB 14:34

Train 3328 is the 07:39 Antwerpen to Bruxelles Nord, arriving 08:43, so either ticket inspector had the wrong train number on his stamper or the lad was lucky to make a connection into a late running IC train.
His connection was on train 9213, a TGV service from Paris which arrived in Basel (booked time) 15:26 and departed at 15:33, which adds to the idea that he made a late running connection in Brussels. Arrival time in Zurich at 16:26.

You'll need to ask for copies of his return trip tickets so we can see what he did to get back.

Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 9:41 am

^^^ Thanks IG, the arrival times in Basel and Zürich make sense - he sent me a text at 16:24 to say he was at Zürich station and one that I missed before at half past 3 to say he was in Switzerland and would text when he got to Zürich.

I've asked for a copy of his return tickets so I can reimburse him and also his hotel bill (if he stayed in one).

I'm guessing that the ticket was some sort of cheap flexible off-peak one, so hopefully the return journey on a Monday morning will have been a lot more expensive.

Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 10:19 am

Just out of curiosity, what would a one way ticket cost?

Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 10:22 am

Wonder if one of you could send one of the lads here january-early march, given enough luck, there's -20 degrees of sweet freezing blizzard waiting for them Smile

(that's -4 degrees fahrenheit)

Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 10:46 am

Capone wrote:

Just out of curiosity, what would a one way ticket cost?

According to the Swiss rail website, a ticket for tomorrow morning from Zürich to Antwerp ranges from Fr. 155 to Fr. 220 (€145 to €205) depending on the route. I don't know whether he'd get those prices if he tried to buy from the ticket office on the day.

Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 11:41 am

Nicely done!

Baiting Guru Joined: 10 Oct 2010 Posts: 3877

I guess, the main problem with calculating the price is, that the different national rail companies have different plans, and they have an agreement that they can sell tickets of other rail-networks. meaning: laddy buys a ticket in antwerp for the whole journey, even if he uses the DB-net. and now it gets complicated: they all charge different prices. so it is possible that the very same ticket bought in belgium is cheaper than in germany.

and departing from switzerland usually is really expensive Twisted Evil

regarding his hotel-bill: I expect it to be very expensive, because there are no really cheap hotels in zürich, and if the victim wants to meet with the lad in his hotel, the victim would get a very bad impression. after all, he poses as a diplomat Very Happy

Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 3:18 pm

Bravo!!

After traveling for so long, I think the diplomat should have tried harder not to ruin the rendezvous. Smile

Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 3:36 pm

Excellent work, B8er!

We should send the lad a copy of "Ticket to Ride". Sounds like he might be a natural...

http://www.daysofwonder.com/tickettoride/en/europe/

Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 3:59 pm

Great job, B8er. Stranded lad emails are thing of beauty. Laughing

Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 5:34 pm

Nice one

Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 6:37 pm

Nice job.

Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 8:40 pm

That's a decent jaunt! Great Job! Thumbs up

Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 10:28 pm

I like seeing lads ticked off. Or ticketed off, as the case may be.

Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 11:27 pm

Great job on the safari! I love reading about lads wasting their time and money traveling. With the recent jump in the value of the Swiss franc, it must have cost him dearly. Very Happy

Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 1:10 am

How did he manage to scan those pictures in? Must have been expensive if he had to use an internet cafe ... Great Work!

Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 3:47 pm

Conveniently, the "diplomat" has thrown away his hotel bill and return ticket, but this is his claimed expenses

Quote:

i think we should act fast cause he said his hotel bills cost him, 336 franc for two days and also his coming back bills cost him 210 franc, that of coming to Zurich cost him 120.40 cents and he can not estimate his feeding expenses cause he was perplexed that very day.

I'm not sure why he stayed in Zürich for 2 days (they claim he returned Tuesday), but the train fare is around the cost I got off the Swiss Rail website. He says he stayed at the Ibis hotel, and the price could be accurate.

He won't be getting refunded though as he can't prove it.

Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 4:05 pm

Quote:

he can not estimate his feeding expenses cause he was perplexed that very day.

Sounds like a very successful bait! Laughing