Quick tip: you can easily get rid of flickering when filming in Europe by filming in any multiple of 50 frames per second (and any multiple of 60 in the US) as that's the electricity frequency; if you match it it won't flicker
5:13 - Fun fact! In 2008, Mulhouse donated five of its surplus trams to Melbourne, Australia, where they kept their yellow livery for a while. The arrangement was supposed to be temporary, but they were permanently sold to Melbourne in the end. So in a way, those trams actually do go to two countries!
St Louis, Missouri: Our light metro system goes to another state! Saint-Louis, Haut-Rhin, France: I can go to Switzerland and Germany on our trams! St Louis, Missouri: Wow, no way- *WAIT WHO ARE YOU* Saint-Louis was officially named by Louis XIV in 1684, three years after the capture of Strasbourg, after his predecessor King Louis IX. Just like the one in Missouri named after Louis IX in 1764. Basel's the host of the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest, the third Swiss city to host the competition after Lugano in 1956 and Lausanne in 1989. For the latter, Switzerland won in 1988 thanks to Celine Dion performing Ne partez pas sans moi or "Don't leave without me"....yes, a French-Canadian represented Switzerland, not the only time a now famous star from outside Europe represented a country in the contest as Senhit's song for San Marino in 2021 included FLO RIDA! Basler Fasnacht, one of Switzerland’s biggest carnivals, takes place every year for three days starting on the Monday after Ash Wednesday. During Fasnacht, the city of Basel is filled with people in costumes. Dozens of fife and drum clubs parade in medieval guild tradition with fantastical masks and illuminated lanterns. Basel is an important center for the pharmaceutical industry. Roche and Novartis, two of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, have their headquarters in Basel. Known as one of the world’s best places to commercialize new drug discoveries, there are 900 pharmaceutical and MedTech companies that employee 50,000 people in Basel and its surrounding suburbs. The University of Basel was founded in 1460 and is the oldest university in Switzerland. Many famous personalities have studied at the University of Basel, including Erasmus of Rotterdam and Paracelsus. Basel is home to around 40 museums in a very small area, including the famous Kunstmuseum Basel with works by Picasso, Rembrandt and Van Gogh. In fact, Basel is the city with the highest density of museums in Switzerland! Besides bridges, you can cross the Rhine on one of Basel’s wooden ferries call Fähri. Attached to a steel cable, these non-motorized ferries are silently drawn by the current between the two banks of the river. Basel has a history of supporting public art since 1661, when the city purchased works by artist Hans Holbeing. The Basel Art Museum (Kunstmuseum Basel) houses the largest public art collection in Switzerland. Today the museum’s collections span from the early 15th century to the present, with paintings by Van Gogh. Cézanne, Picasso and Braque. Once a year, the city hosts Art Basel, the world’s premier fair for modern classics and contemporary art. Started in 1970 by Basel gallerists Ernst Beyeler, Trudl Bruckner and Balz Hilt, Art Basel attracted 93,000 visitors over six days in 2019, as it exhibiting the work of more than 4,000 artists. Basel's Basler Münster was built between 1019-1500 in Romanesque and Gothic style. It was originally a Catholic cathedral but was converted to a Reformed Protestant church in 1529.
DC Metro: I go to two states and a federal district Basel trams: *Finally, a worthy opponent! Our battle will be legendary* For why Basel's airport is in France, plans for a joint Swiss-French airport started in the 1930s but were halted by WWII. The suburb of Allschwil was proposed for a new airport, the French centered on developing a single airport that would serve both countries, enhancing its international airport status. In 1946, talks resumed, and it was agreed that an airport would be built north of Blotzheim. France provided the land, while the Swiss canton of Basel-Stadt covered the construction costs. The airport is jointly administered by France and Switzerland, governed by a 1949 international convention. Under the 1946 treaty, the Swiss and French are granted access to the airport without any customs or other border restrictions. While on French soil, it has a Swiss customs border and is connected to the Swiss customs area by a customs-free road to Basel, allowing air travelers access into Switzerland bypassing French customs clearance. The airport's board has eight members each from France and Switzerland and two advisers from Germany. Due to its international status, EuroAirport has three IATA airport codes, BSL (Basel) is the Swiss code, MLH (Mulhouse) is the French code and EAP (EuroAirport) is the neutral code. Speaking of tripoints, worth mentioning that you can take the Port Jervis Line from Hoboken Terminal to Port Jervis, and the station is nearby the Tri-States Monument between New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, on the southern side of the Laurel Grove Cemetery. This also makes the tripoint the northernmost point in New Jersey. The Port Jervis Line is unique in different ways. Similar to the Pascack Valley Line, it is operated by NJ Transit, but service is under contract with Metro-North. And so the coaches and locomotives used on the Port Jervis and Pascack Valley Lines are labelled Metro-North and NJ Transit depending on who owns the trainset! The Port Jervis Line is actually a pretty neat line as it runs through some of the most remote and rural country found on the Metro-North system, and includes both its longest bridge, the Moodna Viaduct, and longest tunnel, the Otisville Tunnel. The Moodna Viaduct was constructed between 1906 and 1909 and spans the Moodna Creek valley for 3,200 feet/975 m and is 193 feet/59 m high at its highest point, making it the second-highest and second-longest railroad trestle east of the Mississippi River, behind the Poughkeepsie Bridge which is now the Walkway over the Hudson. The Otisville Tunnel is over 1,600 m in length and passes underneath the Shawagunk Ridge. The tracks of what's now the Port Jervis Line was once part of the Erie Railroad. Using the Erie's main line which once had long-distance trains serving Binghamton, Buffalo, and Chicago, and the Graham Line, the portion from Harriman to Otisville which was built in 1906 to 1909 as a low-level high-speed freight bypass. The Graham Line has no grade crossings, which was a rarity on the Erie. The downside of the improved grade and curvature is that the Graham Line is seven miles longer than the original mainline. This portion of the line bypasses the original Erie mainline through Monroe, Chester, Goshen and Middletown. The MTA has used the Graham Line since the 1980s, due to pressure from the towns to move the trains out of the center of towns. While this helped speed up service and safety by avoiding the many grade crossings in the old town centers, improving safety and train speed, this was a very unpopular move with commuters, who were used to having their trains stop right in the center of their towns, and since the Graham Line didn't pass through populated areas as it was designed to be a bypass, so people drive to the stations. There is Short Line Bus service at some stations (Suffern has Hudson Link and Transport of Rockland services as well), Harriman is the busiest stop on the line thanks to Woodbury Commons which has had weekend-only shuttles, but Kathy Hochul has wanted shuttle bus service timed with Port Jervis Line trains to attractions like Woodbury Commons, Legoland New York, Storm King, Renaissance Fair, and Stewart Airport. Also, between Port Jervis and Otisville, you can see Falun Gong's Dragon Springs compound, which is uh...quite the deep rabbit hole
I had a wonderful time visiting Basel last summer. I took a Nightjet from Amsterdam and in the confusion of the morning I disembarked at Basel Bahnhof instead of Basel SBB, so I had to walk all the way from Germany (two blocks) to get to my hotel. There is an annual street festival in September that takes up a lot of the old city, I highly recommend it. The Zoo was also a lot of fun. I was caught off guard with the tram fare being on the honor system, after experiencing the Amsterdam operators being sticklers about fare validation. It was nice that public transit is free for hotel guests, along with major discounts on activities, very welcoming.
Big fan of the trams in Basel. Was able to get from our riverboat to the SBB out to the airport in Zurich much easier than our fellow passengers, but we're the only ones who looked into it.
I was born and grew up in Rodersdorf. It's great to see a video of this place. It was normal for us to go back and forth between the borders. It was only after I had traveled a lot that I realized how unique it is to live in such an open border area. I would like to see more people experience this feeling of freedom. It's great.
Great video again!! What a neat tram/LRT/interurban system and those cities look incredible. It's amazing such small cities can have such a comprehensive transit system and one serving three nations to boot. Those older trams have a cool vibe too. Basel truly shows that you don't have to be a massive city to have quality/comprehensive transit, nice urbanism and even suburbs that don't suck.
Germany introduced temporary border controls at the border with Switzerland on October 16, 2023. In this context, checks on the cross-border tram line 8 between Basel and Weil am Rhein were also intensified. Since mid-October 2023, over 900 trams on line 8 have been inspected. The main reason for introducing these controls was the persistently high number of irregular migrations across the border, which increasingly affected Germany. The measures aim to protect internal security and reduce unauthorized entries.
Aha, I sense an imminent date with the Badische Bhf! Nice summary of the system, thank you - first time I took the Rodersdorf route, it was separate from the main tram network and still ran conventional (by Swiss standards) railcars that ran around their trailers at each terminus \m/
Great video! Amazing to see my hometown and too bad you caught it during bad weather. Especially since we have the most sunshine and the highest temperatures of all of Switzerland north of the Alps.
Can you PLEASE explain me, how a train nerd can "accidently" take the wrong direction in a TER? Just for the viewers informations: The headings are written on the train and "Strasbourg" isn't in Switzerland...
The first tram line to Germany has been line 6 to Lörrach from 1919 until 1967. During the Nazi rule and after WW II passengers had to change tram cars at the border. Today they have a tri-national S-Bahn service including a line to Lörrach an farther to Zell. The local dialect in Southern Alsace and in the German border region is quite similar to Swiss German.
Great! You were very close, or maybe even onboard a TER 200 train when in (or heading to) Mulhouse. This TER runs at 200km/h between Mulhouse and Strasbourg.
There are a lot of different rolling stocks on the Strasbourg to Basel line, even more in the Alsace region. The one you rode on is a "Corail" train, which is incredibly cushy and cozy - not that the others are uncomfortable or anything but these ones are truly great. As others have pointed out, there is also an international tram line between Strasbourg and Kehl, but sadly this is "just" one border crossing, not two. And up north, still in Alsace, the French town of Wissembourg is home to stops for regional German bus lines. I don't know how frequent border controls are on the Basel tram, but if you went there in September or October (highly possible given the weather in the video!) this might have been due to a knife attack in Solingen.
5:39 The compartments you find only in the pilot car / cap car… Btw , until the 1960’s there were lines to Saint Louis eglise and to Hunningue in France and to Lörrach in Germany already. Now there are ideas to connect the 8 from Weil to Riehen/CH and further to Lörrach. Euroairport Basel Mulhouse (Freiburg) is the only real international airport in the world. To Basel BSL for Mulhouse MLH and a divided terminal to serve both countries plus a border free road access for the Swiss…
1. As a tram enthusiast from Germany, I am sad that the old Be4/4 trams of Basel BVB aren't actually allowed into Germany 2. The old BLT trams are freaking awesome but I have yet to ride it on the suburban section
I’m sorry that you had to experience a border check when crossing into Germany, I wish populist policies wouldn’t have prevailed so much and that the border would remained an abandoned structure of a past Europe. I’m so annoyed by border checks in Europe. While I never crossed the border into Basel, most frequently (like ever other year) I pass the border in to Austria. To be precise from Austria to Germany. I was born into a Europe of Schengen for about the first 10 years of my life, I never experienced a border as road sign or sometimes a roadside attraction. That was what I understood as an international border. I just want the old Schengen back, I hate the soft closed borders so much. It is not the European unity I love so much.
Great Video from my hometown! Both TER you used were TER200, the fastest TER service in France. They go 200 kph between St Louis and Strasbourg and have limited stopps. They only use this kind of rolling stock (Corail) but there are other TER services on the same route with other rolling stock as this is a very busy corridor. It's one of the few french lines with a pulse time table (or Taktfahrplan as we say)
0:43 Loved that card! came with my hotel too, and definitely got rid of the financial burden of taking transit in switzerland given how much more expensive everything else was. (although you can theoretically ride as much as you want for your leisure for free if you don't get caught...)
It feels so wrong seeing you on my local tram line. It is so sad that the old trams on line 17 are getting replaced by a new stadler tram that is so horrible. The line 10 is operated like a normal rail line between Basel and Rodersdorf the BLT trams are trains to the french. The BVB on the other hand operates line 3 as a tram route the BVB trams are trams to both the french and the germans. The trains used on the TER line between Basel and Mulhouse are the same CORAIL passenger cars than on Al Atlas trains in Maroc. I hope you enjoyed your stay in my home city.
Did you also get to test some of the new TINA Trams that BLT has started using recently? Also will you cover the extensive Bus network too? Anyways cool video, I love the public transport, so reliable to get anywhere. The only thing I hate are the wooden seats in the ''Flexcity'' Model, there was a vote for what seats they should do and Wood won because of ''hygene'', really stupid.
I've been on one of the lines mentioned in the video (BLT line 10) absolutely amazing how it just seamlessly dips into France and back into Switzerland again. (I wonder how that was before Schengen?) Only in Europe!
Even as a Hungarian, living in an EU and Schengen country, it was so weird yet satisfying to travel with these trams, when I visited Basel. Sometimes I think about how lucky I am, that I can just hop on a train or get into my car, and in an hour's notice, I'm in a completely different country! My parents grew up behind the iron curtain. At that time (from 1972), in Hungary people could hold two types of passports: red and blue. The red only allowed traveling to "friendly", aka. most, but not all communist countries (Yugoslavia was not friendly to USSR thus also to Hungary), and people could spend at most 30 days abroad in one go. With the blue passport you could travel to all Western countries (every three years), but basically no civil person got them. There was only one exception: if you had a relative living abroad in the West, they could send an invitation to have you travel to them once a year.
Very interesting. None of the trams you were on seemed crowded at all. Would you say it's efficient and convenient? Would you say it's comparable to systems in the USA in terms of efficiency and ridership? Thanks.
As to the crowding, imo CH is fairly good at offering „overcapacity“, so yes, it can get crowded, especially when tens of thousands come to see a soccer match, but they do their best to prevent that
@@mrxman581 meh, unlikely. I‘ve got my own experiences in Basel and they’re basically never actually full, even at rush hour. There’s line E11, 17 and 21 that only run during rush hour as well as rush hour extensions to lines 1 and 2. Otherwise, you get the same long trams every couple of minutes all day every day, which is way more capacity than usually needed off-peak. And it’s not like people take usually the car because it’s raining (I‘m sure, there’s a few, but on the other hand, there’s at least as many people taking the tram instead of walking or biking due to the rain). Many people, especially in downtown, don’t even have access to a car as they usually don’t need one, so the tram is the rain-proof way to get around
@@mrxman581 as for the efficiency: there’s probably some accountants that would love to reduce service for efficiency, but that would hinder the convenience. And the trams in Basel are definitely convenient, provided your trip goes towards downtown Basel, otherwise you’ll get an equally convenient bus. Usually with frequencies of every 15 min or less per line (many lines double up for even more frequent service), there’s also integrated fares, at least on the swiss and German side, making it easy to get the right ticket or pass (most regulars have a pass). Although with driver only operations and automated ticket machines, one could argue that customer service is limited in favour of more services, but that’s pretty much all swiss public transport.
2:42 I suppose that there is some steering panel in the back, hidden under a cover, just not suited for regular service, but useful if some backing is necessary. That would explain the wiper. In Poznań, a lot of trams have the hidden steering panels but no wiper in the back.
Fun fact: That bridge was constructed in Ghent, Belgium, and transported to Strasbourg via various waterways. In Ghent you will see some similarly-looking bridges over the 'Ringvaart' (a major water artery, but not as wide as the Rhine), too.
Interesting video. I'd like to draw your attention to two things though: 1) You need to update your Schengen map. Bulgaria and Romania became full members on 2025-01-01. 2) Don't forget irreversible binomials. It's always 'knife and fork' and not the opposite.
Le bonjour de Saint-Louis. Merci pour la vidéo! Avez-vous vu le "Tram-Train" à Mulhouse? Il vient d'une vallée où il utilise les rails de train et ensuite utilise le réseau de tram de Mulhouse.
So, the Airport has a french (european) and swiss exit. On the swiss exit you can take the all electric 50 bus to sbb every 10 min or so, it's double articolated and super fast, honestly you don't even need a tram. On the french side you have the 11 bus operated by distribus that connects to saint louis station every 30min (you can reach colmar mulhouse and strasbourg). Reaching Germany is totally more tricky but yeah the new bus 220 every hour (.5 hour on peak times) seems interesting. A race to lorrach between a 50 bus + train from sbb and the 220 bus might be interesting! it's all covered in the u abo afterall!
Basel is one of the cities for me to visit the next time I'm in Europe. The tram system has a good look with all the different vintage models. As for how to pronouce Mulhouse, it's like " MUHL-huze"; as it's French.
Watching this from Germany right now after having flown via Iceland where the leg from Iceland to Germany is considered a domestic flight (as in they are both part of Schengen as well)
Thanks to Schengen, you can fly all the way from Iceland (close to Greenland) to Cyprus (close to the Middle)East), and from the arctic circle in Norway to the edge of Africa in southern Spain, that's still domestic flights. Flew from Luxembourg to the Greek isle of Creta last summer, there naturally was a security check before boarding the plane, but no border check upon arrival. And same currency.
I've been to that Basel McDonald's far too many times. I found out the hard way that restaurants close around 6pm. At that point, if you're a traveler with no kitchen, you have a choice between that and Burger King.
I rode a TER with compartments when I went to Walibi Rhone-Alpes in 2022 (they have a bus but research was inconclusive. Either its seasonal or I didn't do enough research)
Too bad you were there in such grey weather. The country around there is extremely beautiful. I live just over the German border. Basel has so much to offer culturally.
Maybe an umbrella could have been useful, especially to avoid rain on glasses but that's an old man thing, isn't it? :) btw I went to Germany by tram but not in France yet, next time in Basel I'll try.
The thumbnail is a bit misleading, since the yellow trams only run via France (Rt. 10 and one stop). The green ones are the ones which run to both France (Rt. 3) and Germany (Rt. 8)...
@@ClassyWhalein San Sebastian there is El Topo, which goes to France. There is also the Leman Express in Geneva, which is not technically a Metro, but works like one (and is one of the few systems to work 24/7).
@ Oh, I didn't know Donostia's crossed the border! I have seen that they want to extend the Copenhagen Metro to Malmö, and there's something that might be metro-like planned between Singapore and Malaysia.
Als Einwohner von Basel musste ich mir das Video natürlich ansehen... Gut und sauber gemacht, einzig das Wetter hätte etwas angenehmer sein dürfen... Liebe Grüsse ais Basel...
I did a field trip once to each of the countries, via EuroAirport. I cocked up thinking we were going into Switzerland first and bought some duty free cigarettes, only to find out we were actually going into Germany. I remember we went from Mullhouse to Basel, and pulled over at a service station just before the border where the coach driver told us 'Go get lunch'. I'm glad he did as I remember seeing the insane prices for a sandwich once we crossed the border! Freiberg is such a beautiful city and a must for every urban planner if you ever get the chance. Just don't turn up late to your hotel like we did on our trip. Without some careful negotiations, we almost had to spend a night sleeping on the coach! There's also a great book called 'Green Cities' that focuses on Freiberg, from anti nuclear energy, to how they actually build infrastructure alongside developments, so there's no need to rely on a car (In fact, they are banned from the city centre IIRC).
Luckily you have not been controlled cause that "mobility ticket" you get when staying in a hotel is not valid for cross-country travel as well as for the zone Leymen is in😅
Just curious, how many flickering lights are allowed to be in a video before it's considered hazardous enough to get a warning? Figure you'd know more than me
For your viewers - I have never seen rain in all of the several times I have been in Switzerland (it beats me why these UTubers insist on making their films in the depth of winter anymore than you'd want to chase all over NYC suburbs in January!!!). Next point - always check the DIRECTION destination panel of your train (if you don't wish to parler with le conducteur). Final point - Mulhouse has one of the most famous railway museums in all of Europe, a touch even more spectacular than its sister at York City in England. Again, what do you feel like seeing in the depths of winter - just get back in the train/tram and keep warm.!
I am a little late to this comment section, but i have to say, this was a infomative yet cozy Video, love to find something like this! Greeting from Germany :D
I have major tram envy for basel. They have very similar vehicles to my local network in Antwerp. Don't get me wrong our system is definitely very good, but Basel is what we should and could have.
Quick tip: you can easily get rid of flickering when filming in Europe by filming in any multiple of 50 frames per second (and any multiple of 60 in the US) as that's the electricity frequency; if you match it it won't flicker
Although phone cameras don't usually let you change to 25/50, because screw Europe I guess?
@@StotakkFilmsyou can use a third party app
@@StotakkFilmsI thought iPhone let you switch to PAL
@@StotakkFilmsAuto FPS on Samsung
5:13 - Fun fact! In 2008, Mulhouse donated five of its surplus trams to Melbourne, Australia, where they kept their yellow livery for a while. The arrangement was supposed to be temporary, but they were permanently sold to Melbourne in the end. So in a way, those trams actually do go to two countries!
@@skywardlp4916 🤯
they are used exclusively on the 96 tram route which is a converted train line
@MassbyTrain are they the C2 bumblebee trams?
@@MassbyTrain Cool, i will be in Melbourne in April so I will have to take the 96 (i believe it's free in the downtown area)
Looking for this comment. Does this technically make them the only trams that go between continents?
St Louis, Missouri: Our light metro system goes to another state!
Saint-Louis, Haut-Rhin, France: I can go to Switzerland and Germany on our trams!
St Louis, Missouri: Wow, no way- *WAIT WHO ARE YOU*
Saint-Louis was officially named by Louis XIV in 1684, three years after the capture of Strasbourg, after his predecessor King Louis IX. Just like the one in Missouri named after Louis IX in 1764. Basel's the host of the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest, the third Swiss city to host the competition after Lugano in 1956 and Lausanne in 1989. For the latter, Switzerland won in 1988 thanks to Celine Dion performing Ne partez pas sans moi or "Don't leave without me"....yes, a French-Canadian represented Switzerland, not the only time a now famous star from outside Europe represented a country in the contest as Senhit's song for San Marino in 2021 included FLO RIDA! Basler Fasnacht, one of Switzerland’s biggest carnivals, takes place every year for three days starting on the Monday after Ash Wednesday. During Fasnacht, the city of Basel is filled with people in costumes. Dozens of fife and drum clubs parade in medieval guild tradition with fantastical masks and illuminated lanterns. Basel is an important center for the pharmaceutical industry. Roche and Novartis, two of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, have their headquarters in Basel. Known as one of the world’s best places to commercialize new drug discoveries, there are 900 pharmaceutical and MedTech companies that employee 50,000 people in Basel and its surrounding suburbs. The University of Basel was founded in 1460 and is the oldest university in Switzerland. Many famous personalities have studied at the University of Basel, including Erasmus of Rotterdam and Paracelsus. Basel is home to around 40 museums in a very small area, including the famous Kunstmuseum Basel with works by Picasso, Rembrandt and Van Gogh. In fact, Basel is the city with the highest density of museums in Switzerland!
Besides bridges, you can cross the Rhine on one of Basel’s wooden ferries call Fähri. Attached to a steel cable, these non-motorized ferries are silently drawn by the current between the two banks of the river. Basel has a history of supporting public art since 1661, when the city purchased works by artist Hans Holbeing. The Basel Art Museum (Kunstmuseum Basel) houses the largest public art collection in Switzerland. Today the museum’s collections span from the early 15th century to the present, with paintings by Van Gogh. Cézanne, Picasso and Braque. Once a year, the city hosts Art Basel, the world’s premier fair for modern classics and contemporary art. Started in 1970 by Basel gallerists Ernst Beyeler, Trudl Bruckner and Balz Hilt, Art Basel attracted 93,000 visitors over six days in 2019, as it exhibiting the work of more than 4,000 artists. Basel's Basler Münster was built between 1019-1500 in Romanesque and Gothic style. It was originally a Catholic cathedral but was converted to a Reformed Protestant church in 1529.
Mr. Supreme Leader your comment takes the cake
Awesome video! Sounds like you covered Basel’s tram network extensively! I love how efficient the border check was in order to keep the tram moving!
DC Metro: I go to two states and a federal district
Basel trams: *Finally, a worthy opponent! Our battle will be legendary*
For why Basel's airport is in France, plans for a joint Swiss-French airport started in the 1930s but were halted by WWII. The suburb of Allschwil was proposed for a new airport, the French centered on developing a single airport that would serve both countries, enhancing its international airport status. In 1946, talks resumed, and it was agreed that an airport would be built north of Blotzheim. France provided the land, while the Swiss canton of Basel-Stadt covered the construction costs. The airport is jointly administered by France and Switzerland, governed by a 1949 international convention. Under the 1946 treaty, the Swiss and French are granted access to the airport without any customs or other border restrictions. While on French soil, it has a Swiss customs border and is connected to the Swiss customs area by a customs-free road to Basel, allowing air travelers access into Switzerland bypassing French customs clearance. The airport's board has eight members each from France and Switzerland and two advisers from Germany. Due to its international status, EuroAirport has three IATA airport codes, BSL (Basel) is the Swiss code, MLH (Mulhouse) is the French code and EAP (EuroAirport) is the neutral code.
Speaking of tripoints, worth mentioning that you can take the Port Jervis Line from Hoboken Terminal to Port Jervis, and the station is nearby the Tri-States Monument between New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, on the southern side of the Laurel Grove Cemetery. This also makes the tripoint the northernmost point in New Jersey. The Port Jervis Line is unique in different ways. Similar to the Pascack Valley Line, it is operated by NJ Transit, but service is under contract with Metro-North. And so the coaches and locomotives used on the Port Jervis and Pascack Valley Lines are labelled Metro-North and NJ Transit depending on who owns the trainset! The Port Jervis Line is actually a pretty neat line as it runs through some of the most remote and rural country found on the Metro-North system, and includes both its longest bridge, the Moodna Viaduct, and longest tunnel, the Otisville Tunnel. The Moodna Viaduct was constructed between 1906 and 1909 and spans the Moodna Creek valley for 3,200 feet/975 m and is 193 feet/59 m high at its highest point, making it the second-highest and second-longest railroad trestle east of the Mississippi River, behind the Poughkeepsie Bridge which is now the Walkway over the Hudson. The Otisville Tunnel is over 1,600 m in length and passes underneath the Shawagunk Ridge. The tracks of what's now the Port Jervis Line was once part of the Erie Railroad. Using the Erie's main line which once had long-distance trains serving Binghamton, Buffalo, and Chicago, and the Graham Line, the portion from Harriman to Otisville which was built in 1906 to 1909 as a low-level high-speed freight bypass.
The Graham Line has no grade crossings, which was a rarity on the Erie. The downside of the improved grade and curvature is that the Graham Line is seven miles longer than the original mainline. This portion of the line bypasses the original Erie mainline through Monroe, Chester, Goshen and Middletown. The MTA has used the Graham Line since the 1980s, due to pressure from the towns to move the trains out of the center of towns. While this helped speed up service and safety by avoiding the many grade crossings in the old town centers, improving safety and train speed, this was a very unpopular move with commuters, who were used to having their trains stop right in the center of their towns, and since the Graham Line didn't pass through populated areas as it was designed to be a bypass, so people drive to the stations. There is Short Line Bus service at some stations (Suffern has Hudson Link and Transport of Rockland services as well), Harriman is the busiest stop on the line thanks to Woodbury Commons which has had weekend-only shuttles, but Kathy Hochul has wanted shuttle bus service timed with Port Jervis Line trains to attractions like Woodbury Commons, Legoland New York, Storm King, Renaissance Fair, and Stewart Airport. Also, between Port Jervis and Otisville, you can see Falun Gong's Dragon Springs compound, which is uh...quite the deep rabbit hole
I had a wonderful time visiting Basel last summer. I took a Nightjet from Amsterdam and in the confusion of the morning I disembarked at Basel Bahnhof instead of Basel SBB, so I had to walk all the way from Germany (two blocks) to get to my hotel. There is an annual street festival in September that takes up a lot of the old city, I highly recommend it. The Zoo was also a lot of fun. I was caught off guard with the tram fare being on the honor system, after experiencing the Amsterdam operators being sticklers about fare validation. It was nice that public transit is free for hotel guests, along with major discounts on activities, very welcoming.
Big fan of the trams in Basel. Was able to get from our riverboat to the SBB out to the airport in Zurich much easier than our fellow passengers, but we're the only ones who looked into it.
I was born and grew up in Rodersdorf. It's great to see a video of this place. It was normal for us to go back and forth between the borders. It was only after I had traveled a lot that I realized how unique it is to live in such an open border area. I would like to see more people experience this feeling of freedom. It's great.
Watching a Europe video while being in Europe (Iceland) is super wired! I gotta visit the mainland sometime!
I love Basels tram system. Since I live in a city which replaced its trams, I often think about what could've been, had we kept our meter gauge trams.
Great video again!! What a neat tram/LRT/interurban system and those cities look incredible. It's amazing such small cities can have such a comprehensive transit system and one serving three nations to boot. Those older trams have a cool vibe too. Basel truly shows that you don't have to be a massive city to have quality/comprehensive transit, nice urbanism and even suburbs that don't suck.
Germany introduced temporary border controls at the border with Switzerland on October 16, 2023. In this context, checks on the cross-border tram line 8 between Basel and Weil am Rhein were also intensified. Since mid-October 2023, over 900 trams on line 8 have been inspected. The main reason for introducing these controls was the persistently high number of irregular migrations across the border, which increasingly affected Germany. The measures aim to protect internal security and reduce unauthorized entries.
is the same thing in Strasbourg, a tram to Kehl, Germany, cool thing
In Basel SBB main station you will find also Italian trains, as it is the end stop of the Milano - Basel relation!
Like at every bigger station in Switzerland..
French, German, Italian and Austrian trains everywhere..
Even eastern european night trains in Zurich
Aha, I sense an imminent date with the Badische Bhf! Nice summary of the system, thank you - first time I took the Rodersdorf route, it was separate from the main tram network and still ran conventional (by Swiss standards) railcars that ran around their trailers at each terminus \m/
Great video! Amazing to see my hometown and too bad you caught it during bad weather. Especially since we have the most sunshine and the highest temperatures of all of Switzerland north of the Alps.
Can you PLEASE explain me, how a train nerd can "accidently" take the wrong direction in a TER? Just for the viewers informations: The headings are written on the train and "Strasbourg" isn't in Switzerland...
Trams, busses and trains from and to Switzerland, France and Germany - welcome to Basel!
Normal for us though
The first tram line to Germany has been line 6 to Lörrach from 1919 until 1967. During the Nazi rule and after WW II passengers had to change tram cars at the border. Today they have a tri-national S-Bahn service including a line to Lörrach an farther to Zell.
The local dialect in Southern Alsace and in the German border region is quite similar to Swiss German.
Great!
You were very close, or maybe even onboard a TER 200 train when in (or heading to) Mulhouse.
This TER runs at 200km/h between Mulhouse and Strasbourg.
3:17 as of January 1, 2025, Romania and Bulgaria have fully joined the Schengen area as well.
Oh nice! I guess I was using an outdated map. Looking forward to visiting those countries someday.
Yea and you are missing Croatia on that map aswell.Croatia joined Schengen on January 1.2023.
There are a lot of different rolling stocks on the Strasbourg to Basel line, even more in the Alsace region. The one you rode on is a "Corail" train, which is incredibly cushy and cozy - not that the others are uncomfortable or anything but these ones are truly great. As others have pointed out, there is also an international tram line between Strasbourg and Kehl, but sadly this is "just" one border crossing, not two. And up north, still in Alsace, the French town of Wissembourg is home to stops for regional German bus lines.
I don't know how frequent border controls are on the Basel tram, but if you went there in September or October (highly possible given the weather in the video!) this might have been due to a knife attack in Solingen.
5:39 The compartments you find only in the pilot car / cap car…
Btw , until the 1960’s there were lines to Saint Louis eglise and to Hunningue in France and
to Lörrach in Germany already.
Now there are ideas to connect the 8 from Weil to Riehen/CH and further to Lörrach.
Euroairport Basel Mulhouse (Freiburg) is the only real international airport in the world. To Basel BSL for Mulhouse MLH and a divided terminal to serve both countries plus a border free road access for the Swiss…
1. As a tram enthusiast from Germany, I am sad that the old Be4/4 trams of Basel BVB aren't actually allowed into Germany
2. The old BLT trams are freaking awesome but I have yet to ride it on the suburban section
Amazing video!
I’m sorry that you had to experience a border check when crossing into Germany, I wish populist policies wouldn’t have prevailed so much and that the border would remained an abandoned structure of a past Europe.
I’m so annoyed by border checks in Europe. While I never crossed the border into Basel, most frequently (like ever other year) I pass the border in to Austria. To be precise from Austria to Germany.
I was born into a Europe of Schengen for about the first 10 years of my life, I never experienced a border as road sign or sometimes a roadside attraction.
That was what I understood as an international border.
I just want the old Schengen back, I hate the soft closed borders so much. It is not the European unity I love so much.
There’s a similar tram line in Strasburg, France. Line D goes from the French city to the German city of Kehl
Great Video from my hometown!
Both TER you used were TER200, the fastest TER service in France. They go 200 kph between St Louis and Strasbourg and have limited stopps. They only use this kind of rolling stock (Corail) but there are other TER services on the same route with other rolling stock as this is a very busy corridor. It's one of the few french lines with a pulse time table (or Taktfahrplan as we say)
This is so cool!
Awesome video. I'd love to ride it myself someday.
Great video:)
0:43 Loved that card! came with my hotel too, and definitely got rid of the financial burden of taking transit in switzerland given how much more expensive everything else was. (although you can theoretically ride as much as you want for your leisure for free if you don't get caught...)
If you get caught tho (somewhat likely), it’s 100 bucks vs the 10 for a daily pass
Going there in two weeks, just to check out the international tram system. Great timing!
Hello, I live 30 minutes away by train (Germany) and this place is also called the border triangle because three countries border this city... cheers
It feels so wrong seeing you on my local tram line. It is so sad that the old trams on line 17 are getting replaced by a new stadler tram that is so horrible. The line 10 is operated like a normal rail line between Basel and Rodersdorf the BLT trams are trains to the french. The BVB on the other hand operates line 3 as a tram route the BVB trams are trams to both the french and the germans. The trains used on the TER line between Basel and Mulhouse are the same CORAIL passenger cars than on Al Atlas trains in Maroc. I hope you enjoyed your stay in my home city.
Did you also get to test some of the new TINA Trams that BLT has started using recently? Also will you cover the extensive Bus network too?
Anyways cool video, I love the public transport, so reliable to get anywhere. The only thing I hate are the wooden seats in the ''Flexcity'' Model, there was a vote for what seats they should do and Wood won because of ''hygene'', really stupid.
I've been on one of the lines mentioned in the video (BLT line 10) absolutely amazing how it just seamlessly dips into France and back into Switzerland again. (I wonder how that was before Schengen?) Only in Europe!
@@The4905 can assure you it was similarly relaxed \m/
@@officialmcdeath Ah! Good to know!
Even as a Hungarian, living in an EU and Schengen country, it was so weird yet satisfying to travel with these trams, when I visited Basel.
Sometimes I think about how lucky I am, that I can just hop on a train or get into my car, and in an hour's notice, I'm in a completely different country! My parents grew up behind the iron curtain. At that time (from 1972), in Hungary people could hold two types of passports: red and blue.
The red only allowed traveling to "friendly", aka. most, but not all communist countries (Yugoslavia was not friendly to USSR thus also to Hungary), and people could spend at most 30 days abroad in one go.
With the blue passport you could travel to all Western countries (every three years), but basically no civil person got them. There was only one exception: if you had a relative living abroad in the West, they could send an invitation to have you travel to them once a year.
Romania and Bulgaria have also been Schengen members since January 2025, and the chocolate is from Germany;)
Very interesting. None of the trams you were on seemed crowded at all. Would you say it's efficient and convenient? Would you say it's comparable to systems in the USA in terms of efficiency and ridership? Thanks.
As to the crowding, imo CH is fairly good at offering „overcapacity“, so yes, it can get crowded, especially when tens of thousands come to see a soccer match, but they do their best to prevent that
@genoobtlp4424 Maybe it was also less crowded because it was raining?
@@mrxman581 meh, unlikely. I‘ve got my own experiences in Basel and they’re basically never actually full, even at rush hour. There’s line E11, 17 and 21 that only run during rush hour as well as rush hour extensions to lines 1 and 2. Otherwise, you get the same long trams every couple of minutes all day every day, which is way more capacity than usually needed off-peak.
And it’s not like people take usually the car because it’s raining (I‘m sure, there’s a few, but on the other hand, there’s at least as many people taking the tram instead of walking or biking due to the rain). Many people, especially in downtown, don’t even have access to a car as they usually don’t need one, so the tram is the rain-proof way to get around
@@mrxman581 as for the efficiency: there’s probably some accountants that would love to reduce service for efficiency, but that would hinder the convenience. And the trams in Basel are definitely convenient, provided your trip goes towards downtown Basel, otherwise you’ll get an equally convenient bus. Usually with frequencies of every 15 min or less per line (many lines double up for even more frequent service), there’s also integrated fares, at least on the swiss and German side, making it easy to get the right ticket or pass (most regulars have a pass). Although with driver only operations and automated ticket machines, one could argue that customer service is limited in favour of more services, but that’s pretty much all swiss public transport.
@genoobtlp4424 Understood, thanks.
2:42 I suppose that there is some steering panel in the back, hidden under a cover, just not suited for regular service, but useful if some backing is necessary.
That would explain the wiper.
In Poznań, a lot of trams have the hidden steering panels but no wiper in the back.
Yes. it`s for driving backwards.
in strasbourg france tje line to germany (line D) also opened around 2017 and it had a massive bridge. sadly when i was there i didn’t ride it
Fun fact: That bridge was constructed in Ghent, Belgium, and transported to Strasbourg via various waterways. In Ghent you will see some similarly-looking bridges over the 'Ringvaart' (a major water artery, but not as wide as the Rhine), too.
@@DrErikEvrardi have several questions of logistics
Interesting video.
I'd like to draw your attention to two things though:
1) You need to update your Schengen map. Bulgaria and Romania became full members on 2025-01-01.
2) Don't forget irreversible binomials. It's always 'knife and fork' and not the opposite.
Le bonjour de Saint-Louis. Merci pour la vidéo!
Avez-vous vu le "Tram-Train" à Mulhouse? Il vient d'une vallée où il utilise les rails de train et ensuite utilise le réseau de tram de Mulhouse.
How is the Basel Airport connected to trams, buses to Germany? Can you make a VDO about this? A new bus service started in 2025 to Lörrach.
So, the Airport has a french (european) and swiss exit. On the swiss exit you can take the all electric 50 bus to sbb every 10 min or so, it's double articolated and super fast, honestly you don't even need a tram. On the french side you have the 11 bus operated by distribus that connects to saint louis station every 30min (you can reach colmar mulhouse and strasbourg). Reaching Germany is totally more tricky but yeah the new bus 220 every hour (.5 hour on peak times) seems interesting.
A race to lorrach between a 50 bus + train from sbb and the 220 bus might be interesting! it's all covered in the u abo afterall!
If you can, set anti flicker in your camera to 50hz when in Europe or at least auto
Thanks for visiting us in Basel! I learnt something about trams through your video 😊 greetings from near Line 2!
Basel is one of the cities for me to visit the next time I'm in Europe. The tram system has a good look with all the different vintage models. As for how to pronouce Mulhouse, it's like " MUHL-huze"; as it's French.
International rails are the coolest thing about traveling in Europe in my opinion
you could try the 6er Tram to riehen, there is a old town with culture, this is my home
Going to become a Patreon supporter just so we can get Caleb an umbrella.
@3:00 your map is out of date. Romania & Bulgaria joined the Schengen area on January 1st, 2025
Watching this from Germany right now after having flown via Iceland where the leg from Iceland to Germany is considered a domestic flight (as in they are both part of Schengen as well)
Thanks to Schengen, you can fly all the way from Iceland (close to Greenland) to Cyprus (close to the Middle)East), and from the arctic circle in Norway to the edge of Africa in southern Spain, that's still domestic flights. Flew from Luxembourg to the Greek isle of Creta last summer, there naturally was a security check before boarding the plane, but no border check upon arrival. And same currency.
I liked the presentation, your manner of narration this time! Keep up the good work! Greetings from St.Petersburg, Russia!
I've been to that Basel McDonald's far too many times. I found out the hard way that restaurants close around 6pm. At that point, if you're a traveler with no kitchen, you have a choice between that and Burger King.
Your having too much fun even though you probably caught a cold! 😂
Öbber vo Basel do?😂
I rode a TER with compartments when I went to Walibi Rhone-Alpes in 2022 (they have a bus but research was inconclusive. Either its seasonal or I didn't do enough research)
Too bad you were there in such grey weather. The country around there is extremely beautiful. I live just over the German border. Basel has so much to offer culturally.
Despite of the weather should have headed to Strasbourg or Colmar much nicer medieval old town to visit 😊
Maybe an umbrella could have been useful, especially to avoid rain on glasses but that's an old man thing, isn't it? :) btw I went to Germany by tram but not in France yet, next time in Basel I'll try.
The thumbnail is a bit misleading, since the yellow trams only run via France (Rt. 10 and one stop). The green ones are the ones which run to both France (Rt. 3) and Germany (Rt. 8)...
Yellow is more eye catching, and I didn't have as good a picture of the green ones!
Champagne Ardenne s'TER here - what the hell they are in the south Alsace !!! Give us them back 🤣🤣🤣🤣 They are so beautiful.
om 1900 until the 1950s, the tram line already ran to St Louis. It was then shut down and rebuilt in 2017.
The citizens of Basel favoured the wooden seats in the new trams after a cunsaltative exercise!
La seule vraie question, c'est : pourquoi n'y a-t-il pas de correspondance entre le bus 14 et le tramway à Leymen ?
you could have stayed on the train a little longer to Strasbourg and take the tram to Germany there.
0:04 why would you need documents? Are not all these countries Schengen?
I thought the trams don‘t actually go over the borders, but stops on the Swiss side.
So there's cross-border trams here, in Geneva I think, and in Strasbourg - but are there any cross-border metros?
In Spain there's one, I forget where
@@ClassyWhalein San Sebastian there is El Topo, which goes to France. There is also the Leman Express in Geneva, which is not technically a Metro, but works like one (and is one of the few systems to work 24/7).
@ Oh, I didn't know Donostia's crossed the border! I have seen that they want to extend the Copenhagen Metro to Malmö, and there's something that might be metro-like planned between Singapore and Malaysia.
its so weird seing the Känelmatt Station on TH-cam knowing its 5 minutes from me away xD
Als Einwohner von Basel musste ich mir das Video natürlich ansehen... Gut und sauber gemacht, einzig das Wetter hätte etwas angenehmer sein dürfen... Liebe Grüsse ais Basel...
Thank you...
Why did you buy a German chocolate "RITTER" in Switzerland?
I didn't know it was German. I bought actual Swiss chocolate in the next video I filmed, but I lost all the footage
Because it's cheap. Why else?
Just wondering when you were on the tram crossing the borders. Did your phone change roaming networks?
Fantastic video my friend. Great work. Greetings from Czechia. 😍 BIG LIKE
Not even a joke about StL, MO?! 😜
The Boder Germany 😂
I did a field trip once to each of the countries, via EuroAirport. I cocked up thinking we were going into Switzerland first and bought some duty free cigarettes, only to find out we were actually going into Germany. I remember we went from Mullhouse to Basel, and pulled over at a service station just before the border where the coach driver told us 'Go get lunch'. I'm glad he did as I remember seeing the insane prices for a sandwich once we crossed the border!
Freiberg is such a beautiful city and a must for every urban planner if you ever get the chance. Just don't turn up late to your hotel like we did on our trip. Without some careful negotiations, we almost had to spend a night sleeping on the coach! There's also a great book called 'Green Cities' that focuses on Freiberg, from anti nuclear energy, to how they actually build infrastructure alongside developments, so there's no need to rely on a car (In fact, they are banned from the city centre IIRC).
we cant even get a tram from vienna to lower austria, and they build one that serves 3 countries.
Cool that you are exploring swiss transit now!
Try Annemasse/Geneva.
Luckily you have not been controlled cause that "mobility ticket" you get when staying in a hotel is not valid for cross-country travel as well as for the zone Leymen is in😅
WAIT WHAT
Old Basel trams are (were? I moved away years ago) extremely common in Belgrade, Serbia as many were donated in the early 2000s
A few years back there was a second donation of the same kind, so there still are many Basel trams on Beograd
Some of the old BLT Be4/8 were sold to Gotha (Germany)
Just curious, how many flickering lights are allowed to be in a video before it's considered hazardous enough to get a warning? Figure you'd know more than me
I don't know if there's a measure, but my GoPro doesn't do well with certain types of light and I don't want to cause trouble
Those old Schindler Trams are being phased out until the end of 2025 and get replaced by Stadler TINA.
WOW WOW WOW WOW
For your viewers - I have never seen rain in all of the several times I have been in Switzerland (it beats me why these UTubers insist on making their films in the depth of winter anymore than you'd want to chase all over NYC suburbs in January!!!).
Next point - always check the DIRECTION destination panel of your train (if you don't wish to parler with le conducteur).
Final point - Mulhouse has one of the most famous railway museums in all of Europe, a touch even more spectacular than its sister at York City in England.
Again, what do you feel like seeing in the depths of winter - just get back in the train/tram and keep warm.!
@@JohnResalb I'm a crazy American with a bunch of Scandinavian, Celtic, and Slavic DNA so cold weather doesn't bother me hehe
I am a little late to this comment section, but i have to say, this was a infomative yet cozy Video, love to find something like this! Greeting from Germany :D
Schwiiz, Düüdschland, Fronkreisch 🙂
2:48 That sign means you‘re entering Basel not Switzerland.
4:18 "Mister Saint-Louis" is King Louis IX, King of France (1214/1270).
Very well made video. I was very impressed by the tram going up such a steep hill
As someone working for the BVB i have to say you made a good job here. Well Explained and despite the weather you got some Great shots in.
Why no customs checks ? They ask me questions about gold.
8:21 What it is? It's a Schindler Be 4/8 + Be 4/6!
I've heard of this, but now, I know a lot more about the Basel tramway.
Thanks for the video!
5:08 at least you got to see more of France than you anticipated
I have major tram envy for basel. They have very similar vehicles to my local network in Antwerp. Don't get me wrong our system is definitely very good, but Basel is what we should and could have.
That’s where I live!!