this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2026
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Solarpunk Travel🚲🚆⛵

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Community for those focused on sustainable travel. Our society's current levels of energy intensive and frequent travel are not compatible with life on a finite planet. We advocate for long-term slow travel to see the world, and low energy local travel to deeply experience your community. Green washing free zone.

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It’s a sustainable means of transport -- at least until law enforcement clamps down on it.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/36305825

Train hopping is still a thing in the US, I suspect because freight trains are slow.

But what about Europe? Even the slow trains are fast. Although I say that only having seen passenger trains. Are there freight trains that are slow enough? What about controls? The article mentions thermal cams being used to spot train hoppers. I might expect Europe’s tendency to push for safety to manifest as rigorous controls.

UPDATE: found this→ https://hitchwiki.org/en/Train_hopping#Europe


cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/36305703

Would like to add this to my lifestyle.

“Working remotely as a software engineer, the 25-year-old spends his free time combing through open source railway data and online forums to determine which trains to take, when they'll slow or stop, where to hide in wait and what type of train car to jump into.”

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[–] philpo@feddit.org 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

..... European train tracks are usually dual use and highly frequented. Freight trains have to guarantee a certain minimum velocity (80km/h in a lot of areas by now, rarely below 60km/h)

And trains are not simply stopped somewhere usually, but run from freight yard to freight yard. These are camera controlled, including ingress and egress routes. Additionally on some routes there are camera controls and neuralgic points and train tracks these days are often monitored by IR capable helicopters/drones these days. And of course due to higher population density the general chance of someone seeing the "passenger" on the train is much much higher.

So the chance that someone sees the unwanted passenger is much higher. In the very best scenario the person gets caught before the train leaves the yard. This will still be a felony in almost all jurisdictions and a civil lawsuit for the damages the delay caused. (Around 20k € at least). At least it's "only" the freight customers and the train crews who suffer.

In a less optimal scenario the person is seen on the train. This means the train will be stopped at a station where police waits (often with a helicopter or drone ready these days...hybrid warfare has made people uneasy) and tracks will be shut down. This time not only the people mentioned before suffer but often also hundreds of train passengers. Because this will cause delays,even when it happens at night.

In the worst scenario the whole thing goes wrong. I personally had the displeasure of working with the aftermath of two poor people for whom it did not work out. One seemed to have fallen between the freight cars - very likely due to hypothermia. European freight cars are usually locked so people can only find a "plattforn" to sit on the outside of certain tanker cars or rarely on older container cars or truck carrying cars - but the later are closely guarded. And 80km/h wind shear for hours does a lot to a body. The other one was electrocuted. Both were refugees trying to make it further north. A colleague had a case of someone who very likely was blown off a freight car by a high speed train passing by the opposite direction.

This will not only cause delays but also ruin or change a few peoples lives.

In other words: it's a very very very bad idea.

And btw: The page you linked is full of incorrect information....