Railroad rail travel questions

[winterlight]

I'd appreciate knowing of any resources out there that might help me in putting together a fictional 1944 rail journey from Krakow to Marseille. I'm hoping that there might be a listserve out there somewhere with members who specialize in European RR history. If any of you have come across one, I'd love to know about it. If any of you have this kind of specialized knowledge, I need to know what the likely route would be and how long it would take, given the disruptions that would have occurred in March through August of 1944. I'm assuming that travel via Vienna, Venice, across Italy to Nice and then Marseille MIGHT have been feasible. I just don't know. Please correct me if you know otherwise. Thanks for any and all responses!

[GregSingh]

You can find it all here: http://www.deutsches-kursbuch.de/index.htm

Things to consider:
1. There was no passenger trains services from Tarvisio to Venice since November 1943 (in northern Italy).
2. There was no railroad connecting Italy and France (no connection between Nice and Ventimiglia). So 30km had to be covered by road.
3. South of France was under Allies control in August 1944.

Overall, in 1944 you could easily get from Krakau to Tarvisio, but not much further.
Still possible to get from Tarvisio to Ventimiglia using some kind of military services, but no timetables for those!

Your route:
Krakau - Wien (route 47)
Wien - Villach (route 14b)
Villach - Ventimiglia (route 81) up to mid-1943
Ventimiglia - Nizza on the bike
Nizza (Nice) - Marseille (route 89a) up to May 1944

[winterlight]

Thanks. This is very helpful. I wonder if I could get away with "literary license" on this one. Was the line just bombed out, or was there some other issue beyond Tarvisio? Also, do you mean that there were actually no rail tracks in existence at that time between Italy and France? Seems odd. Lastly, would you have considered any alternate routes (say to the N &/or W of this one) to do this journey, at the time? Like, say for ex, through Munich, Alsace, and Lyon?

[GregSingh]

It all depends if you just want to get to the destination (Marseille) or have some business to attend in Italy on the way? Also who is travelling? Civilian or a soldier? That's a big difference in 1944!

Was the line just bombed out, or was there some other issue beyond Tarvisio?

Only used for local military traffic, not in use by long-distance trains after Italy left Axis in mid-1943. But still possible to travel, if properly justified.

do you mean that there were actually no rail tracks in existence at that time between Italy and France?

There were two lines: one coastal, second through Breil-sur-Roya. Some bridges were damaged during mid-1940 France-Italian war, some more damage done by Italians in mid-1943, finally in 1944 by US bombardment. Germans tried to repair damage and keep line operational, but again mostly for local traffic, not used for long-distance trains. With damaged bridges you couldn't travel all the way for weeks or even months at a time. But still possible to travel with proper documents.

If you don't care about Italy, the best way would be: Krakau-Wien-Straßburg-Dijon-Lyon-Marseille or a bit longer one: Krakau-Berlin-Paris-Lyon-Marseille.

[Carl Schwamberger]

Would travel vis the Swiss railways have been a option?

2. There was no railroad connecting Italy and France (no connection between Nice and Ventimiglia). So 30km had to be covered by road.

How was this unconnected? I'd assume some war time attack or other?

Thanks