The film of the longest train journey in the EU

So the good news: the film of the longest train journey in the EU is out, and you can watch it here:

Or directly on Youtube here.

The deal essentially was this: cameraman Rick Minnich would follow me throughout the trip, we would get all the footage as swiftly as possible to the Youtube channel Simply Railway, and then a share of the Youtube earnings from the film would then pay Rick’s wages having followed me.

The first version of the film went online on Friday 18th September, and had to be immediately pulled, because Simply Railway’s editor had not run the video past me for a fact check before publishing. How the channel chooses to format the video is their deal, but I take fact checking seriously, so putting out something with errors in it is a serious problem for me.

I sent a whole list of changes needed to the editor on 19th September, and was then told the new version of the film would go live today 25th September.

It did.

But most of the errors were still in the film!

And as you cannot edit things out of a video on Youtube after it is published, I am going to have to live with this now.

Below – for the sake of record – is the list of the errors I have found so far, so as people can at least see I am aware of them.

Given the amount of energy I put into this project, and Rick put into filming it all, I’m sad about the outcome. We now need to wonder what to do from here, and how we might then use the rest of the footage somehow.

Anyway, here is the list of the errors found so far:

00:20 – title is wrong, it is the longest in the EU not Europe
01:46 – this part is a bit confusing, for while the train from Kemijärvi to Kemi is a night train (to Helsinki), for the record I was only on it in a seat for a few hours
03:47 – 10:27pm arrival at Kemi is not Kemi, but somewhere else in Finland
06:51 – the train to Boden at Haparanda is cancelled
07:40 – this part is re-planning based on one train having been cancelled, not the 3 that ultimately were cancelled
10:34 – this part covers the third cancelled train. There is no explanation of the second cancelled train, so understanding the chronology here is a mess
14:19 – what should have been a Haparanda – Boden train became a Haparanda – Boden – Umeå
17:27 – talk with Jonas Boström from Järnvägsfrämjandet (he is named just as Jonas)
23:40 – for some reason København became Kopenhagen, but the map is right. Same error at 25:04. And time bar says Copenhagen
25:30 – talking with Pepijn Koster who is not named
From c. 24:00 – something is off with the time stamps
31:14 – also inconsistent, are we stating Hbf here or not
34:00 – Karlshure! It is Karlsruhe
35:57 – also inconsistencies in station naming
36:20 – is it Geneva or Genève, also 37:11
38:00 – something is weird with the map there
39:28 – this is footage from the Valence – Perpignan TGV, mixed as being Lyon – Valence
41:45 – also missing Atocha, but 43:24 map is right
42:38 – Carolina Conrado not named
42:49 – time stamps also do not work
44:49 – says Bandajoz, not Badajoz, also 47:35
46:49 – clock is wrong, should be c. 115 hours
47:30 – time stamps also still all mixed up
49:44 – again Oriente is missing, captions are inconsistent
50:04 – Diogo Nunes not named
53:30 – Henrique Graça not named