Assumptions

I’ve been struggling quite a lot recently with negative reactions to what I write about railways, but not in the “you’re wrong” sort of way, but a more insidious kind of casting doubt about my ability, my motivation or my knowledge.

So here I am going to lay out some assumptions you ought to make about what I write, and why I write it.

1. I write what I write because I want it to be correct, not in order to be popular.
2. I may well be wrong, but I am not stupid.
3. When it comes to railways, assume I am writing from the point of view of a knowledgeable lay person, but someone who has done a decent amount of research before writing something. I do not work for a railway company, and it will show.
4. I have a bunch of biases that will impact what I write. I am generally pro-rail, pro-sustainable transport. But I am not going lambast people for driving or flying if sustainable options are not available. And on a core railway issue – public vs. private – I have a very messy position, where I see upsides and downsides to both – just because many railway people see that as a central question means you should not assume I fall into one camp or another.
5. As I am self employed, I have more room to set my own rules than most people do. I know this. If I am disappointed in what some other person has said or done, that’s likely not a personal critique of them but more a function of the role they have. I might be harsh or critical, but do not assume I am writing with some sort of vengeance.
6. If I am writing something about a European cross border railway line, assume I have at least been there (you can check borders I have been to here, and routes I have taken here).
7. I write what I write – on jonworth.eu and crossborderrail.eu and any subdomains, on Mastodon, Bluesky and Linkedin – because I want to write it. No one has paid me for it, and I have no business relationship with anyone or anything cited, unless I say so.
8. I’ll link to as many sources as I possibly can, and will defer to others who know a topic better than I do. Assume that if I am writing something it is because I am not satisfied something similar has been written, or it has and I did not yet find it. Or simply I was intellectually curious and wanted to structure my thoughts.
9. I take the factual accuracy of what I write very seriously. But if the facts change, I will change my piece. However, given I have written more than 2000 blog posts on various sites, I cannot hope to keep everything up to date, all the time. Please check the time stamp of pieces.
10. If I post images, assume I know what is in them, and assume I took the photo unless stated otherwise. I do not steal photos, and take Creative Commons Licensing very seriously.
11. If you reply to me anywhere, assume you are replying to me. Do not reply “ah but maybe your followers do not know this” – if your point is for someone other than me, signal this.
12. I might be a UK-German dual national, but I deliberately stay out of UK railway discussions – others know UK rail much better than I do. The only UK rail issue I will touch is the Channel Tunnel.
13. Assume I will go as far as I can to follow all of the points above, but I am human – I make errors. If I don’t stick to any of the above tell me.