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Jon Worth

Photo from the viral insta post

Norway launches panoramic glass roof train to see northern lights

866000 likes on Instagram, but it is not true. NRK even put out a story about the fact that it is fake. There is an Arctic Train to/from Narvik in winter time, but it is an old EMU. Thanks Zugreiseblog for the suggestion to include this one.

Interior of the refurbished train. Look at those seats!

Railway churnalism: how many stories do I need about some new seats and a bit of carpet?

Cross Country in the UK has revealed the first of its rebuilt fleet of Voyager DMUs. These trains are getting some new carpets and some new seats. And some new paint. Big deal! It is going to cost £75 million apparently. How do I know? Because in my rail news

Dear European leaders: here's a little idea for your competitiveness agenda

Dear European leaders: here's a little idea for your competitiveness agenda

This idea would: * Allow Europeans to travel internationally, while emitting as little CO2 as possible * Create jobs in European manufacturing industries, some even in the most deprived corners of the EU * Boost the construction industry that would get contracts to build new lines * Benefit both state owned and privately owned

Door of a single deck TGV, 1st class, shoping "Strapontin" pull down seats in vestibules

How to safely overload a high speed train (and why it matters for the debate about ticketing reform in the EU)

Imagine you're making a simple international trip: Frankfurt (Main) Hbf to Lyon Part Dieu. One change of train, in Strasbourg*. But your Frankfurt - Strasbourg train is delayed, and you miss the Strasbourg - Lyon TGV on which you were booked. What do you do? You would either

Trenitalia and SNCF ticket machines

How to fix railway ticketing in the EU

We know there is a problem with rail ticketing in the EU - anyone who has ever tried to book trains cross-border has encountered the issues. If you can find the trains you want, you often cannot get prices for the tickets. And even if you can get prices, you

Loop line to connect British and Irish cities

Loop line to connect British and Irish cities

If we had any doubt about the UK's lack of coherent high speed rail planning, the country has been unable to connect its existing high speed railway line HS1 to the new HS2 line it is building. But now along comes Chris Williamson (who is President of RIBA,

OSE diesel locomotive in Thessaloniki

Sofia-Thessaloniki trains to return

So Sofia-Thessaloniki #CrossBorderRail is meant to re-open "next year" It's operationally possible (it used to run), but given how slow it is, and the mess of Greek railways and the poor financial state of Bulgarian ones I don't believe it yet News: https://www.

A map of the Sachsen-Czechia border, with pins showing railway lines

A February trip to Berlin: to systematically document my #CrossBorderRail work

It's probably the aspect of a project everyone dislikes the most: documenting it all once the research phase is done. And with my #CrossBorderRail project there has been a lot of research - major tours to visit international railway lines in every corner of Europe every summer 2022-2025.

A CRRC EMU in Austria

Hungary to buy 100 Chinese InterCity Trains

It's election time in Hungary. That has nothing to do with the "announcement" that Hungary is to buy a big round number of InterCity trains from China, oh no. You can read about it Railway Gazette here. Hungary might eventually buy some Chinese trains, but promising

Up and running on Ghost

As of today, 27th January 2026, this site is running on Ghost rather than WordPress. All the posts have been moved across, and URLs ought to pretty much all work as well. If something is missing here, the old site can still be found at oldsite.jonworth.eu Why am

Groucho Marx with a top hat and cigar

How do I overcome my railway Groucho Marx problem?

"I Don’t Want to Belong to Any Club That Will Accept Me as a Member" Groucho Marx is supposed to have said. And I have come to the view that I am facing something similar in my railway work. "Why would any company in the railway

Ebbsfleet or Ashford? It has to be one or the other, not both, and it needs to be Ashford

Ebbsfleet or Ashford? It has to be one or the other, not both, and it needs to be Ashford

Discussion about re-opening Kent stations on HS1 between London and the Channel Tunnel is getting more interesting. The Bring Back Euro Trains campaign has been gathering public support to re-open the stations, Ashford's MP says re-opening the station in his constituency is his highest priority and is building

I've been wrong all these years about printed train timetables (the lessons from a Montbard - Nuits-sous-Ravières train that doesn't run)

I've been wrong all these years about printed train timetables (the lessons from a Montbard - Nuits-sous-Ravières train that doesn't run)

I am a child of the digital era. When I planned a first Interrail trip in 1999 Deutsche Bahn's website already had a timetable search for pretty much everything (I still have the printouts from back then). I have never bought a European Rail Timetable book, although somewhere

Radical enough to see purpose in my work, sensible enough to propose something that can be done?

Radical enough to see purpose in my work, sensible enough to propose something that can be done?

I find myself buffeted from both sides at the moment in my transport work. Am I radical enough, or too radical? Based on who's lecturing me on social media it is both, simultaneously. This quandary most importantly crops up regarding the future of the Channel Tunnel. The question

If you were to build a depot for Channel Tunnel passenger trains, where would you build it?

If you were to build a depot for Channel Tunnel passenger trains, where would you build it?

When it was announced that Virgin Trains was successful in being allocated maintenance depot capacity at Temple Mills in east London, there was a sort of reaction "we'll that will mean that Virgin will be the competitor to Eurostar then." But no sooner had the decision

Flat rate national ticketing: public transport policymaking through shock

Flat rate national ticketing: public transport policymaking through shock

A post by UITP Secretary General Mohamed Mezghani caught my eye on LinkedIn - it's about Spain's plan to introduce a €60 a month flat rate national public transport ticket next year, along the lines of what Germany did with Deutschlandticket. "While this plan will

A creative solution to serve Köln Hbf en route from Frankfurt (Main) to London

A creative solution to serve Köln Hbf en route from Frankfurt (Main) to London

One of the aspects of my #CrossChannelRail report that drew the most reaction was my conclusion that serving Köln Hbf with trains to London was too complicated, and it would better to serve Köln/Bonn Flughafen or Horrem instead - as it would be easier to secure a platform and

Now we're going to get a Bruxelles and Amsterdam to Milano night train. Or are we?

Now we're going to get a Bruxelles and Amsterdam to Milano night train. Or are we?

After yesterday's news that Basel-Malmö will not happen, today there's news that a new night train route will open up - European Sleeper is proposing to run from Bruxelles and Amsterdam to Switzerland and Milano from June 2026. Their press release about it is here (PDF)

A little short term subsidy for this or that route is no way to support night trains - lessons from the end of Basel-Malmö before it even started

A little short term subsidy for this or that route is no way to support night trains - lessons from the end of Basel-Malmö before it even started

So there will not be a Basel - Malmö night train from the spring of 2026. Switzerland's parliament did not approve the subsidy to allow it to run. Without the 10 million CHF the parliament refused to grant to get this going (from a wider fund of 47

European Rail Passengers Union: lobbying for passengers, cross border

European Rail Passengers Union: lobbying for passengers, cross border

It has been something in the back of my mind for more than a decade: how could railway passengers be better represented to campaign for improvements in international rail? Here's a piece I wrote in 2014 about the topic. And the issue very much came to a head

Geo Racers: the most fun web travel game since GeoGuessr

Geo Racers: the most fun web travel game since GeoGuessr

I was sent this a few hours ago in a messenger group, and it's brilliant: Geo Racers, a kind of web based version of Race Across the World the TV series. It's made by Chris Pattle - more about him here, and you can donate here.

An open letter, and an invoice for €59.94, to Alberto Mazzola, boss of Community of European Railways

An open letter, and an invoice for €59.94, to Alberto Mazzola, boss of Community of European Railways

Dear Alberto, It is a little odd for me, a blogger and campaigner, to be writing an open letter to you as Executive Director of Community of European Railways (CER). But the combination of circumstances I have faced today on a cross border journey involving trains operated by two of