Bruxelles-Paris by Eurostar (ex-Thalys) 300km/h high speed train takes just 1 hour 22 minutes, but as anyone who has taken it in recent years can testify, the prices can be horribly high, mostly because capacity is not adequate and no one has yet entered the market against the incumbent. This […]
In the summer of 2021, in between COVID lockdowns and needing all sorts of paperwork as a result, I made a trip from Berlin to Beograd, Serbia. I will only come to your event, I told the conference organisers, if I can make the trip by train and bus. I […]
A message from a friend this morning: “Have you seen that piece in The Guardian saying Eurostar is the worst performing train service in Europe?” Oh what now, my heart sinking as I waited for her to send me the link. This is The Guardian’s piece, and it relates to […]
All of the borders listed are places I have been, and are among my priority borders where problems need to be fixed. I cannot claim credit for having solved any of these, but I am quite sure me repeatedly talking about them – especially Turmantas! – has likely not been […]
It’s a pretty obvious point if you think about it. If all of Ryanair’s planes were all running full, all the time, what would Michael O’Leary (CEO of Ryanair) do? He’d order more planes. And yes, that’d mean more maintenance facilities and more staff and more costs. But it would […]
French state owned rail operator SNCF will not sell me tickets for Italian state owned rail operator Trenitalia’s trains. Trenitalia will not sell me tickets for SNCF’s trains. But in Brussels both Trenitalia and SNCF want to have you believe that a rail industry initiative called the CER Ticketing Roadmap […]