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Jon Worth

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Jon Worth

European, originally a Brit, became German, moved to France. Runs #CrossBorderRail project, writes a newsletter about railways. Green, lives happily without a car Normally stuck on a train, stuck in a village, or escaping either on a folding bicycle

Beograd - Zagreb - Ljubljana trains back and faster by 2029

Beograd - Zagreb - Ljubljana trains back and faster by 2029

Observer of rail in the Balkans Fabian Vendrig sent me this story about plans to have the infrastructure in place by 2029 to be able to run a Beograd - Zagreb - Ljubljana train with a reasonable trip time, pointing to the renovation of the Ruma - Šid section in Serbia as the

Leo Express Przemyśl - Frankfurt train to start in 2026

Leo Express Przemyśl - Frankfurt train to start in 2026

1800km! 18 hours! One of Europe's longest scheduled services! Claims Notes from Poland, based on press materials from Leo Express. Ah. One problem. It won't happen, at least not in full. Look on Leo Express's website and tickets from Przemyśl to Frankfurt (Main) Süd

Jon Worth exclusive! 25% off Paris - Berlin train tickets! (Really, sort of)

Jon Worth exclusive! 25% off Paris - Berlin train tickets! (Really, sort of)

On 25th June I need to travel from France to Berlin. One option is to take the once daily direct train from Paris Est to Berlin Hbf. Here's the timetable and the price of that train from SNCF: And here is the same connection on the same day

Baku - Tbilisi train to restart this month

Baku - Tbilisi train to restart this month

Trains between the capital of Georgia, Tbilisi, and the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, were suspended at the time of the COVID pandemic and have not been re-started. Until this month, probably. At talks this week in Baku, governments of both countries agreed to resume services on May 26. Given

Cross-border railway problems are annoyingly universal

CrossBorderRail

Cross-border railway problems are annoyingly universal

At the time of writing, my #CrossBorderRail project has taken me to 419 international railway lines since 13 June 2022. One of the very first borders I went to - on 19 June 2022 - was Haparanda 🇸🇪 - Tornio 🇫🇮 (OpenRailwayMap) at the very northern end of the Baltic Sea. Little did I know

Berlin - Oslo ICE direct train in 2028

Berlin - Oslo ICE direct train in 2028

According to DB there is going to be a daily direct train from Berlin to Oslo, via Hamburg, København and Göteborg, running from summer 2028. DB's news story about it is here. I am not altogether convinced by this idea, but I think it will happen. First of

State railways, what's wrong? CER's perplexing response to the European Commission's Passenger Package

State railways, what's wrong? CER's perplexing response to the European Commission's Passenger Package

The Passenger Package - three pieces of legislation proposed yesterday by the European Commission mostly to address issues with railway ticketing in the EU - have been a long time coming. No sooner had the ink dried on the 2021 Rail Passenger Rights Regulation, it was obvious it left many issues unresolved.

How to make the rail ticketing aspects of the European Commission's Passenger Package more workable

How to make the rail ticketing aspects of the European Commission's Passenger Package more workable

In my earlier piece, I argued that the European Commission's Passenger Package is both radical and unworkable when it comes to the rail aspects of it, and explained how the Commission ended up there. In this piece I will start to sketch out some possible fixes - to make

AI generated image of Ursula von der Leyen holding a book labelled "Political Guidelines", with Apostolos Tzitzikostas head slightly bowed to her left

How the gospel - the Political Guidelines - left the European Commission with a ticketing proposal both radical and unworkable

Ursula von der Leyen called her disciples, the Commissioners, to gather around. Holding up a bound edition of the Political Guidelines, she conferred a great responsibility onto each of them. Beckoning disciple for transport, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, towards her, she gave him his instructions: "cross-border train travel is still

Skopje commuter train service to start 1st September

Skopje commuter train service to start 1st September

Skopje is going to get a commuter rail service! Zelenikovo - Skopje! This year! The tracks are being repaired. That bit - from Minister of Transport Aleksandar Nikoloski - might be true. The problem is that to run a train service you, well, need trains. And the state of the rolling stock maintenance

The longest train journey in the EU

The longest train journey in the EU

Anyone who has been following my work for a while knows I have long had a rather abstract discussion about the definition of the World's Longest Train Journey. I started calculating this back in 2021, after an incorrect map on Reddit went viral, and have updated my thoughts

Italo to run high speed trains in Germany

Italo to run high speed trains in Germany

Stuttgarter Zeitung had the story this week that Italian private high speed rail operator Italo is to enter the German rail market, and will likely buy 25-30 Velaro trains from Siemens to do this. There are a whole slew of hurdles Italo would have to overcome before they can

Kyiv - Bulgaria trains to start in summer 2026

Kyiv - Bulgaria trains to start in summer 2026

When Ukrainian Railways decides to do something, they normally find a way. And this time we have a commitment from the Minister of Transport as well as a provisional map of the route: No one is under any illusions here - the train would have a trip time of about 30

I'm not that bothered if SNCF Connect is forced to sell Trenitalia tickets, but someone has to be able to offer me both

I'm not that bothered if SNCF Connect is forced to sell Trenitalia tickets, but someone has to be able to offer me both

It has been kicking off in the French Senate in the past few days on the topic of railway ticketing. The Senate wants to force SNCF Connect, the French state incumbent railway's ticketing platform, to sell tickets for trains run by SNCF's competitors on French routes

My railway work: no shortage of meaning, but for the EU institutions that can be uncomfortable

My railway work: no shortage of meaning, but for the EU institutions that can be uncomfortable

I stumbled across an excellent essay about the EU this week: "Not a messaging problem. Why institutional narratives keep failing" by Meisoon Nasralla and Lilit Poghosyan. They write: "We are told, once again, that Europe “has a communications problem.” [...] as if proximity to citizens were an issue