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

Analysis

When the personal is political (and why I am now building a campaign about railways)

On Friday I was asked for the first time to present my Trains for Europe campaign at an old style offline conference in Brussels - at Friends of Europe's European Young Leaders event. I am an alumnus of that programme, but back when I was in the scheme

Austria

I'll be on the #ConnectingEurope Express - Kraków to Ljubljana

2021 is the EU Year of Rail, and so the European Commission DG MOVE and Community of European Railways are running the "Connecting Europe Express" in September and October to try to show what rail can do for Europe and for the green transition. The train departed from

Analysis

From Split to Kraków by train. Or maybe not?

Friends know I work on railway policy in Europe, and from time to time they tweet me about the personal difficulties they are having with railway booking. My old friend from Brussels, Anna Drozd, tweeted me today about some headaches she was having trying to find trains between Split in

Analysis

A trip to Wendisch Rietz - an example of car-free mobility

One of my lockdown pastimes has been to explore Brandenburg, the Land that surrounds Berlin. One such trip took me to the village of Wendisch Rietz (population: 1620), south east of Berlin, and at the southern end of the lake Scharmützelsee - to walk along the edge of the lake

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An annual cross-border rail index - a means to assess what's going on with EU wide rail?

So goodbye Thello. A strange open access rail operator, providing night trains on the Paris - Milano - Venezia route, and daytime trains on the Marseille - Nice - Genova - Milano route, suspended thanks to COVID, and, now we know, never to return. Cue activists writing disgruntled letters, and

Analysis

How to repair Serbia's railways? A report

On 30th June 2021 I was a speaker at the Transport Community and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Rail Summer School in Belgrade. There's just one caveat, I told Matej Zakonjšek the Director of Transport Community who invited me: I am going to make the trip to Belgrade from Berlin

Analysis

Turning the Connecting Europe Express into a Conversation Europe Express

I'm just back from speaking at a Transport Community event in Belgrade. The trip to and from Serbia, and some of the discussions at the event I was attending, were quite an eye opener (I documented much of it on Twitter here). But seeing the problems with Serbian

European Union

Trains for Europe gets a mention on France24 television debate about night trains

France24 English's "Talking Europe" show discussed night trains in Europe this week, with Catherine Nicholson moderating a discussion with MEPs Jakop Dalunde (Greens-EFA, Sweden) and Marian-Jean Marinescu (EPP, Romania). Given that Jakop is one of the MEPs who already supports Trains for Europe, his comments are

Analysis

What's an appropriate level of ambition for a project about night trains in Europe?

My earlier post about new night train company Midnight Trains has drawn quite some critique - that having ambitious goals is all very well (people even cited Elon Musk), and that even including a Paris-Edinburgh train in the plans is hence fine. All that is needed is a bit of

Analysis

Midnight Trains - we wish them well, but where are the carriages needed going to come from?

A new night train company has launched today. Paris-based Midnight Trains has launched with a very slick website, and promises a deluxe night train experience - private compartments with showers. The renderings are all soft furnishings and are akin to a smart hotel. RTL news has a report about the

Austria

Rolling stock for a new night train: even SBB and ÖBB have plenty of difficulties

As we reported yesterday, Swiss railways SBB are keen to increase their night train offer. But they, like every other player in this market, have the same rolling stock problems to overcome as anyone else. In this post we are going to look at the new NightJet service due to

Austria

SBB boss Vincent Ducrot talks about the future of night trains to/from Switzerland

Tagesanzeiger Sonntagszeitung features a long interview with boss of Swiss Railways SBB Vincent Ducrot - you can read the whole interview here (free registration required). The headline strikes us as slightly off. "Nachtzüge werden nie profitabel sein" "Night trains will never be profitable" he says. Perhaps

Analysis

BaWü Transport Minister Hermann is right - "rail isn't always a viable alternative" - not yet anyway

How Germany makes the transition to a carbon neutral economy is becoming a major topic in the election campaign for September's Bundestag election. The extent to which banning or stopping certain behaviours is legitimate, or whether persuading people to change their behaviour is a better route, is a

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Von der Leyen promises €85bn for sustainable transport - night train rolling stock would be an ideal use for it!

Speaking in the European Parliament earlier this week, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen set out some details of European Union Member States' post-COVID national recovery and resilience plans, and gave some details of the scale of the budget for transport: Let me give you some

Analysis

More innovation in fast freight than in fast night trains in Italy, and new night trains with seats only in Germany

Back in 2018, Trenitalia began an experiment called "Mercitalia Fast" - using a converted ETR-500 300km/h high speed train to convey light freight at high speed. You can read more about the project here. Now Trenitalia has announced a new overnight service, likewise using a ETR-500, connecting

Analysis

Revival of the Trans Europ Express (TEE) - these plans are going to need some new trains

Nostalgia is important in railways. Families and enthusiasts alike visit heritage railways, and railway companies across Europe try to motivate passengers to take trains today using symbolism of the past. And there is no symbolism stronger in cross-border rail in Europe than the Trans Europ Express (TEE), probably because more

Analysis

Thank you MEPs Delli and Cuffe for thinking of night trains as part of smart mobility in the EU

The European Parliament is currently debating an own-initiative report about a Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy for the EU - the whole legislative dossier is here, and German S&D MEP Ismail Ertug is the Rapporteur. MEPs - perhaps all of them stuck at home and suffering from the

Analysis

"Rail at the forefront of smart and sustainable mobility" - Council of the EU conclusions offer scope for night train investment

The Council of the European Union today adopted Council Conclusions on railways, entitled "Rail at the forefront of smart and sustainable mobility" - you can read the press story about this, quoting Portugal's transport minister here. The full conclusions are here (PDF). As I see it

Analysis

It's a night train, but not as we know it - Arriva has plans

A night train? In the Netherlands? Not the news we had expected to read. But here is the boss of Arriva Netherlands Anne Hettinga arguing for exactly that in an interview with NRC Handelsblad. The story was likewise covered by Railway Gazette International. As you might imagine this is not

Analysis

France's PM Castex takes the re-introduced night train Paris-Nice, but it's hardly comfortable!

After a three year absence, the Paris-Nice Night Train is back. The first service ran last night with an important passenger on board - French Prime Minister Jean Castex. He even made the welcome on board announcement to passengers: https://twitter.com/JeanCASTEX/status/1395460907728257029 The problem though - as

Analysis

Germany's Transport Ministry makes the case for a European rolling stock pool

On 17 May Germany's Ministry of for Transport and Digital Infrastructure held its Schienengipfel (Rail Summit) in Berlin. The centre piece of the event was a renewed commitment to speeding up Berlin - Dresden - Prague - Vienna connections, but an eagle-eyed Josh Posaner of Politico spotted an

Analysis

French Ministry of the Ecological Transition report on night trains - focus on both French and international routes

The Ministère de la Transition écologique (Ministry of the Ecological Transition) in France has released a new report entitled ÉTUDE DU DÉVELOPPEMENT DE NOUVELLES LIGNES DE TRAINS D’ÉQUILIBRE DU TERRITOIRE (TET) (STUDY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW TERRITORY BALANCE TRAIN LINES (TET)) - this assesses the way train connections

Analysis

RailPro diagnoses the challenges for new operators trying to enter the long distance rail market

Dutch Publication RailPro has written an interesting piece entitled What are the biggest barriers for new entrants on the international train market? There is also a version of the same post in Dutch here. The piece does not distinguish between daytime and night-time trains, but focuses on the challenges common

Analysis

Detailed night train research from Oui au train de nuit

The French campaign group Oui au train de nuit has produced some of the most detailed research about the opportunities for night trains - understandably with the focus on routes within France, and between France and its neighbours. Its first report from January 2020 (PDF here) sets the scene. There

Analysis

EIB electric buses funding model the way forward to finance night train stock?

In January 2021, the European Investment Bank and Banque des Territoires launched a Clean Buses Platform - a mechanism through which public transport operators in France have access to up to €100 million to procure electric buses. A similar mechanism might be the way to allow rolling stock leasing companies