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

The cheapest Deutsche Bahn Sparpreis across central Germany... starts in Czech Republic

I've discovered a few tricks to book extra cheap rail tickets in the past - I've explained the Eurostar Aachen trick, and how to split tickets in Germany, but now - thanks to a discussion on Twitter with @seatsixtyone and others, there is a new trick

Analysis

The prerequisites to make a liberalised EU rail market work

After having been stuck again this morning due to lack of collaboration between EU rail firms, I started to wonder: can liberalisation of EU rail actually ever work? And, were it to ever work, what are the prerequisites to making it work? The blog entry tries to at least pose

Belgium

A rail postcard from Brussels

(this is part of my Rail Postcards to the Transport Commissioner series - you can find all the other postcards here) Dear Violeta, I'd hoped to not have to write another one of these postcards to you so soon after my last one. But things go wrong all

Belgium

A rail postcard from Aachen

Dear Violeta, Today I am writing to you from Aachen, and I am not here for the Christmas Market. I am here because I am stuck due to the immense incompetence of European railways and the lack of basic collaboration between them in the interests of passengers. This story is

Guides

How do you book an Austrian train (ÖBB Nightjet) from Germany to Switzerland?

The bad news from the timetable change in December was that Deutsche Bahn stopped all its night trains. The good news was that Austrian Railways (ÖBB) has taken over some of the routes under the new brand name NightJet. If you want some background on this change I was quoted

Analysis

Why Belgium's plan for PNR for rail and buses/coaches must be stopped

Put yourselves in the shoes of a terrorist for a moment. You need to transport your home made bomb from Frankfurt (Main) in Germany to Brussels in Belgium. You know the plane is no good for this - they'll check your bag. Loads of documentation is needed to

Guides

Taking the train is a strain - Newport to Berlin case

My parents live in Newport in South Wales. I live in Berlin. I am going home for Christmas, and so - on 27th December - I want to return to Berlin. All in one day. By train. If I wanted to do this in a few weeks' time, it

Central Asia

Three weeks in Central Asia - a review

I've just returned from a three week trip to Central Asia. This blog entry is part review of what I saw and did, and hence partly a suggestion about what to do, and how to do it. Hence the blog entry is rather long. My rationale for going

Analysis

Walk 500m to avoid STIB's security checks - that's not security, that's a joke

I'm in Brussels today (Thursday 24.3.2016), two days after the Brussels attacks at Zaventem and Maelbeek. STIB, the Brussels public transport network (operator of buses, trams and metro) is operating a limited service today for security reasons. A screenshot explaining the situation is here. Brussels however

Analysis

Thalys IZY: market segmentation is not the same as competition

So Thalys - whose rail service always strikes me as the worst combination of anglo-saxon economics and Belgian service - has a new wheeze. A new, lower cost, but slower train between Paris and Brussels, branded IZY (Easy - geddit?) It's like Thalys's version of OUIGO,

Analysis

Is a Rimowa suitcase worth the money?

€529 for a suitcase? A suitcase? Yes. I paid that, back in June 2013, for a Rimowa Topas Cabin Trolley IATA 55cm (model details here). It is one of the very best purchases I have ever made, and now, with hindsight, I do not regret it for a moment. First,

European Union

A rail postcard from Baden Baden

Dear Violeta, Have you ever changed trains in Baden Baden (in Baden-Württemberg between Freiburg (Breisgau) and Karlsruhe)? I guess not. It's a pretty unlikely place to have to hop off a TGV and onto a ICE, but that's what I had to do there today -

Analysis

Why securing Europe's railways against terrorism shouldn't be attempted

So apparently this morning Ségolène Royal, Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, has announced that security gates will be built to access Thalys trains: https://twitter.com/jul_mm/status/669058150729957377 De Telegraaf interprets this as meaning bag scanners, going further than La Voix du Nord does (although their

Analysis

We now have no idea what's happening with Brussels-Strasbourg TGVs

This blog entry was published on 2nd November, and remains intact below. However, two things have happened since then. First, the Eckwersheim Derailment has led to the suspension of all TGV tests, and will mean the part of the LGV Est that the Brussels-Strasbourg service will use will not open

Analysis

More transparency needed - an EU citizen can't currently know when and where Schengen is suspended

On Thursday 29th October I am taking the train from Berlin to Vienna, via Nürnberg. This means I will cross the German - Austrian border at Passau. But what is the status of that border at the moment? Is Schengen suspended there, or not? This is a valid question to

European Union

A rail postcard from Köln

Dear Violeta, It's only a week or so since I wrote the last postcard to you. That one didn't receive a response - perhaps you were too busy talking to the rail industry, rather than thinking of passengers' needs? Anyway, today at Köln Hbf things

Analysis

Not always the cheapest train in France, and a sneaky 50 cent Belgian charge

A couple of weeks ago Seat61 had the splash that booking cross-border France-Spain TGVs would cost you more on French language websites than anywhere else (Seat61's news page here - you have to scroll down as he has no link to individual stories). After a bit of a

European Union

A rail postcard from Berlin Südkreuz

Dear Violeta, I have had plenty of time to contemplate this postcard to you. Most of the day in fact, as I've wasted that long trying to get to the bottom of what ought to be a rather simple cross-border railway problem. Later this week - on Thursday

Analysis

Should I have to pay more for a rail ticket so as to ensure I get compensation?

On 4th June 2015 - as so often - I took the train from Berlin Hbf to Bruxelles-Midi, changing in Köln. The difference from my usual trips on this route was that I booked only on 26th May, only 8 days ahead, and no Deutsche Bahn Sparpreis tickets were available

Bulgaria

A guide to the trains of Bulgaria

Between Saturday 20th June 2015 and Monday 29th June 2015 I crossed Bulgaria by train . This blog entry summarises my experiences, with the aim of assisting fellow travellers who might attempt similar trips. The map above shows my route, and the information is correct as of June 2015 - do

Analysis

Non-Schengen compliant border control at Buchs SG station, 1 July 2015, 0700

I was a passenger on the EuroNight 60466 D. Budapest-Keleti at 2100 on 30 June 2015, scheduled arrival Zürich HB at 0820 on 1st July 2015. I was a passenger in the Sleeping Car on this service (there are three carriages from Budapest - a carriage with seats, a couchette

In the media

Politico Europe | 4 things America could learn from Europe when it comes to railways

"Pictures of tangled metal and overturned carriages dominated the news last week following the Amtrak train derailment in Philadelphia. Eight passengers lost their lives, and more than 200 were injured because the train was traveling at more than twice the 50 mph (80 km/h) speed limit as it

Analysis

Uber returning to Brussels: I think this is a decent solution

Taxis in Brussels have been been plastered with the slogan "Ceci n'est pas un taxi clandestin" for some months now, in protest at Uber that was allowed in Belgium, then banned, and now - according to this story from Politico - has a reprieve and its

Analysis

Beware the UIC Train to Paris - cross border rail for dignitaries only

In 2009 the United Nations Climate Change Conference was held in Copenhagen. The UIC organised a special night train (pictured) for dignitaries to be able to get from Brussels to Copenhagen by rail - the Climate Express. By 2009 regular night trains to Brussels were already history, and in 2014

Analysis

France's LGV Rhin-Rhône best serves... Paris. So much for high speed lines of regional importance!

Back when the Rhine-Rhône high speed TGV line (in French: LGV Rhin-Rhône) was being planned it was described that "In contrast to France's other high speed lines — apart from the bypass round the east of Paris — LGV Rhin-Rhône was conceived primarily as an inter-regional route and not