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

Guides

Cheap rail tickets through Germany

So you want a one-off rail ticket through Germany, and you want it as cheap as possible. You're doing a journey like Belgium (- Germany -) Austria, or Denmark (- Germany -) Czech Republic, but you're not going to stop* in Germany. Here's how

Guides

5 stops, 13 trains - a little European rail diary

Tomorrow I set off for a journey lasting just over two weeks, mostly for work but with a little holiday in between. The whole trip is by train. Here's the schedule, and how I booked at at the lowest price possible: 1. Thu 19 Apr - London-Paris Eurostar

Analysis

My top, erm, coolest airports...

I was posed a challenge on Twitter by @airport_one if I could pen a similar post to the one about rail stations about airports instead. This is a bit of a challenge as I don't travel as often by air as I do by rail, and one

Analysis

The World's 11 Coolest Train Stations - JW version

Huffington Post has a piece listing The World's 11 Coolest Train Stations. Problem is I'm rather unconvinced by their choice, as is @christianwolmar. So here's my own choice of 11 stations - and I have been to all of these. Perhaps these are not

Analysis

In its quest for market share, Deutsche Bahn has forgotten about technology and service on their Frankfurt-Brussels route

The Intercity-Express (ICE) connecting Brussels with Frankfurt/Main via Köln is probably the least reliable train I've ever experienced. The catalogue of problems I have had with this service stretches back years, right from when the service was first introduced. I do at least 4 return journeys a

Analysis

Ljubljana

A dusting of snow covered the peaks at Jesenice after crossing the border from Austria into Slovenia yesterday lunchtime. A 1970s Yugoslav coach on the Eurocity from München, replete with pee-onto-the-tracks toilets, creaked and groaned over the old lines through Lesce Bled and Kranj and a warm afternoon sun softened

Analysis

Dubai

At one level Dubai is a shining example of the determination and ingenuity of the human race. Here a city of more than 2 million inhabitants built in double quick time in the most unlikely of locations, lacking water to sustain its population and enduring suffocating heat and even humidity.

Analysis

The case for night trains from Brussels

As part of my relentless pursuit to be green with my travels, I'm always taking the train. But for a trip I'm planning 3-6 December to Berlin, my patience is really running low. To get to Berlin from London I have 2 options - Eurostar to

Guides

Petra ticket prices

The ancient city of Petra is the highlight of any visit to Jordan. The great Nabatean city, with most buildings constructed between the 5th Century BC and 2nd Century AD, is a must-see. However the problem is the ticket price. A standard day ticket costs JD50 (€49.04, $70.26,

Analysis

How to consistently get London-Brussels or Brussels-London Eurostar tickets for €49 single

NOTE: this system has been replaced in 2022 with a new "De Connect" ticket. You can find out how that works in this new post! I'm a regular traveller on Eurostar, and I often travel onwards from Brussels to Germany by train, so much in fact

Analysis

Driving more nails into the Schengen coffin

It's not France and Italy this time, but Denmark, driving more nails into the coffin of Schengen, Europe's border free system, at least in spirit. Danish Finance Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen, as reported by BBC, said: We have reached agreement on reintroducing customs inspections at Denmark&

Analysis

Bringing German cycle culture to the UK

I've spent the past 10 days in Berlin, ostensibly for a half marathon and an IT/politics conference... but as I'm sure anyone who reads this blog can tell, my mind works in strange ways and makes odd connections. So here's a blog entry

Analysis

Eurostar rebrands - suppose I'll get used to it

So my favourite rail service - Eurostar - is being rebranded. The old E* logo, in use from the start of the service in the mid-1990s, is to be replaced with a silver 3D logo, dark blue background and a yellow caps sans serif font. There is also an adaption

Analysis

Topic 1 for NL-UK dialogue: rail tickets (London-Bruxelles-Rotterdam)

I'm lucky enough to have received an invite to The Apeldoorn Conference on UK-Netherlands dialogue, taking place 6-8 March in Rotterdam. An easy and high speed train journey - perfect! The route is Eurostar to Bruxelles Midi, then Thalys on the new HSL-Zuid to Rotterdam Centraal. Total journey

Analysis

Köln-London €66.50, or Bruxelles-London £121, booking today on exactly the same trains - odd, no?

Above are screenshots taken within the last twenty minutes (i.e. between 0900 and 1000 on 18th November). The first is for prices for a ticket between Bruxelles Midi and London St Pancras, second class, non-flexible, for the morning of Saturday 4th December. The second is from the ticket I

Analysis

Photo intermission - autumn in East London

Skyline from my window All of the following pictures are along the Hertford Union Canal and Regent's Canal, between Victoria Park and Limehouse Basin. All photos are Creative Commons / Sharealike licensed, and high res versions can be downloaded from my East London set on Flickr.

France

Paris, 114 km

The early spring sunshine is setting behind a straggle of clouds strewn across the agricultural plains of that non-descript part of France somewhere between Bourgogne and Paris. In the blink of an eye we’ll be looping around Paris and heading north to Brussels. But before that, a pause, for

Analysis

The hypocrisy of Europe’s railways: some observations after a journey from Brussels to Germany

In the January edition of ‘Mobil’, the magazine of Deutsche Bahn there’s a picture of Guillaume Pépy (head of SNCF), Rüdiger Grübe (chair of the board of Deutsche Bahn) and Yoshio Ishida (president of UIC) beaming at Gare du Midi, Bruxelles, in front of the Climate Express, a special

Guides

Dive Lake Malawi

It was one of the most unusual work assignments I've ever been given: 3 days working in Lilongwe, Malawi. But it would be mad to fly to sub-Saharan Africa without enjoying a few days off too. Lake Malawi is supposed to be one of the best freshwater dive

Analysis

In the grip of Star Alliance

‘Breakfast?’ Breakfast. What. Just about off to sleep in a tiny Air Canada seat. Airbus A330-300, modern, very little space. Grumpy staff. It’s morning. Sun over Scotland somewhere. In flight maps not working – what good is that for the son of a geographer? Get a second breakfast from passenger

Analysis

Body Mass Index airline seat pricing

An article at Boing Boing caught my eye today - that United Airlines wants to charge obese passengers for two seats. The argument is a simple one: if you're too large to fit into a seat you have to pay for a second one as you are inconveniencing

Analysis

Farmland the game: not only Ryanair has problems with scantily clad women

Mary Honeyball MEP has rightly been having a go at Ryanair about a charity calendar the airline has been selling that contains air hostesses in various states of undress in their aircraft. You can read Mary's posts about that case and make up your mind about it; frankly

Quick takes

DB Schenker takes to the rails in the UK

It was a small flash of white on maroon, but it meant so much - the DB Schenker logo on the side of a Class 60 UK railway engine somewhere between Chesterfield and Derby on 3rd October, out of the window from my Sheffield-London train. If anyone can help improve

Analysis

London-Sheffield for an early meeting: how hard can it be?

I need to get from London to Sheffield on 3rd October and I ideally need to arrive by 0900. Shouldn't be too hard? Think again. Maybe I am just too used to Eurostar that can get me from Brussels via Lille at 300km/h and allow me to

Analysis

You know you have a problem with your main airport when...

...you can make jokes about Heathrow Terminal 5 in adverts in German in the magazine of the Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Translation: "Sorry, our advertisement is still stuck in Heathrow Terminal 5". The deckchair seems to make reference to the famous anti-German Carling Black Label advertisement about Germans and British