Jon Worth

EU politics and sustainable transport, especially railways Brit who became German & lives in a village in France. When he's not escaping it on a train or a folding bicycle Teaches at College of Europe, still writes a blog, photographs with a drone

Bullshit Meter

Warszawa - Rijeka train to start in 3 months

A night train to the coast, but trying to do it at just 3 months' notice? Background here

France

Trenitalia to run London-Paris in 2029 - the most serious rival to Eurostar yet

As I raced around Europe during my #CrossChannelRail project for the past three weeks, it looked like there were three or possibly four private companies in the frame to rival Eurostar on high speed routes through the Channel Tunnel - Virgin Trains, Gemini, Evolyn and possibly Heuro. But today'

Analysis

New Channel Tunnel entrant? You need a plan for what happens if you fail, so you can actually succeed

No company wants to enter a market thinking they are going to fail. But what happens were they to fail might have a bearing on whether they succeed in the first place. It was with this in mind that I read this morning that Virgin Trains is looking for money

Analysis

The really simple guide to what we need to fix in EU wide rail ticketing, and how

I have just been in a focus group for an academic project about cross border railways in Europe, and ticketing was one of the aspects of it. Some of the others in the discussion were ticketing people from state owned railways, some from rivals to state incumbents, and some from

Belgium

The accessibility problems with Alstom's new TGV-M train - with implications for future Channel Tunnel operators

There is no way to sweeten this: my original conclusion that Alstom's Avelia Horizon (known as TGV-M with SNCF) is not legal at higher station platforms outside France was incorrect . Because transparency and correcting my errors matters to me, you can read the original blog entry in full

Bullshit Meter

London to Milan once St Pancras is rebuilt

Time for another #Bullshitmeter Or merda di bufalo d'acqua perhaps, and I can smell it from here No, there are not going to be trains to Milano 🇮🇹 when St Pancras station is expanded Response to this Times story https://www.thetimes.com/uk/transport/article/st-pancras-expansion-route-train-travel-fbfkmw9xv

Analysis

Want to rival Eurostar on Channel Tunnel routes? How do you differentiate yourself?

For three weeks in late March and early April I am running a project called #CrossChannelRail that is looking at the future of long distance high speed train services through the Channel Tunnel. The future of Eurostar and any of its potential rivals if you like. A whole lot of

Analysis

Solving the Valence-Armentières Problem - the gold standard for railway trip planning and ticket sales

Geopolitics had the Schleswig Holstein Question. Machine intelligence has the Turing Test. Jumble those up, throw in a little extra European Union complexity, and I am proud to present you the railway equivalent: the Valence-Armentières Problem. At one level the theoretical solution to the problem is simple: calculate all the

Analysis

The rail planning tool we need in Europe

It's a common question I receive on social media, and from friends offline too: "can you recommend me a platform to book rail tickets Europe wide?" And the answer is, no, I cannot. Not universally. The answer to the question is normally: "can you tell

Analysis

Bundling trip planning and ticketing together - it's not in the passengers' interest

A train trip between small or medium sized towns at opposite ends of France by train normally works like this: TER regional train to the nearest city, TGV at high speed across the country, and then a TER for the last leg. So let's take a worked example

Analysis

What should be in an EU High Speed Rail Action Plan?

"EU High Speed Network Plan Announced" screamed the headline on the Community of European Railways (CER) LinkedIn page this week. It caused me to scratch my head a bit, as there is no such plan yet - this was CER getting a bit carried away with one line

Analysis

Assumptions

I've been struggling quite a lot recently with negative reactions to what I write about railways, but not in the "you're wrong" sort of way, but a more insidious kind of casting doubt about my ability, my motivation or my knowledge. So here I

Bulgaria

A story of two tunnels: Kriva Palanka to Gyushevo, and the Channel Tunnel

When I went to Kumanovo in June of 2024 and found a railway station half complete, I must admit I did not think trains would run there any time soon. But this week I was proven wrong - the first part of the line that will eventually connect Skopje ion

Bullshit Meter

Lisboa-Madrid to be a bit less painful

Rather surprisingly I think this one might happen: Lisboa-Madrid will likely improve once the Elvas-Evora line opens https://www.dn.pt/economia/lisboa-madrid-obriga-a-troca-de-comboio-mesmo-com-nova-linha-de-évora

Bullshit Meter

Oslo-Malmö in the summer of 2025

Vy to run summertime trains to Malmö - it'll happen To København - don't believe it yet, because the company has no suitable trains yet Story for #BullshitMeter submitted by https://mastodon.nu/@Gurre https://www.vy.no/vygruppen/presse-og-nyheter/2025/3364053

Bullshit Meter

Subotica-Novi Sad to open in 2025

This is a story I looked into closely in 2024 when I was in Serbia for #CrossBorderRail. With everything more or less prepared, the question is politically what would happen.

Bullshit Meter

Frecciarossa Milano-Ljubljana in 2025

The idea stems from 2024, when Frecciarossa 700 trains were to be used. In early 2025 the idea resurfaced, this time with the newer Frecciarossa 1000 trains to be used. I don't mind what trains it will be - the question is if it will happen!

Bullshit Meter

A Spain-Morocco Tunnel

Oh this is a classic of the genre! A Spain-Morocco rail tunnel by 2030 So much 💩 I can smell it from here! https://www.mirror.co.uk/travel/huge-6bn-tunnel-connecting-spain-34308458

Bullshit Meter

Tunnel under Frankfurt (Main) for long distance trains

The idea to build a long distance rail tunnel under Frankfurt (Main) is not a bad one. But the question is whether financially and politically it can be delivered. News story here

Bullshit Meter

København-Oslo in Spring 2026

Here's the story. But given this would run with Talgo trains, and these have not been been OKed to run to Germany yet, which is the first priority, getting them to run through Sweden to Norway and get this all sorted by 2026 - looks like a long

Bullshit Meter

A Helsinki-Tallinn tunnel

This one has been talked about for years - some background here for example. But with question marks over the completion of Rail Baltica to Tallinn by 2030 I am not holding my breath for this one!

Bullshit Meter

Oslo-Göteborg in 1 hour

Here's the "story": «Hemmelige» lyntog-planer: – Vi har valgt å ligge lavtSvenske og norske kommuner har i det stille samlet seg om planer om helt ny hurtigjernbane mellom Oslo og Göteborg, Skagerrakbanen.ABC NyheterMagnus Fossen

Analysis

Introducing the Rail Story Bullshit Meter

Sometimes ideas are borne from frustration. After reading for the umpteenth time on LinkedIn that Portugal will relaunch night trains to Spain in 2025 (it likely won't), I snapped. I have hence come up with a simple system to call out bullshit stories about railways - the Rail

Bullshit Meter

Qbuzz to run Amsterdam-Paris in 2027

Here's the news story. This one is obvious at one level - Amsterdam-Paris is ripe for a rival. But trying to do this by January 2027 (so timetable change December 2026) looks like a hell of a long shot to me. But given Qbuzz is owned by Trenitalia,

Bullshit Meter

Night trains combined with freight

An older one this - the story is from 2019. But it still will not happen.