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

Analysis

A hydrogen tram for Görlitz: about the worst idea I can imagine

"Görlitz bekommt die erste Wasserstoff-Straßenbahn Europas" - "Görlitz will get the first hydrogen tram in Europe" the article claims. It might as well be entitled "Görlitz has decided to go for the most stupid public transport idea imaginable" It's not only that

France

Determined citizens in Breisach, rail replacement buses to Müllheim, and no clarity about new trains - France-Germany regional rail remains a mess

You have to give credit to the people that have kept the campaign for the re-activation of the Freiburg - Breisach - Volgelsheim - Colmar railway line alive. For a decade they've been campaigning, and the next step is a day of action on 14th April - where

Cycling

Please look after your activists when they are alive - the Natenom case

Cycling activism is not really my thing - I am a regular cyclist in cities in Germany, know plenty of people who campaign for better cycling infrastructure, and follow a bunch of activists on social media. But I've never been more than a participant in Critical Mass or

European Union

3 of the #CrossBorderRail Top 20 projects now solved

The motivation for the whole #CrossBorderRail project was to assess why there had been such meagre progress fixing the 15 missing links Michael Cramer had proposed in his 2015 report. Only 1 of the 15 from Cramer's list - Selb-Plößberg (Germany) to Aš (Czechia) - has so far

Analysis

There'll be a new European Commissioner for Transport in 2024 - but I'm not hopeful for change

It's my enduring memory of European Commissioner for Transport Adina Vălean. I was a passenger on the EU Year of Rail publicity train - the Connecting Europe Express - between Kraków and Ljubljana. And who was there to greet the train's arrival at Ljubljana station -

Analysis

What Analysis would you like to read? Send me your ideas, and I will have a go

Writing a detailed explainer about Channel Tunnel through services was an idea I have had for a while. But that a 10000 word piece would be one of my most-read blog posts ever comes as a positive surprise! So that then leads me to wonder: what further Analysis pieces would

European Union

Interrail tips and tricks

In the course of my #CrossBorderRail project I have learned a fair bit about how to use Interrail passes in a bunch of different countries. While this is far from a complete guide, here are a bunch of tips and tricks I have picked up. All are correct as of

Austria

Deutschlandfunk and Süddeutsche Zeitung about railway ticketing, and a niche slow train in Croatia

Warum Bahnfahren in Europa oft so kompliziert ist Mal eben schnell mit ein paar Klicks buchen, das funktioniert nicht. Aber ein paar Tricks gibt es doch, um schneller oder zumindest maximal günstig an eine Fahrkarte zu kommen. "Man sollte die Planung von der Buchung trennen", sagt Jon Worth.

Analysis

The future of long distance train services through the Channel Tunnel

This blog post has remained unchanged since it was written in 2024. It has largely been superceeded by my #CrossChannelRail Project Final Report TL;DR - whatever you read in the press about future long distance train services through the Channel Tunnel is at best only part of the truth,

Cycling

Why Berlin can't just do as Paris does on cycling and parking policy

Paris is to hold a referendum in February 2024 to triple parking charges (to €18/hour) in parts of the city, and double them (to €12/hour) in some of the outer parts of the city. Details of exactly what is proposed here. Great idea, I am all for it.

Analysis

Stuck between an undeveloped market and the hangovers of state monopolies, rail passengers face the worst of both worlds

It's one of the most common questions I field from journalists: "would more private companies help with the state of the railways in Europe?" And rather than a yes or no, my answer is instead "I'm not sure". That puts me in

Analysis

NEWAG's digital sabotage of Koleje Dolnośląskie (Dolny Śląsk) trains - what were they thinking?

In the past couple of days, my Mastodon feed has been full of astonishment about how three Polish IT specialists discovered digital sabotage attempts in trains built by manufacturer NEWAG. The original Mastodon toot is here, and there is more detail about the case in Polish, German and English. Read

Analysis

European Commission's cross border pilot projects - a good idea

The European Commission's cross border pilot projects are a good idea - but not the way the Commission communicates it In January 2023 the European Commission announced its 10 cross border railway pilot projects. That the Commission would do this was a commitment in its 2021 action plan

Analysis

So party politics did not work. It's time to solve Europe's railway problems some other way

"Machen, was zählt" - "Do, what counts" That was the slogan of the party conference of the German Grüne this week in Karlsruhe, and I was running for a place on the party's European Parliament election list. That effort failed completely yesterday evening when

Analysis

Why bother with sensible transport policies when you can propose a Maglev instead?

By the end of this week I will finally know my fate - on Friday 24th November the congress of the German Grüne will vote for the party's list of candidates for its European Parliament, and I hope to be elected to position 14 on the list. Having

Hungary

Budapest to Belgrade by train - from 28 November 2023

In the summer of 2021 I made a trip from Berlin to Beograd, Serbia (this blog post resulted from the trip) - with as much of it by train as possible. At that stage Budapest-Kelebia-Subotica, and Subotica-Novi Sad were both possible by train, but Novi Sad-Beograd had not been re-opened

Analysis

If Spain wants to introduce a short-haul flight ban, here's how to avoid the traps of France's ban

France managed to make a huge splash by banning some short haul flights earlier this year. It managed to gain the country's government massive positive publicity. Now in the talks to form a new coalition in Spain, a similar ban there might be possible too. But when you

Belgium

Why DB Reiseasukunft on the web is still my main train planning tool

This week's schedule: Tuesday - train Berlin-Bruxelles Wednesday - train Bruxelles-Maastricht-Bruxelles Friday - train Bruxelles-Berlin Three countries. Borders I have crossed dozens of times before. But not altogether simple when it comes to the railway connections. At least I know that for all of these countries all trains

Analysis

The Berliner Ostbahn - a railway project with potential

The potential is for commuters, for the region, for connections to Poland, and even for freight from the Baltic states Yesterday in Berlin I went to an event organised by Bahnkunden Verband about the need to rebuild and upgrade the Berliner Ostbahn. This is the rail line that connects Berlin

Analysis

Problems with the Cheb-Nürnberg passenger service - and no-one knows what's going on

When Sergio Almeida messaged me this morning about the cancellation of direct passenger trains between Cheb (Czechia) and Nürnberg (Germany) from December, it was news to me. I'd taken this very train in May this year, and suddenly this train that ran every 2 hours is no more.

Analysis

If you wanted a massive increase in night train routes in Europe, how could you do it?

In the draft European Parliament election programme of the German Grüne (full PDF here) you can find this paragraph about night trains (my translation): Night trains are a comfortable and climate-friendly way to travel long distances within Europe and thus a good alternative to flying. A massive expansion of night

Analysis

How to actually build Europe-wide multimodal public transport booking platforms

On Page 29 of the draft European Parliament election programme of the German Grüne (full PDF in German here), you can find this text (my translation): What is taken for granted when booking flights should in future also be standard for all train journeys in Europe. With a cross-provider ticketing

France

When the only way from Wissembourg to Strasbourg is... through Germany (with 3 changes of train)

52.2km as the crow flies. 67.3km train route kilometres. Those are the distances between Wissembourg (Bas-Rhin, Alsace, France) and Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin, Alsace, France). And I want to travel between the two by train after dinner on Saturday 21st October. Fair enough, surely? France the country of good food

Analysis

Simple international trips, and the failures of ticket booking platforms

I am at World Passengers' Festival in Vienna today, and four ticket vendors are here: Trip.com, Trainline, Rail Europe and All Aboard. So, I wondered, how do these platforms do with some pretty simple international journeys? And based on this research I am going to go to their

Analysis

Policy proposals to fix Europe's railways

My previous post was a kind of hopeless "well we know the problems with railways, but what do we do?" Here - and motivated by Justin Scholz who has been pushing me to write this sort of thing for months - here are a series of policy proposals