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

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 shot.

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 Story

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.

Bullshit Meter

Re-gauge Finland's railways to standard gauge

These ones crop up once in a while, and are not completely separate from each other - while Finland has only one standard gauge railway line, re-gauging makes no sense. But building a further one - a tunnel to Tallinn - is ridiculously expensive, and then would only make sense if Rail

Bullshit Meter

Dubai to build a rail tunnel to India

If anyone believed this you better stop reading right now.

Bullshit Meter

Berlin-Warszawa with Flixtrain

Flixtrain has two paths a day each way between Berlin and Warszawa from December 2025 - outlined here. The problem is it needs carriages that can accept 3kV dc current head end power, and at the moment it does not have any of those in its fleet. Until it either leases

Bullshit Meter

Portugal-Spain night trains to return in 2025

Here's the story. This one is also eminently do-able, but we do not know who would do it and, importantly, how and when. There are either old Talgo trains, or some Arco couchettes that CP acquired from Renfe that could be used for the service, but how

Bullshit Meter

Gorizia - Nova Gorica to have passenger trains

We have a bunch of news stories (like this one) with a concrete date - 8 February. It's 3km of track with no significant engineering headaches. Trains exist, an operator exists, Gorizia and Nova Gorica are European Capital of Culture. This one is going to happen.

Bullshit Meter

Virgin Trains to rival Eurostar by 2029

Here's the story. There is something afoot with regard to a company trying to rival Eurostar - Virgin Trains is apparently ready to sign a contract "this quarter". But until they do I do not believe this will happen.

Bullshit Meter

Milano-Paris an April Fool, or not?

A landslide has blocked the track France - Italy high speed services use, and what was meant to be a closure of a few months has dragged on beyond 18 months. It is of course impossible to be sure that everything is now OK, but finally Trenitalia has announced a date

Bullshit Meter

European Sleeper Amsterdam-Barcelona

Sorry Elmer van Buuren and European Sleeper, but I do not believe this one. And the only real fault is having announced this idea before realising there are two problems with it 1. France and 2. Spain European Sleeper has even itself understood this route would be a pain, and

Analysis

"here’s what a joined-up 21st-century [train] network needs" - trying to give some answers

A story entitled "I love to travel Europe by train. But here’s what a joined-up 21st-century network needs" by María Ramírez was published by The Guardian yesterday. 'I don't disagree with the piece' was the gist of my answer when asked

Analysis

More passengers are a problem for the railways

When - from a passenger point of view - I make the case why the EU ought to pass a Regulation to fix cross border railway ticketing, the reaction from the railway industry (especially state owned railway firms) is essentially "why should we make booking easier, because our cross border trains

Analysis

In this peculiar world of cross border railways, the new slow Bruxelles-Paris OUIGO train makes sense

Bruxelles-Paris by Eurostar (ex-Thalys) 300km/h high speed train takes just 1 hour 22 minutes, but as anyone who has taken it in recent years can testify, the prices can be horribly high, mostly because capacity is not adequate and no one has yet entered the market against

European Union

When will the new Subotica - Novi Sad rail line open? There's no dodging a decision now

In the summer of 2021, in between COVID lockdowns and needing all sorts of paperwork as a result, I made a trip from Berlin to Beograd, Serbia. I will only come to your event, I told the conference organisers, if I can make the trip by train and bus. I

Analysis

No Eurostar isn't the worst performing train company in Europe. But if you're T&E does it matter?

A message from a friend this morning: "Have you seen that piece in The Guardian saying Eurostar is the worst performing train service in Europe?" Oh what now, my heart sinking as I waited for her to send me the link. This is The Guardian's piece,

From Turmantas to Nova Gorica - #CrossBorderRail improvements due in 2025

All of the borders listed are places I have been, and are among my priority borders where problems need to be fixed. I cannot claim credit for having solved any of these, but I am quite sure me repeatedly talking about them - especially Turmantas! - has likely not been to the

Analysis

"We can't transport more passengers because our planes are already full" - said Michael O'Leary. Never. So why are rail companies saying essentially that?

It's a pretty obvious point if you think about it. If all of Ryanair's planes were all running full, all the time, what would Michael O'Leary (CEO of Ryanair) do? He'd order more planes. And yes, that'd mean more maintenance

Analysis

Only EU law is going to solve cross border rail ticketing problems

French state owned rail operator SNCF will not sell me tickets for Italian state owned rail operator Trenitalia's trains. Trenitalia will not sell me tickets for SNCF's trains. But in Brussels both Trenitalia and SNCF want to have you believe that a rail industry initiative called

Analysis

Tzitzikostas at his EP hearing 4th November: it's time to hear HOW he wants to fix EU-wide rail ticketing

When Ursula von der Leyen's released her political guidelines for her second term as President of the European Commission, there it was - a commitment to fix railway ticketing in the EU, including passenger rights: "Cross-border train travel is still too difficult for many citizens. People should

Austria

VDV on cross border re-activation of lines - nice idea, details more sketchy

The Verband Deutscher Verkehrsunternehmen (VDV) (Association of German Transport Companies) has a detailed new website about reactivation of railway lines, and a PDF report with more detail. And one aspect of their proposals are cross-border reactivations that they have been publicising with the little infographic that I reproduce here.