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

We know what's wrong with European railways. Mostly. But how do we fix it?

Another day, another depressing study. Greenpeace looked at rail and motorway investments across Europe, and found 66 % more budget spent to extend roads than to extend railways. Between 1995 and 2018 there was a 60% increase in the length of Europe’s motorways – more than 30,000 km – while European

Analysis

How do you even say "Takt" for a timetable in English?

I am doing some comparative research about railways in Europe this summer and that has led me to the question: what makes a good train timetable? And that then leads inevitably to a Taktfahplan or, better still, a Integraler Taktfahplan (German language Wikipedia here) By which point I have lost

France

Belfort-Delémont - yes, #CrossBorderRail to France can always get worse

It was one of the weirder experiences of my #CrossBorderRail project last year. I had arrived in Belfort in eastern France from Besançon, and needed to get to Delémont in Switzerland. There is a line between the two, but Swiss trains mostly depart from the TGV station that is 10km

Analysis

Running for the European Parliament election list for the German Grüne

For most of the past two years I have poured all of my political energy into transport policy topics - the Trains for Europe campaign, and the #CrossBorderRail project. And this website that has become a kind of hub for my railway commentary. At one level that has all worked

Analysis

If there's to be a rival to Eurostar through the Channel Tunnel, it's not going to be Mobico (or Evolyn) with new trains in 2025

Update 12.10.2023 - this will not now be called Mobico, but a new brand called Evolyn but with the same backers - see Sky News and Railway Gazette. The Evolyn website is very sketchy. Alstom - the supposed manufacturer of the trains - has said nothing yet. So

European Union

Deutschlandticket nach / à / to Strasbourg

Zur deutschen Version des Artikels | Aller à la version française de l'article | Go to the English version of the article Es gibt eine französische Großstadt mit 300 000 Einwohnern in der Stadt selbst (und 800 000 im Stadtgebiet), die europäische und internationale Institutionen beherbergt und nur 8,1

Austria

Border stations in national tariff systems - a simple change with a meaningful impact

At opposite ends of Germany there are two cross border railways where tickets for the trains are wonderfully simple - from Gronau (Nordrhein-Westfalen) to Enschede (Netherlands), and from Freilassing (Bayern) to Salzburg (Austria). At two other borders - Kehl (Baden-Württemberg) to Strasbourg (France), and Forst Lausitz (Brandenburg) to Żary (Poland)

Analysis

Where is the sense of urgency in international rail in the EU? I can't see it

Party! From 28 July there will be 4 trains a day each way on the Figueres - Perpignan cross border high speed line! A doubling of the services! Renfe's entry into the French market! Eh, hang on. 4 trains a day each way on a dual track electrified

Analysis

Turning it around - could you make the use of Berlin's streets better for everyone?

That the removal of just one car parking space can in the future be enough to stop a bicycle infrastructure project in Berlin has of course led to justifiable howls of critique. A car friendly transport policy is what you get from a city administration run by the CDU (and

The best #CrossBorderRail lines to visit

#CrossBorderRail is a very political project - to push for better international railway connections between European countries. But one of the things that makes the project so fun is that it has taken me to some wonderful places amongst the 130 borders I have crossed in the past 12 months

European Union

Strasbourg? Karlsruhe? No - Saarbrücken? Where the future Paris-Berlin ICE stops is not the issue

There are two high-ish speed routes between Paris Est and Frankfurt(Main)Hbf by train - the shorter one in terms of route-km but with less high speed infrastructure via Saarbrücken (mapped here), and the 70km longer one but with more high speed lines via Strasbourg and Karlsruhe (mapped here)

Analysis

The personal is political. Have you ever been to Seifhennersdorf, Zgorzelec or Ormenio?

A Friday evening in early June. I am in a compartment in a delayed EuroCity train from München to Klagenfurt, and I am helping one of my fellow passengers in the compartment with their onward connections due to the delay, and conversation turns to broader railway issues, and I explain

Czechia

Good news! The Seifhennersdorf (DE) - Varnsdorf (CZ) line to re-open

One grey and overcast August day last year I took a New York Times journalist and photographer to Seifhennersdorf, a town in Sachsen, Germany, that is less than 2 kilometres from the border to Czechia. The town features in the resulting piece in the Times about my #CrossBorderRail project. The

Analysis

Explaining complexity in my usual way - with a diagram! This time: Deutschlandticket

1st May heralds a major change in public transport in Germany: the introduction of the Deutschlandticket. I've explained where to buy it before - but that's quite simple. What about where it's valid? That's more complex. And the way I explain complexity?

Analysis

DeutschlandTicket as a tourist? Buy it from mo.pla

From 1st May 2023 there is a new, flat-rate ticket for public transport in Germany: the DeutschlandTicket. €49 per month, for unlimited use of regional public transport in the whole of the country. That means buses, trams, metros, S-Bahn and regional trains. Or the other way around, it means everything

Analysis

New trains for France-Germany regional services to be delayed 2 years - now 2026 not 2024

Ordered in 2019, and presented with great fanfare by Malu Dreyer in 2021, the new Régiolis diesel-electric hybrid trains were due to enter service on France-Germany regional routes in December 2024. And now - it quietly slipped out - that date has been pushed to December 2026, according to the

Analysis

Events planned, routes adjusted, and crowdfunding ongoing - #CrossBorderRail is 2 weeks away!

On 2nd May - just two weeks from now - I set off on my latest #CrossBorderRail adventure. This time I am going back to all of Germany's rail borders that I did not visit in 2022. You can find the background about the 2023 project here. This

Quick takes

Toute l'Europe - a future night train map that's very, very bad

This cropped up in my LinkedIn feed earlier today. At the time I commented on it, simply saying it was bullshit. Now I am going to take it apart, and break down why it is bullshit. The map comes from this article from Toute l'Europe. We've

Germany

The Deutschlandticket - when is a regional train not a regional train?

The reason I am doing my #CrossBorderRail all the Germany borders project in May 2023 is to test the new Deutschlandticket, the 49 Euro flat rate public transport ticket that will start that month. It is the permanent successor to the temporary 9 Euro Ticket available for three months in

Routes

Mapping my #CrossBorderRail projects

I take a lot of pride in making sure my #CrossBorderRail projects are well mapped. But how do you even map rail routes? It's not as if it's something someone does every day! So here I am going to outline how I do everything. It might

Analysis

Crowd-funding for #CrossBorderRail 2023 - all of Germany's borders - is now open!

In the summer of 2022 with the #CrossBorderRail project I crossed all of the EU's internal borders that you can cross by train. This video sums up what I discovered: Rather than one huge project, this year I am going to be doing a series of smaller projects

Belgium

Quoted in the FT "‘We are full’: the rebirth of Europe’s sleeper trains"

Before we can really scale up night trains in Europe, someone (other than ÖBB!) has to order some new trains. This is the argument I have been making for some time on my Trains for Europe site. So it was good to have the FT examine the subject. The piece

Analysis

Will there be a direct train from [insert city] to London through the Channel Tunnel? Probably not

Basel, Switzerland. The latest city for which a direct train to London has been proposed. It is unlikely to get it, as are Geneva, Köln (CDU-Green NRW coalition agreement Page 132), Frankfurt and Bordeaux. And Marseille and Lyon are unlikely to get their direct trains to London back. There are

France

Meeting Michael Peterson with Die Zeit, and quoted by CNN about shift from planes to trains

I was one of three regular railway passengers asked by German weekly paper Die Zeit to meet head of DB Fernverkehr Michael Peterson to discuss Deutsche Bahn's current woes. The interview appeared in the printed paper on 9 March 2023, and is online here (paywalled). "Worth: Den

Analysis

Make international rail cheaper? Capacity on a route is the crucial issue

It's a common refrain: more people would take the train - especially on international routes - if only it were cheaper! That line of argument assumes that there are actually more trains to take. In other words that there is spare capacity. The problem is that - in