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

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

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