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

A report for Jakop Dalunde MEP and a follow up event about rail and multimodal ticketing in the EU

I was commissioned by Jakop Dalunde, MEP from Miljöpartiet de gröna (Greens/EFA), to write a report about the ongoing challenges to fix multimodal and especially railway ticketing problems EU-wide. The report - entitled "Simplifying European Ticketing – A chance for a green transformation of public and multimodal transport in

Analysis

Abandoned luggage on trains, and the presumption of innocence

Once - in all my years travelling by rail - I left a bag on a train by mistake. It was sometime between 2005 and 2007 when I was working in both London and Sunningdale (50 mins west of London), and unusually I had a bag with a suit in it in

Analysis

No amount of investment in infrastructure can save rail companies from themselves

Wolfgang Cramer is a long time connection of mine on social media. He is obsessed about reducing his carbon footprint, and travels pretty much everywhere by train and bike, so you can see why I get along with him. He has thousands of kilometres of rail travel, Europe-wide, behind

Analysis

Should Deutsche Bahn be obliged to sell tickets of private rivals in DB Navigator?

It was in the news this week that night train startup European Sleeper has contacted the Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartel Office) in Germany over Deutsche Bahn's refusal to sell its tickets on bahn.de and in its DB Navigator app. I can see European Sleeper's point of

Analysis

If you reduced track access charges in European passenger rail, very little would happen - at least short term

Transport & Environment, Allrail, Trainline and some private railway companies and ticket sellers have released a letter (PDF here) to the European Commission calling for a reduction in track access charges for passenger trains. They specifically mention "trains with high capacity" (whatever that means exactly - run fewer, larger

Analysis

Yield management and compulsory reservation - how much of each should we tolerate in railways?

Is taking a train something you do every day, rivaling a car? Something flexible, you just get on and go? Or is it something you do less regularly? Something where you plan, that you know long ahead where and when you will travel? More similar to how most people take

Albania

#CrossBorderRail South East Europe - crowdfunding now open

Since embarking on my first #CrossBorderRail tour in the summer of 2022 and follow up smaller tours in 2023, internal railway borders of the European Union have been my prime focus - and so far I have been to exactly 200 borders (you can see them all mapped here - pink pins

Analysis

"Europa spoort niet" - reflections on appearing in vpro's documentary about European railways

On 3rd March the documentary "Europa spoort niet" aired on NPO2, the Dutch public state broadcaster's TV channel. It is in the documentary series Tegenlicht, produced by vpro. You can watch the whole thing (50 mins) with Dutch subtitles here, and there is a version for

Germany

What good is live tracking data if I cannot act on it? (and how to subsequently claim compensation from Flixbus, in some circumstances)

This morning I was meant to take Flixbus 1324 from Amsterdam Sloterdijk to Berlin ZOB, booked because Deutsche Bahn train drivers are striking today. Needs must and all that. The timetable for the service is departing Sloterdijk at 06:10 and arriving ZOB at 16:20, before the bus continues

Analysis

How green are Europe's railways?

At one level the answer to the question posed in the title of this post is obvious: very green. This 2020 report (PDF) by the European Environment Agency puts some numbers on it, summarised in this graph: I might quibble with some of the numbers here, but the overall picture

Germany

Bad Muskau - Łęknica, and the joys and tensions at the Germany - Poland border

It's one of the many joys of my #CrossBorderRail project - it takes me to these amazing and sometimes slightly odd border places, and I never know quite what I am going to find when I get there. This was the case when I went to Bad Muskau - Łęknica

Belgium

Mannheim-Bruxelles in 1972, and what it tells us about Mannheim-Bruxelles today

I stumbled across this little gem on Facebook - posted by Peter Osten (one of my predecessors as President of JEF Europe) and reproduced here with his permission. It is a rail ticket from April 1972 Mannheim Hbf - Bruxelles return, and it cost DM 95.20. Look at it closely and

Analysis

Trainline, Rail Europe and Omio - only inadvertently solving cross-border rail ticketing headaches

"What ticketing platform can you recommend for cross-border railway bookings, Jon?" is a question I receive quite often. And the answer, rather disappointingly, is "It depends where you're going." Or - put that another way - I can give none of the third party privately

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 they aim to

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 other

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 been

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 - none other than

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

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, because

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