Analysis Archives - Jon Worth

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 to document[Read More…]

15.03.2023 0 comments

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[Read More…]

13.03.2023 4 comments

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 many cases[Read More…]

06.03.2023 1 comment

Faster trains between München and Milano, and München and Roma? Possible, but not quite in the way Merkur frames it

Over on Mastodon, Gregor Herrmann pointed me towards this story in German publication Merkur about German, Austrian and Italian railways planning faster rail connections between München and Milano, and München and Roma. ORF and Die Presse covered the story in Austria, but here I am going to focus on the[Read More…]

21.02.2023 0 comments

Stadler’s new day-night trains for Norway – I have some questions

A few days ago it was announced that Stadler has won the contract to supply new long distance trains to Norway. The official press release from Norske Tog in Norwegian is here, and there are articles from IRJ and Global Railway Review in English as well. While this tender only[Read More…]

20.02.2023 11 comments

Fixing France’s railways – what would I do?

This morning I gave a presentation about solving the problems of Europe’s railways at an event organised by BEUC and hosted by UFC Que Choisir in Paris. Plenty of the debate centred on the problems of rail in France (and Spain) I documented during my #CrossBorderRail project. “Have you ever[Read More…]

27.01.2023 15 comments

Analysis

If COVID is now endemic, it’s time to discuss permanent changes to the way we behave – like wear-a-mask zones on long distance trains

Christian Drosten has today stated that the COVID pandemic is over, and the virus is now endemic. That has led, rather predictably, to the demand that all Corona protection measures be lifted in Germany – FDP Justice Minister Buschmann was the swiftest to make this demand today. But that COVID[Read More…]

26.12.2022 1 comment

The 49 Euro Ticket / Deutschlandticket – the ticket that no one really wants?

Back in the summer of 2022 it was party time – almost literally – for passengers on German public transport. For the months of June, July and August it cost just 9 Euro a month, flat rate, to use regional and local public transport anywhere in Germany (basically pretty much[Read More…]

26.12.2022 1 comment

Deutschlandticket – 49 Euro Ticket – FAQ

Meine Mastodon Feeds sind voll mit Fragen, wie das neue 49 Euro Ticket (auch als Deutschlandticket bekannt) für den öffentlichen Nahverkehr in Deutschland funktioniert. Deshalb werde ich in diesem Beitrag versuchen, alle häufig gestellten Fragen zum Ticket zu beantworten. Alle Angaben entsprechen dem Stand vom 26. Dezember 2022 – sobald[Read More…]

26.12.2022 2 comments

Mapping all of Europe’s #CrossBorderRail lines

In the summer of 2022 I crossed all of the internal borders of the European Union (and Switzerland, Norway and Liechtenstein) you can cross by train. That ended up with 95 borders crossed (you can find all the routes I took here). But that is long way away from crossing[Read More…]

23.12.2022 1 comment