When I started the Trains for Europe project a little over 6 months ago, I had identified the key problem – that the main barrier to scaling up night trains in Europe was the absence of the trains themselves. To get more night trains onto Europe’s rails, someone has to […]
Analysis
If something is incorrect we should not repeat it, even if we want it
In the wider scheme of the ills of modern communication, this was a pretty minor one. In Time Out’s “22 best new things to do in the world in 2022” this was at number 17: 17. Ride new Regiojet sleeper train all the way across Europe – Prague, Czech Republic, […]
Revisiting Michael Cramer’s “Missing Links” 6 years on – meagre progress
Back in 2015, Michael Cramer MEP published his list of missing links in the European railway network. Cramer – a politician from the Greens-EFA group and chair of the TRAN Committee of the European Parliament at the time – had the idea that smaller, cheaper, lower scale cross border railway […]
European Commission action plan to boost long distance and cross-border passenger rail – a glass half full
Last week the European Commission published its long awaited “Action plan to boost long distance and cross-border passenger rail” – you can download the 18 page PDF document here, and there is also a summary of the proposals here. The action plan was based on a much longer piece of […]
#ZugGegenFlug – it’s on, but not quite yet…
Further to my previous blog post about the idea, I am now happy to confirm that the #ZugGegenFlug experiment is on! I’ve partnered with multi-modal travel booking platform Omio who, as well as supporting with ideation and planning (thanks Emily, Boris and team), will be providing the tickets for participants […]
#ZugGegenFlug – an idea
Mark Smith and Simon Calder are having a race today. Mark is taking the new Lumo train from London to Edinburgh, and Simon is racing him – on a flight. It’s a bit of fun, but with a serious purpose – as passengers often underestimate the time it takes them […]