When – from a passenger point of view – I make the case why the EU ought to pass a Regulation to fix cross border railway ticketing, the reaction from the railway industry (especially state owned railway firms) is essentially “why should we make booking easier, because our cross border […]
Czechia
The Stadler RS Zero: the new solution to save the smallest branch lines
Harrachov, Czechia Adorf (Vogtland), Germany Černousy, Czechia Selb-Plößberg, Germany Holzhau, Germany Bayerisch Eisenstein, Germany On the smallest branch lines in Germany and Czechia (and even just into Poland on one line) you will find them – Stadler RS1 railbuses, with their characteristic trapezoid shaped […]
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. From December […]
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 […]
Europe’s empty publicity train – the Connecting Europe Express – reaches the end of the line
On Thursday 7th October the EU Year of Rail “Connecting Europe Express” reaches its final stop in Paris after a month criss-crossing Europe. If ever a tweet summed up the emptiness, the hollowness, of this train, it was this by Community of European Railways’ Yann Seimandi: Amazing experience and discussions […]
I’ll be on the #ConnectingEurope Express – Kraków to Ljubljana
2021 is the EU Year of Rail, and so the European Commission DG MOVE and Community of European Railways are running the “Connecting Europe Express” in September and October to try to show what rail can do for Europe and for the green transition. The train departed from Lisbon on […]