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 […]
European Union
Djebbari announces a “Trains for France” – a missed opportunity
Plans for the rejuvenation of night trains in France are proceeding – the news this morning from France’s Minister of Transport is that new routes with new rolling stock will be launched in the period 2026-2030. You can read more about the plans in Ouest France here. But there’s a […]
Subsidise night train services? Or sort out the market conditions to enable night trains to run?
Back in September 2020, Swedish transport authority Trafikverket sought to award contracts to run two international night trains from summer 2022 – Stockholm-Hamburg and Malmö-Bruxelles. Sweden’s state owned railway firm SJ won the contract to run Stockholm-Hamburg (with rolling stock provided by RDC), but no bids were received for Malmö-Bruxelles, so […]
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 […]
Trains for Europe gets a mention on France24 television debate about night trains
France24 English’s “Talking Europe” show discussed night trains in Europe this week, with Catherine Nicholson moderating a discussion with MEPs Jakop Dalunde (Greens-EFA, Sweden) and Marian-Jean Marinescu (EPP, Romania). Given that Jakop is one of the MEPs who already supports Trains for Europe, his comments are very much in line […]