One of the most interesting discussions provoked by my previous post about the European Commission’s passenger rights consultation was whether a railway operator really needs to know about my whole journey to be able to offer me passenger rights. Oliver Blanthorn and Cycling on Rails – two of the cleverest people […]
European Union
Replying to the European Commission’s call for evidence on revision of Rail Passenger Rights
On 20th August the European Commission heavily promoted (Bluesky, LinkedIn, Mastodon) its public consultation on the revision of the Rail Passenger Rights Regulation. As a few people asked me what I thought of this process, here’s my response – part analysis of the problem, and part list of ideas of […]
Railway work: what I am doing has some ethical purpose, but is anyone listening?
This summer will be my last big #CrossBorderRail tour – 80 more borders, mostly in Central Europe. There simply are not too many more borders to visit. And as the project on the ground winds down, I have started to wonder who might benefit from the lessons I have learned […]
A high speed rail plan for Europe? Let’s start with a high speed rail plan for France’s borders
The European Commission and the state owned railway companies are getting very excited about the idea there could be a EU masterplan for high speed rail. With that in mind, let’s do a little thought experiment. This started as a Bluesky thread, and has been lightly edited into this blog […]
Can’t deliver packages in crowded cities? Put more… err… passengers on your trams
At a simple, basic level it sounds appealing. Packages cannot be delivered efficiently in congested cities, so use less congested tram tracks instead. Add a the appeal of autonomous vehicles, a bit of AI, and a sprinkling of blockchain, bundle it up with some nice neat renderings, and you will […]
New Channel Tunnel entrant? You need a plan for what happens if you fail, so you can actually succeed
No company wants to enter a market thinking they are going to fail. But what happens were they to fail might have a bearing on whether they succeed in the first place. It was with this in mind that I read this morning that Virgin Trains is looking for money partners. […]
