France Archives - Jon Worth

If there’s to be a rival to Eurostar through the Channel Tunnel, it’s not going to be Mobico with new trains in 2025

The FT reported a couple of days ago that Mobico (the new name for National Express) wants to run trains through the Channel Tunnel, rivalling Eurostar, and to do that by 2025 using new trains built by Alstom. Mobico’s share price is up this morning based on the news. The[Read More…]

31.07.2023 0 comments

Where is the sense of urgency in international rail in the EU? I can’t see it

Party! From 28 July there will be 4 trains a day each way on the Figueres – Perpignan cross border high speed line! A doubling of the services! Renfe’s entry into the French market! Eh, hang on. 4 trains a day each way on a dual track electrified line capable[Read More…]

19.06.2023 4 comments

Strasbourg? Karlsruhe? No – Saarbrücken? Where the future Paris-Berlin ICE stops is not the issue

There are two high-ish speed routes between Paris Est and Frankfurt(Main)Hbf by train – the shorter one in terms of route-km but with less high speed infrastructure via Saarbrücken (mapped here), and the 70km longer one but with more high speed lines via Strasbourg and Karlsruhe (mapped here). Both give[Read More…]

14.06.2023 1 comment

New trains for France-Germany regional services to be delayed 2 years – now 2026 not 2024

Ordered in 2019, and presented with great fanfare by Malu Dreyer in 2021, the new Régiolis diesel-electric hybrid trains were due to enter service on France-Germany regional routes in December 2024. And now – it quietly slipped out – that date has been pushed to December 2026, according to the[Read More…]

29.04.2023 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 7 comments

Meeting Michael Peterson with Die Zeit, and quoted by CNN about shift from planes to trains

I was one of three regular railway passengers asked by German weekly paper Die Zeit to meet head of DB Fernverkehr Michael Peterson to discuss Deutsche Bahn’s current woes. The interview appeared in the printed paper on 9 March 2023, and is online here (paywalled). “Worth: Den Ärger, den ich häufig in[Read More…]

09.03.2023 0 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…]

05.03.2023 3 comments

Taking apart Euronews’s puff piece about the new TGVs

One of the aims of this new “Quick takes” category here is for me to write things something longer than a toot or tweet, but not as well thought out as longer-form blog posts. So here goes. This toot – boosted into my Mastodon home feed by Aarne Granlund this[Read More…]

18.02.2023 0 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 18 comments

You are invited to the funeral for the Mons ?? – Aulnoye-Aymeries ?? train

One of the strangest experiences in my #CrossBorderRail trip this summer was as the only passenger on the Mons to Aulnoye-Aymeries train – it even features in my summary video. Given that the one I took departs Mons at 06:04 then I suppose that was no surprise. And then, as[Read More…]

07.12.2022 0 comments

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Jon Worth

France

If there’s to be a rival to Eurostar through the Channel Tunnel, it’s not going to be Mobico with new trains in 2025

Where is the sense of urgency in international rail in the EU? I can’t see it

Strasbourg? Karlsruhe? No – Saarbrücken? Where the future Paris-Berlin ICE stops is not the issue

New trains for France-Germany regional services to be delayed 2 years – now 2026 not 2024

Will there be a direct train from [insert city] to London through the Channel Tunnel? Probably not

Meeting Michael Peterson with Die Zeit, and quoted by CNN about shift from planes to trains

Make international rail cheaper? Capacity on a route is the crucial issue

Taking apart Euronews’s puff piece about the new TGVs

Fixing France’s railways – what would I do?

You are invited to the funeral for the Mons ?? – Aulnoye-Aymeries ?? train

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Recent Analysis

Simple international trips, and the failures of ticket booking platforms

Kulturzug slides – Kulturzug Folien – Slajdy Kuulturzug

Policy proposals to fix Europe’s railways

Recent Guides

A diagram to explain EU cross border rail passengers rights – and to push for political change

Germany’s 49 Euro Ticket Deutschlandticket – a FAQ

How to use Deutsche Bahn’s De Connect tickets for train trips between Germany and London

Recent Quick takes

Strasbourg? Karlsruhe? No – Saarbrücken? Where the future Paris-Berlin ICE stops is not the issue

Toute l’Europe – a future night train map that’s very, very bad

TimeOut makes a right hash of the new Milano-München trains story

Recent In the media

Quoted in the FT “‘We are full’: the rebirth of Europe’s sleeper trains”

Meeting Michael Peterson with Die Zeit, and quoted by CNN about shift from planes to trains

Quoted in Berliner Zeitung about the Brenner pilot project

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