A post by UITP Secretary General Mohamed Mezghani caught my eye on LinkedIn – it’s about Spain’s plan to introduce a €60 a month flat rate national public transport ticket next year, along the lines of what Germany did with Deutschlandticket. “While this plan will certainly make public transport more […]
Germany
A creative solution to serve Köln Hbf en route from Frankfurt (Main) to London
One of the aspects of my #CrossChannelRail report that drew the most reaction was my conclusion that serving Köln Hbf with trains to London was too complicated, and it would better to serve Köln/Bonn Flughafen or Horrem instead – as it would be easier to secure a platform and build […]
A little short term subsidy for this or that route is no way to support night trains – lessons from the end of Basel-Malmö before it even started
So there will not be a Basel – Malmö night train from the spring of 2026. Switzerland’s parliament did not approve the subsidy to allow it to run. Without the 10 million CHF the parliament refused to grant to get this going (from a wider fund of 47 million CHF […]
“News” that Régiolis cross border trains cannot operate in Germany is actually nothing new
The latest setback in the entry into service of the new Régiolis fleet for France-Germany cross border services: now there is a problem with the emergency brakes, Le Republicain Lorrain reported yesterday. While the trains are OK to operate in France, but they do not respect the standards on the […]
ORR grants Virgin Trains access to Temple Mills: the low risk option
The UK’s Office of Rail and Road has today decided that Virgin Trains should have access to the Temple Mills depot in east London to maintain its future Channel Tunnel fleet, and has rejected applications from Trenitalia, Gemini and Evolyn to use the facility. It has also, importantly, rejected Eurostar’s […]
Working out what Eurostar is going to do – based on the numbers, not what the company says
If you take what Eurostar has said in its press release, Alstom has said in its press release, and what has appeared in the FT and The Guardian among others yesterday, you end up with the impression that these Avelia Horizon double deck trains Eurostar is to order from Alstom […]
