I spent yesterday at the France-Germany border – I started in Freiburg, cycled to the human chain protest at Breisach, and cycled onwards to Colmar in France. The Association Trans Rhin Rail has been working for twelve years to try to re-open the cross border section of the Freiburg-Colmar line. […]
Germany
Abandoned luggage on trains, and the presumption of innocence
Once – in all my years travelling by rail – I left a bag on a train by mistake. It was sometime between 2005 and 2007 when I was working in both London and Sunningdale (50 mins west of London), and unusually I had a bag with a suit in […]
Should Deutsche Bahn be obliged to sell tickets of private rivals in DB Navigator?
It was in the news this week that night train startup European Sleeper has contacted the Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartel Office) in Germany over Deutsche Bahn’s refusal to sell its tickets on bahn.de and in its DB Navigator app. I can see European Sleeper’s point of view very clearly here – […]
If you reduced track access charges in European passenger rail, very little would happen – at least short term
Transport & Environment, Allrail, Trainline and some private railway companies and ticket sellers have released a letter (PDF here) to the European Commission calling for a reduction in track access charges for passenger trains. They specifically mention “trains with high capacity” (whatever that means exactly – run fewer, larger trains?), […]
Yield management and compulsory reservation – how much of each should we tolerate in railways?
Is taking a train something you do every day, rivaling a car? Something flexible, you just get on and go? Or is it something you do less regularly? Something where you plan, that you know long ahead where and when you will travel? More similar to how most people take […]
What good is live tracking data if I cannot act on it? (and how to subsequently claim compensation from Flixbus, in some circumstances)
This morning I was meant to take Flixbus 1324 from Amsterdam Sloterdijk to Berlin ZOB, booked because Deutsche Bahn train drivers are striking today. Needs must and all that. The timetable for the service is departing Sloterdijk at 06:10 and arriving ZOB at 16:20, before the bus continues onwards to […]