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 […]
I’ve realised that now I am no longer using Twitter, there is no systematic overview of all the flow diagrams I have made over the years. So this is a post looking back over all the things I have diagrammed, and why! Please click on any image below to load […]
I managed to make a bit of a name for myself throughout the Brexit process by turning the complexities of the it into complex flow diagrams. I’ve used similar techniques to explain party leadership processes in UK and Germany, how to choose a Bundesliga team to support, and even a […]
During my #CrossBorderRail project in the summer of 2022 I needed to take regional trains Badajoz-Merida and Merida-Madrid in Spain, and these trains require compulsory seat reservations. Buying a combined ticket and reservation online for these trains is no problem, but Interrail pass holders need just a seat reservation. At […]
Christian Drosten has today stated that the COVID pandemic is over, and the virus is now endemic. That has led, rather predictably, to the demand that all Corona protection measures be lifted in Germany – FDP Justice Minister Buschmann was the swiftest to make this demand today. But that COVID […]
Back in the summer of 2022 it was party time – almost literally – for passengers on German public transport. For the months of June, July and August it cost just 9 Euro a month, flat rate, to use regional and local public transport anywhere in Germany (basically pretty much […]
Meine Mastodon Feeds sind voll mit Fragen, wie das neue 49 Euro Ticket (auch als Deutschlandticket bekannt) für den öffentlichen Nahverkehr in Deutschland funktioniert. Deshalb werde ich in diesem Beitrag versuchen, alle häufig gestellten Fragen zum Ticket zu beantworten. Alle Angaben entsprechen dem Stand vom 26. Dezember 2022 – sobald […]
I was recording an episode of the Human Risk podcast with Christian Hunt this week – basically about humans and railways – and the conversation came back to what I think I ought to call the implementation gap in railway policy. “When I moved to München“, Christian was telling me, […]
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 […]
Another day, another earnest column in a broadsheet newspaper listing the problems with Europe’s railways – this time it’s Die Zeit. We should fly less, we need more high speed trains, we need more night trains, plans for more have come to nothing, why is infra investment in Germany so slow, […]
There is no international railway line I have travelled more often than Bruxelles – Köln. A good part of my life since my teenage years on language exchanges in the mid-1990s in Verviers and Lahnstein, through to professional life today in my early forties as a self employed person living […]
My Mastodon and Twitter feeds have been full of people asking about how Germany’s new 49 Euro public transport ticket (also known as Deutschlandticket) is going to work. So here in this post I will try to give answers to all the frequently asked questions about the ticket! All of […]