A few weeks back a friend and I were offered a Riese und Müller Birdy that dates from 2001. The hope was that we could make something of it and use it, as the thing had been sitting in a storage room unused for more than 5 years. The bike itself […]
Transport
How to book Brussels-Amsterdam rail tickets – a further example of the absurdity of cross border rail in the EU
“Jon, did you know?” a friend asked me today. “There’s now Eurostar Brussels to Amsterdam and it’s cheaper than the Thalys!” As a rail nerd I did of course know it exists but I have not had the chance to take it yet. But that gave me the idea for a […]
How a little openness and transparency would change EU-wide rail
On Wednesday 15 January 2020, just under 2 months from now, I want to make a rail trip from Bruges in Belgium to Aix-en-Provence in France. What do I need to plan such a trip? The times of the trains, and an ability to book tickets. Shouldn’t be so hard. […]
The definitive guide to Berlin multi-mode mobility apps
For most of my adult life I have lived in big cities, and that means never having the need to own a car (even though I have a driving license). My own bicycle is my normal way around Berlin where I currently live, with public transport (U-Bahn and S-Bahn mostly) […]
A day trip to the last outpost of the Soviet Union – Tiraspol in Transnistria
So you want to go to the only place in the world that still has the hammer and sickle on its flag? A largely unrecognised state? One with a statue of Lenin in front of its Parliament? And you want to do that in 2019? And you want to do […]
A rail postcard from Passow (Uckermark)
Dear Violeta, It has been a little while since I last wrote you a postcard from one of my cross-border rail trips. But this week I took a little journey from Berlin to Szczecin / Stettin in West Pomerania in Poland, represented in the European Parliament by Bogusław Liberadzki – […]
SNCF. Is this public service?
My trip today, 10 April 2018: Toulouse (population: 467000, 1.3 million in the urban area) to Béziers (population: 75000). Distance 176km by train, 180km by road. Departure time: sometime around 1500. Towns along the route: Castelnaudary (population: 11000), Carcassonne (48000), Narbonne (53000). Beyond Béziers are Montpellier, Nîmes and Marseille. Here […]
The enduring mess of cross-border rail booking – Geneva to Berlin
On Tuesday 28th November – more than 2 months from now – I want to make a train trip from Geneva to Berlin. The connection is easy enough – two InterCity trains in Switzerland, via Biel/Bienne, to Basel SBB, and then the NightJet night train from there to Berlin. This […]
Which Berlin eScooter sharing scheme should you join? Testing Coup and Emmy
tl;dr – join both Coup and Emmy If instead you want some detail, read on. Contents Introduction Prerequisites Signup Pricing Scooters Helmets Test rides Miscellaneous other remarks Summary Introduction Berlin – long the testing groud for car sharing schemes – has a new mobility craze. The eScooter sharing scheme. […]
Locomore lives again – with Czech partners and support from Flixbus
I started writing this blog enty sat aboard the first Locomore / Leo Express / Flixtrain / Flixbus service, departing at 1419 on 24th August from Berlin Lichtenberg to Stuttgart. I was only going as far as Berlin Hauptbahnhof, but that’s enough time to test the onboard wifi. Solid so […]
The cheapest Deutsche Bahn Sparpreis across central Germany… starts in Czech Republic
I’ve discovered a few tricks to book extra cheap rail tickets in the past – I’ve explained the Eurostar Aachen trick, and how to split tickets in Germany, but now – thanks to a discussion on Twitter with @seatsixtyone and others, there is a new trick – involving Czech Republic […]
The prerequisites to make a liberalised EU rail market work
After having been stuck again this morning due to lack of collaboration between EU rail firms, I started to wonder: can liberalisation of EU rail actually ever work? And, were it to ever work, what are the prerequisites to making it work? The blog entry tries to at least pose the […]