Taxis in Brussels have been been plastered with the slogan “Ceci n’est pas un taxi clandestin” for some months now, in protest at Uber that was allowed in Belgium, then banned, and now – according to this story from Politico – has a reprieve and its legal status will be […]
Transport
Beware the UIC Train to Paris – cross border rail for dignitaries only
In 2009 the United Nations Climate Change Conference was held in Copenhagen. The UIC organised a special night train (pictured) for dignitaries to be able to get from Brussels to Copenhagen by rail – the Climate Express. By 2009 regular night trains to Brussels were already history, and in 2014 […]
France’s LGV Rhin-Rhône best serves… Paris. So much for high speed lines of regional importance!
Back when the Rhine-Rhône high speed TGV line (in French: LGV Rhin-Rhône) was being planned it was described that “In contrast to France’s other high speed lines — apart from the bypass round the east of Paris — LGV Rhin-Rhône was conceived primarily as an inter-regional route and not as […]
Now Dresden-Wrocław trains are cancelled for good – third piece of bad news for PL-DE rail this winter alone
Following the end of the Berlin – Wrocław EC Wawel (early December 2014), Frankfurt(Oder) – Poznań RegionalExpress trains (end December 2014), we now have the news that Dresden – Wrocław RegionalExpress trains will cease at the end of February 2015. News of this cancellation can be found here in Polish […]
Brits going to Spain at May bank holiday: you’re probably paying too much for car hire
As regular readers of this blog are surely now aware, I have become quite fascinated by the tricks used by car hire companies to wring more money out of their customers. I first reported on this in summer 2014, and revisited the example in early February 2015. I have since […]
A rail postcard from Mannheim
Dear Violeta, Since my postcard from Forst (Lausitz) in December I’ve travelled the length and breadth of Germany by rail (even stopping off to hear you speak at the Schwarkopf Stiftung in Berlin), and today I am sending you a virtual postcard from Mannheim. I have no idea whether Franz […]
My attention-seeking Blaze bicycle light
As a person I seldom stand out, at least to look at – I am of medium height and medium build, my hair is plain and I choose my clothes precisely so as no-one remarks about them. If you passed me in the street your head would not turn, and […]
The extraordinary ease of DriveNow, GPS-based car sharing
“Why would I need a Mini or a BMW for car share?” I wondered when I first saw DriveNow cars on the streets of Berlin when moving here 15 months ago. A bit of searching online led me to discover that DriveNow (like its competitor Car2Go) is a car share […]
The tricks of EU cross-border rail – Berlin-Bruxelles-St Gallen-Berlin
I have just completed the booking of the tickets for a rail trip in April, just under 3 months ahead of my departure. Booking the trip required so many tricks and odd tactics that I’m writing this blog about it, in the hope that others can learn from it, and […]
Bundestag hearing on long distance rail, night trains, Autozug
On Wednesday 14th January at 1100, 3 members of the Bundestag from Die Linke – Sabine Leidig, Herbert Behrens and Caren Lay – are organising a public hearing about long distance rail in Europe. The title of this is “Rückzug der Deutschen Bahn AG bei Nacht- und Autoreisezügen stoppen – […]
So you want the cheapest Barcelona-Paris rail ticket? Complex
I have started to plan a journey for late spring 2015, and one part of it will be a Barcelona-Paris TGV trip. How, I wonder, do I get the cheapest tickets on this service? For a start the tickets I need are not yet available – FR-ES TGV and AVE […]
Frankfurt(Oder) – Poznań regional trains axed from 1st January 2015
Following my post about the final EC Wawel, and the funding absurdity for PKP’s new high speed trains in Poland, here’s yet more bad news when it comes to Germany-Poland rail connections – the two daily regional trains each way in each direction between Frankfurt(Oder) and Poznań will not run from […]