My previous post was a kind of hopeless “well we know the problems with railways, but what do we do?” Here – and motivated by Justin Scholz who has been pushing me to write this sort of thing for months – here are a series of policy proposals to fix […]
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We know what’s wrong with European railways. Mostly. But how do we fix it?
Another day, another depressing study. Greenpeace looked at rail and motorway investments across Europe, and found 66 % more budget spent to extend roads than to extend railways. Between 1995 and 2018 there was a 60% increase in the length of Europe’s motorways – more than 30,000 km – while […]
The #CrossBorderRail plans for autumn 2023, and some press coverage
So far one EU country with a railway has been missing from my #CrossBorderRail project – Ireland. Because it only has a railway border to a non-EU Member State. But this autumn I am finally putting that right! Ireland and France aim to make it possible to travel between the […]
How do you even say “Takt” for a timetable in English?
I am doing some comparative research about railways in Europe this summer and that has led me to the question: what makes a good train timetable? And that then leads inevitably to a Taktfahplan or, better still, a Integraler Taktfahplan (German language Wikipedia here) By which point I have lost […]
Running for the European Parliament election list for the German Grüne
For most of the past two years I have poured all of my political energy into transport policy topics – the Trains for Europe campaign, and the #CrossBorderRail project. And this website that has become a kind of hub for my railway commentary. At one level that has all worked […]
If there’s to be a rival to Eurostar through the Channel Tunnel, it’s not going to be Mobico (or Evolyn) with new trains in 2025
Update 12.10.2023 – this will not now be called Mobico, but a new brand called Evolyn but with the same backers – see Sky News and Railway Gazette. The Evolyn website is very sketchy. Alstom – the supposed manufacturer of the trains – has said nothing yet. So – honestly […]