Praha - Berlin - København: well at least the carriages can complete the entire journey

In the Newsletter this week
Analysis: Praha - Berlin - København: well at least the carriages can complete the entire journey
Bullshit Meter, retrospective: Lisboa-Madrid to be a bit less painful
Good week: Andorra to get a railway (well, a tram, maybe)
Also a good week: New France - Italy agreement for the Ventimiglia - Breil s/ Roya - Cuneo line
Shrug of the week: LFP Perthus sets new record, but it's still abysmal
Bad week: Talgo submits documents too late to bid for new Spanish high speed train contract
Elsewhere this week: Trouw about how to plan your summer holiday by train
Photo of the week: Multi-modal trip at Slavonski Brod

Newsletter 023, Friday 3rd July 2026.
Subscriber-only newsletter, sent every Friday at 14:00 CET.

Praha - Berlin - København: well at least the carriages can complete the entire journey

On Friday last week I went to the launch of a new train - twice a day each way there is now a direct service between Praha and København, via Berlin. The trip takes 11 hours, but it is a modern Siemens built ComfortJet train - so ought to be a pleasant trip to take.

The three operators - ČD, DB and DSB - are very proud of their new service, and senior managers from all three firms were present at Berlin Hbf to mark the launch of the route. They even invited along European Commissioner for Transport Apostolos Tzitzikostas and Germany's transport minister Patrick Schnieder.

But as the train pulled into Berlin Hbf I spotted a problem.

The locomotive is not yet approved to run... in Denmark.

This means that, at the moment, only the ComfortJet carriages for the new service run from Praha to København. In Hamburg the locomotive is changed - a Siemens Vectron approved for CZ-D is switched for a Siemens Vectron approved for D-DK.

Yet the CEO of DSB, Flemming Jensen, had just minutes earlier on a panel stated that the European Union needs to do more to push for rail standardisation.

So I approached Jensen and asked him. How can you, I enquired, bemoan a lack of EU standardisation on the panel, while the locomotive for your new service is not approved for Denmark? Is that not your problem in Denmark, not the EU's?

Jensen got quite uppity about this, and started immediately talking about some other issue in Sweden that DSB faced, but I pushed back.

Denmark is among the most problematic countries for train approvals. Its tunnels have special safety rules (rather than applying EU standard TSIs), it has no proper historic rolling stock register, and anyone seeking to run trains through Denmark - notably the SJ-RDC night train in recent years - has faced nightmares.

And yet here was a senior executive of DSB blaming the EU for Denmark's dysfunctions. "We will have to agree to disagree" Jensen stated before abruptly ending his conversation with me.

In the end this should not be either-or. Ways to overcome the lack of Europe-wide technical standards cannot be either national or at EU level, but are going to have to be sorted collaboratively. But to make a start everyone has to acknowledge their share of the problems, something Flemming Jensen straight up denies - and that was concerning.

And as if that were not enough, the very next day - at the height of the heatwave hitting Germany - a ComfortJet train was stranded in Brandenburg, just outside Berlin, and 600 passengers had to be evacuated. This photomontage I was sent rather sums it all up!

Bullshit Meter, retrospective: Lisboa-Madrid to be a bit less painful

Back in January 2025 I wrote that Lisboa - Madrid might be a bit less painful from the end of 2025. But I was wrong. The Elvas - Evora high speed line in Portugal did not open as I had expected, and is still not open, and indeed might not even open in December 2026. Serves me right for thinking progress is possible at the Spain - Portugal border!

All previous Bullshit Meter posts can be found here.

Good week: Andorra to get a railway (well, a tram, maybe)

Andorra does not have a railway, but now there are plans to partially put that right - the Tramvalira project would link Andorra la Vella with La Seu d’Urgell, on the Spanish side of the border. Trenvista has more details here. Map of the whole area on OpenRailwayMap.

This would not be a regular train, but a tram.

Oh and there is no other train in La Seu d'Urgell either. The Toulouse - Latour de Carol - Barcelona line bypasses Andorra altogether, and is far to the east of La Seu d'Urgell.

So no doubt this tram idea would benefit cross border commuters who live on the Spanish side of the border and need to work in Andorra, but this is not going to make any meaningful change to rail routes from further afield to Andorra.

Also a good week: New France - Italy agreement for the Ventimiglia - Breil s/ Roya - Cuneo line

Back in 2024 I travelled on the lines through Breil s/ Roya - you can find the Mastodon thread from that day here. There are three lines from Breil that is in France - to Nice, in France, and to Ventimiglia and Cuneo, in Italy. You can see it on OpenRailwayMap.

While trains do run, sort of, the infrastructure - especially north of Breil towards Tende and Cuneo - is in a terrible state, and the cross border ticketing is a dreadful mess.

Now - as reported by Ferrovie - a new agreement has been signed between France and Italy to secure the future of operations on the line, with a promise of better services and removal of speed restrictions. I must admit I do not believe it yet, as nothing works well in France - Italy rail, but at least both sides are talking. That's something.

Shrug of the week: LFP Perthus sets new record, but it's still abysmal

A record month in June for freight through the Perthus tunnel between Figueres and Perpignan - 219 trains! The line on OpenRailwayMap.

So that is 7.3 trains a day.

And that is both ways. So that is 3.7 trains a day each way. So an average of one train every six and a half hours or so.

On a dual track, newly built electrified line.

Revolutionary I tell you.

Bad week: Talgo submits documents too late to bid for new Spanish high speed train contract

No sooner had I written last week that it could be interpreted that Talgo had turned a corner, this week the news of another setback - the company submitted its documentation too late to bid for a 40 high speed train contract for Renfe in Spain (the company's home market), as reported by El Economista. This leaves Hitachi and Siemens as the remaining bidders for the contract.

Elsewhere this week: Trouw about how to plan your summer holiday by train

Somehow I manage to generate quite a lot of media coverage of my work in the Dutch press - after FD last week, this week it is Trouw that quotes me, but this time more about the practicalities - how to plan your summer holiday by train, and make best use of Interrail.

Photo of the week: Multi-modal trip at Slavonski Brod

Back in the spring of this year I was travelling through South East Europe. Slavonski Brod might have slightly better infrastructure than some parts of Croatia, but it still feels rather forgotten somehow.

Photo Rights

Montage of the stranded ČD train - used with permission.
All other photos by Jon Worth.
Bullshit Meter images always have photo rights listed directly on the image.