#CrossBorderRail Archives

Events planned, routes adjusted, and crowdfunding ongoing – #CrossBorderRail is 2 weeks away!

On 2nd May – just two weeks from now – I set off on my latest #CrossBorderRail adventure. This time I am going back to all of Germany’s rail borders that I did not visit in 2022. You can find the background about the 2023 project here. This post gives[Read More…]

17.04.2023 0 comments

Quoted in Politiken about the European Commission’s international rail pilot projects

When the European Commission released details of its pilot services to boost cross-border rail, it caused quite a splash – it was even front page news in Metro in Belgium: The problem was that much of the coverage was mis-guided, at least in part thanks to the European Commission over-selling[Read More…]

17.02.2023 0 comments

Fixing France’s railways – what would I do?

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[Read More…]

27.01.2023 16 comments

A diagram to explain EU cross border rail passengers rights – and to push for political change

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[Read More…]

16.01.2023 1 comment

European railways and the implementation gap

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,[Read More…]

18.12.2022 1 comment

Autumn press coverage of the #CrossBorderRail project

Guest on #RailNatter with Gareth Dennis – 4 Jan 2023 Han har krydset alle EU’s grænser i tog i 2022. Nu er han mest af alt bare sur Information – 3 Jan 2023 – Mathias Sonne Aktivisten Jon Worth har i 2022 kørt Europa tyndt og krydset alle europæiske[Read More…]

15.12.2022 0 comments

Why Interrail is structurally incapable of fixing the seat reservation problems with its passes

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[Read More…]

02.12.2022 4 comments

Mons-Aulnoye – Belgium and France close a cross border passenger railway line

It was one of the most surreal experiences of the #CrossBorderRail project: to be the only passenger on an international train for its entire trip. It even made it into my summary video. It happened on Day 1, at the Belgium-France border, between Mons and Aulnoye-Aymeries – and you can[Read More…]

11.11.2022 1 comment

Analysis

I ought to work more on European railway topics – but how?

For the period spanning roughly 2015 to 2019, Brexit was my prime political preoccupation. Analysing what would happen next, and doing plenty of media work about the twists and turns of the sorry saga. When Boris Johnson won the December 2019 General Election it was time to step away from[Read More…]

19.10.2022 8 comments

Pressemitteilung / Press Release – Präsentation der ersten Schlussfolgerungen des #CrossBorderRail-Projekts – Presentation of the first conclusions of the #CrossBorderRail Project

(English version below – details of the Top20 projects here) Im Sommer 2022 überquerte Jon Worth im Rahmen des Projekts #CrossBorderRail jede Binnengrenze der EU, die man mit dem Zug überqueren kann. 95 Grenzen, mehr als 30000 Zugkilometer, und wo keine Züge mehr fahren, nahm er ein Klapprad, um von[Read More…]

29.08.2022 0 comments