European Union

A collection of 125 posts

Analysis

Railways and the Enrico Letta report on the future of the Single Market

Former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta has been spending months preparing a report on the future of the EU's Single Market. The report will be presented to Heads of State and Government this week, and was published yesterday - you can find the PDF here. A couple of

European Union

France and Germany: united in what exactly when it comes to public transport?

I spent yesterday at the France-Germany border - I started in Freiburg, cycled to the human chain protest at Breisach, and cycled onwards to Colmar in France. The Association Trans Rhin Rail has been working for twelve years to try to re-open the cross border section of the Freiburg-Colmar line.

Analysis

A report for Jakop Dalunde MEP and a follow up event about rail and multimodal ticketing in the EU

I was commissioned by Jakop Dalunde, MEP from Miljöpartiet de gröna (Greens/EFA), to write a report about the ongoing challenges to fix multimodal and especially railway ticketing problems EU-wide. The report - entitled "Simplifying European Ticketing – A chance for a green transformation of public and multimodal transport in

Analysis

Abandoned luggage on trains, and the presumption of innocence

Once - in all my years travelling by rail - I left a bag on a train by mistake. It was sometime between 2005 and 2007 when I was working in both London and Sunningdale (50 mins west of London), and unusually I had a bag with a suit in

Analysis

If you reduced track access charges in European passenger rail, very little would happen - at least short term

Transport & Environment, Allrail, Trainline and some private railway companies and ticket sellers have released a letter (PDF here) to the European Commission calling for a reduction in track access charges for passenger trains. They specifically mention "trains with high capacity" (whatever that means exactly - run fewer,

Albania

#CrossBorderRail South East Europe - crowdfunding now open

Since embarking on my first #CrossBorderRail tour in the summer of 2022 and follow up smaller tours in 2023, internal railway borders of the European Union have been my prime focus - and so far I have been to exactly 200 borders (you can see them all mapped here -

Analysis

"Europa spoort niet" - reflections on appearing in vpro's documentary about European railways

On 3rd March the documentary "Europa spoort niet" aired on NPO2, the Dutch public state broadcaster's TV channel. It is in the documentary series Tegenlicht, produced by vpro. You can watch the whole thing (50 mins) with Dutch subtitles here, and there is a version for

Analysis

How green are Europe's railways?

At one level the answer to the question posed in the title of this post is obvious: very green. This 2020 report (PDF) by the European Environment Agency puts some numbers on it, summarised in this graph: I might quibble with some of the numbers here, but the overall picture

European Union

3 of the #CrossBorderRail Top 20 projects now solved

The motivation for the whole #CrossBorderRail project was to assess why there had been such meagre progress fixing the 15 missing links Michael Cramer had proposed in his 2015 report. Only 1 of the 15 from Cramer's list - Selb-Plößberg (Germany) to Aš (Czechia) - has so far

Analysis

There'll be a new European Commissioner for Transport in 2024 - but I'm not hopeful for change

It's my enduring memory of European Commissioner for Transport Adina Vălean. I was a passenger on the EU Year of Rail publicity train - the Connecting Europe Express - between Kraków and Ljubljana. And who was there to greet the train's arrival at Ljubljana station -

European Union

Interrail tips and tricks

In the course of my #CrossBorderRail project I have learned a fair bit about how to use Interrail passes in a bunch of different countries. While this is far from a complete guide, here are a bunch of tips and tricks I have picked up. All are correct as of

Analysis

The future of long distance train services through the Channel Tunnel

This blog post has remained unchanged since it was written in 2024. It has largely been superceeded by my #CrossChannelRail Project Final Report TL;DR - whatever you read in the press about future long distance train services through the Channel Tunnel is at best only part of the truth,

Analysis

Stuck between an undeveloped market and the hangovers of state monopolies, rail passengers face the worst of both worlds

It's one of the most common questions I field from journalists: "would more private companies help with the state of the railways in Europe?" And rather than a yes or no, my answer is instead "I'm not sure". That puts me in

Analysis

European Commission's cross border pilot projects - a good idea

The European Commission's cross border pilot projects are a good idea - but not the way the Commission communicates it In January 2023 the European Commission announced its 10 cross border railway pilot projects. That the Commission would do this was a commitment in its 2021 action plan

Analysis

So party politics did not work. It's time to solve Europe's railway problems some other way

"Machen, was zählt" - "Do, what counts" That was the slogan of the party conference of the German Grüne this week in Karlsruhe, and I was running for a place on the party's European Parliament election list. That effort failed completely yesterday evening when

Analysis

If you wanted a massive increase in night train routes in Europe, how could you do it?

In the draft European Parliament election programme of the German Grüne (full PDF here) you can find this paragraph about night trains (my translation): Night trains are a comfortable and climate-friendly way to travel long distances within Europe and thus a good alternative to flying. A massive expansion of night

Analysis

How to actually build Europe-wide multimodal public transport booking platforms

On Page 29 of the draft European Parliament election programme of the German Grüne (full PDF in German here), you can find this text (my translation): What is taken for granted when booking flights should in future also be standard for all train journeys in Europe. With a cross-provider ticketing

Analysis

Simple international trips, and the failures of ticket booking platforms

I am at World Passengers' Festival in Vienna today, and four ticket vendors are here: Trip.com, Trainline, Rail Europe and All Aboard. So, I wondered, how do these platforms do with some pretty simple international journeys? And based on this research I am going to go to their

Analysis

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 European

Analysis

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

Analysis

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

European Union

Deutschlandticket nach / à / to Strasbourg

Zur deutschen Version des Artikels | Aller à la version française de l'article | Go to the English version of the article Es gibt eine französische Großstadt mit 300 000 Einwohnern in der Stadt selbst (und 800 000 im Stadtgebiet), die europäische und internationale Institutionen beherbergt und nur 8,1

Austria

Border stations in national tariff systems - a simple change with a meaningful impact

At opposite ends of Germany there are two cross border railways where tickets for the trains are wonderfully simple - from Gronau (Nordrhein-Westfalen) to Enschede (Netherlands), and from Freilassing (Bayern) to Salzburg (Austria). At two other borders - Kehl (Baden-Württemberg) to Strasbourg (France), and Forst Lausitz (Brandenburg) to Żary (Poland)

Analysis

Where is the sense of urgency in international rail in the EU? I can't see it

Party! From 28 July there will be 4 trains a day each way on the Figueres - Perpignan cross border high speed line! A doubling of the services! Renfe's entry into the French market! Eh, hang on. 4 trains a day each way on a dual track electrified

European Union

Strasbourg? Karlsruhe? No - Saarbrücken? Where the future Paris-Berlin ICE stops is not the issue

There are two high-ish speed routes between Paris Est and Frankfurt(Main)Hbf by train - the shorter one in terms of route-km but with less high speed infrastructure via Saarbrücken (mapped here), and the 70km longer one but with more high speed lines via Strasbourg and Karlsruhe (mapped here)