There are always more international rail lines to discover and understand

In the Newsletter this week
Analysis: There are always more international rail lines to discover and understand
Bullshit Meter, retrospective: Frecciarossa Milano-Ljubljana in 2025
Good week: Foundation of the European Rail Passengers' Union
Also a good week: Record rail passenger numbers in Netherlands and Belgium
Good week for the public purse, bad week for the project: Gadgetbahn Flexy will not happen
Bad week: Future of Sighetu Marmației - Salva line in question
Elsewhere this week: Lonely Planet Orient Express
Photo of the week: TER Grand Est at Dannemarie
Calendar: Tag der Schiene, 18-20 September

Newsletter 020, Friday 5th June 2026.
Subscriber-only newsletter, sent every Friday at 14:00 CET.

There are always more international rail lines to discover and understand

It was the work of Michael Cramer MEP, formerly chair of the Transport Committee in the European Parliament, that was vital for the start of my investigations international railways - reading his 2015 Missing Links report, and seeing the scant little progress in the years since prompted me to wonder what I could do about these problematic cross border lines. My #CrossBorderRail project stems directly from that.

While it was Cramer who gave the political impetus, it was DG Regio of the European Commission that ordered a report that did the detailed work - Comprehensive analysis of the existing cross-border rail transport connections and missing links on the internal EU borders, authored for the Commission by Simon Maarfield, Julian Nolte, Ludger Sippel and others, has been my go-to document. Annex 3 (fact-sheets of each cross-border rail connection - 384 pages) and Annex 6 (expanded fact-sheets for each border section - 134 pages) give a sort of starting assessment of any EU railway border.

Yet this week I received an intriguing email.

There never was a railway line Sacuieni Bihor 🇷🇴 - Létavértes 🇭🇺 (OpenRailwayMap, my page about this border) I was told, and had it ever existed it would have been in the 1919 rail timetable (before the Treaty of Trianon set the borders of Hungary, and severed a bunch of rail lines), but there is nothing.

But the line is in the European Commission DG Regio report.

Now given I have been to Létavértes, but the only thing I recalled were the massive piles of abandoned sleepers there, could I discern anything from my drone pictures? And the answer sadly is no, I cannot. Yes, there are buildings blocking the route towards Romania, but they are modern:

However I am told the line is shown in the Eurosprinter map series, although I have not yet been able to get hold of the paper map to confirm this.

So for now the mystery persists. If you have further information to help me work out the answer, do let me know! Although given Létavértes does not have any passenger service currently I am not holding my breath there will ever be a train from there to Sacuieni Bihor!

As if that were not enough, I have worked to correct a few further inconsistencies in how I list cross border railway lines, meaning there are updates and new pages about Subate 🇱🇻 – Obeliai 🇱🇹, Osthof 🇦🇹 – Újszajdamajor 🇭🇺, Ściborzyce Małe 🇵🇱 - Osoblaha 🇨🇿, Konstanz 🇩🇪 - Kreuzlingen Hafen 🇨🇭, Abovce 🇸🇰 - Bánréve 🇭🇺, Ciumeghiu 🇷🇴 - Kötegyán 🇭🇺, Jimbolia 🇷🇴 - Srpska Crnja 🇷🇸 and Noskovci 🇭🇷 - Drávasztára-Zaláta 🇭🇺. And while it is not yet finalised (many pins still missing), I am working on an improved presentation of my map of every cross border line.

At the time of writing, I have 523 lines in my database (lines that cross a border multiple times are listed only once), and I have so far been to 423 of them - and I have now been to every single active line with passenger services, and all bar 4 active cross border lines in total. But there are plenty of dismantled ones still to go!

Bullshit Meter, retrospective: Frecciarossa Milano-Ljubljana in 2025

Time for another Bullshit Meter retrospective - analysing whether my previous Bullshit Meter assessments were correct.

This time I was wrong.

On 15th January 2025 I assessed whether there would be a Milano - Ljubljana Frecciarossa in 2025:

"Should happen" I thought, but it did not come to pass, and there is still no prospect of a high speed connection from Italy to Slovenia this year either, and no news either.

The reason, I suspect, is because infrastructure between Italy and Slovenia remains problematic - slow lines speeds, and the line to Villa Opicina, the border station to Slovenia above Trieste, is topographically complicated. Perhaps once the track upgrades west of Ljubljana, and the rebuilding of Ljubljana station, are done we might finally get this service.

All previous Bullshit Meter posts can be found here.

Good week: Foundation of the European Rail Passengers' Union

For some months I have been working to establish a new organisation: European Rail Passengers' Union (ERPU)

And finally today we are ready: the papers are prepared, the statutes ready, and the organisation will officially be founded, more or less at the time this newsletter goes out.

The idea is to be a direct advocacy organisation for international railway passengers, with a focus only on the international and cross border issues. Anyone will be able to become a member, for a small fee, and that will fund advocacy and lobbying - especially important right now given the ongoing reform of railway ticketing in the EU (you can find the ERPU position on this here).

European Passengers' Federation (EPF) exists as a federation of national associations, but that means they often cannot work on cross border issues directly, and that's where ERPU comes in - we will do the work on the cross border issues, and will also eventually affiliate to EPF.

Also a good week: Record rail passenger numbers in Netherlands and Belgium

While I remain sceptical as to whether the railway industry can take consequential decisions to step up given fuel price increases, passengers are taking matters into their own hands anyway, and booking rail tickets in record numbers. Treinreiziger has been following this, reporting on strong passenger growth for trains from Netherlands to Germany, and similar growth in Belgium - where there has also been a spike in national commuter ticket sales.

Good week for the public purse, bad week for the project: Gadgetbahn Flexy will not happen

Back in the second edition of my newsletter in January, I wrote about 5 innovative projects trying to save French branch lines.

As of now there are only 4, because Flexy is no more. One of the industrial partners has pulled out.

The whole idea struck me as ridiculous - adapting Renault vans to run on train lines, but covering some parts of the lines with asphalt to allow these shuttle vans to leave the tracks and turn around, but therefore rendering these lines impossible to use for any rail vehicle other than Flexy.

Anyway, I am not sad about the demise of this one, and it might mean the French state stops pouring good money after bad.

Bad week: Future of Sighetu Marmației - Salva line in question

Sighetu Marmației (OpenRailwayMap) in northern Romania was one of the most fascinating places I visited during my #CrossBorderRail 2025 tour, a town with a complicated and harrowing history, and just across the river from Ukraine.

At the moment neither international railway line to Ukraine - westwards at Câmpulung la Tisa or eastwards from Valea Vișeului - is in operation, and now even the line to the Romanian mainline at Salva is in question. The state of the infrastructure is so bad that the heavy diesel locomotives currently used on the line may no longer be able to be used from the end of this year, calling the future of the entire line into question.

Yes, speeds on the line are low, but it is an amazing line and crosses wonderful countryside and runs in a deep river valley for the section through Valea Vișeului. I do hope there is a future for it still, and if you have the chance to go there, do so! Here is my Mastodon thread from the day I took the train there.

Elsewhere this week: Lonely Planet Orient Express

I had forgotten this had come out, but finally this week in Paris managed to find a copy - Lonely Planet Orient Express. And I have written an essay in it. And yes, Lonely Planet is so tight they do not even send their authors a complimentary copy! But it is nice to see this in print finally.

Photo of the week: TER Grand Est at Dannemarie

Last week I had a spare Interrail day to use, so went to check out the dismantled Bonfol (Switzerland) - Dannemarie (France) cross border rail line. Passenger services stopped in the 1940s, and the line was close in 1970. Given few people living there, and that the parallel Porrentruy - Belfort line does work, there is no prospect for re-opening Bonfol - Dannemarie. But there is a scenic rail viaduct at Dannemarie, and that was a chance to fly the drone and take some nice photos!

Calendar: Tag der Schiene, 18-20 September

Every year Germany has its "Railway Day" - Tag der Schiene. Except it has now become so big it is three days not just one, and there is a whole dedicated website listing all of the events you can attend. Do go along - there are always interesting things to see and learn!

Photo Rights

Flexy render - from SNCF
All other photos by Jon Worth.
Bullshit Meter images always have photo rights listed directly on the image.