We now know the scale of EU rail ticketing issues. Commission, over to you!

In the Newsletter this week
Analysis: We now know the scale of EU rail ticketing issues. Commission, over to you!
Bullshit Meter: Italo to run high speed trains in Germany
Good week: Nox raises €2 million in pre-seed funding
Bad week: Sweden doesn't seem to know how many trains it is ordering
Very bad week: Alstom share price slumps 30%
Elsewhere this week: iPaper about ticketing
Photo of the week: A trip to Brod
Calendar: New ICE to the Belgian seaside

Newsletter 014, Friday 24th April 2026.
Subscriber-only newsletter, sent every Friday at 14:00 CET.

We now know the scale of EU rail ticketing issues. Commission, over to you!

This week Transport & Environment (T&E) released a new report (PDF here) about the railway ticketing issues in Europe. Anyone who has read this newsletter, or followed me a while, knows this is a topic I have been following closely for a long period - you can find all my posts about it here.

T&E is of course releasing the report now, as the European Commission is due to propose a package of legislation about rail ticketing, multimodal ticketing, and passenger rights on 13th May.

The really important work from T&E here is explaining the scale of the problem with rail ticketing.

Booking an international train ticket takes 70% longer than booking a flight they conclude, and for almost half of the 30 international routes analysed, tickets could not be purchased from the most commonly used websites in each country.

61% of long distance rail passengers have at least once avoided journeys because the booking process is so onerous.

And while the situation is partially alleviated by independent ticket booking platforms such as Trainline and Omio, with those another problem arises – hugely varying prices depending on which independent platform you use.

The case made here by T&E is especially useful to push back against state railway lobby association CER who regularly state that passengers are content with their ticket booking options as part of their argument against the need for any EU legislation on this topic.

Where the T&E report however falls short is in its prescriptions of how the problems that are outlined should be solved. Especially on the core questions of obligations (and whether these have to fall on operators, or incumbent sales platforms), and the issue of one ticket or multiple tickets, the report rather lacks precision.

But ultimately, when it comes to the public debate about these topics, this week has been useful: we now better know the scale of the problems, and how customers are put off by those problems. European Commission, it is over to you now to come up with a good set of proposals on 13th May!

How all of this develops will of course all be followed in depth in the next editions of my newsletter!

Bullshit Meter: Italo to run high speed trains in Germany

Stuttgarter Zeitung had the story this week that Italian private high speed rail operator Italo is to enter the German rail market, and will likely buy 25-30 Velaro trains from Siemens to do this. There are a whole slew of hurdles Italo would have to overcome before they can launch, and the big question in my mind - given the capacity and reliability issues in German rail - is where they could realistically run. But they are serious, plenty of people have spoken to me about their plans, and I think this one is going to happen - although for now I cannot put a date on it.

All previous Bullshit Meter posts can be found here.

Good week: Nox raises €2 million in pre-seed funding

As I know two of the founders, I have been following the story of night train startup Nox from the very beginning. They are clever people and have bold plans that I think are achievable. And this week they announced €2 million in seed funding for the next stages of the company's development, including building a full-scale mock-up carriage and preparations for their first route that is supposed to launch in 2027. There is lots of hard work ahead, but this was a good week for Nox!

Bad week: Sweden doesn't seem to know how many trains it is ordering

This is one to file under embarrassing rather that especially problematic, but Swedish state transport agency Trafikverket had originally announced they were ordering 91 new night train carriages from Talgo. Given Talgo's carriages are half the length of regular carriages, that left plenty of people scratching their heads, wondering how such a small fleet could possibly be adequate.

Turns out Trafikverket had put the wrong number in its announcement: they will order 162 carriages, not 91, as reported by Jarnvägar. Let's hope they are a bit more efficient in their procurement procedures than they are in the communication!

Back on Track has more details on what has been been ordered in Sweden, and the design innovations in these new trains.

Very bad week: Alstom share price slumps 30%

Just two weeks into the job, and the going is tough for new Alstom boss Martin Sion. The French rail group shares dropped 30% at the end of last week, and it has cash flow worries too. As reported by Reuters, Sion has to contend with at least 10 projects that have major delivery delays. It is not only the TGV-M prestige project that has these headaches, but high speed trains for Sweden, regional trains for Niedersachsen and Baden-Württemberg in Germany, and RER trains and metros in France. But at least Sion seems to want to get a grip on the group's many issues.

Elsewhere this week: iPaper about ticketing

I wrote a piece this week for iPaper in the UK, explaining how forthcoming EU law on ticketing is going to try to make it easier for people to book train trips for their summer holidays.

Photo of the week: A trip to Brod

I am travelling from Maastricht to Beograd this week, and on Thursday made a slow and meandering trip from Zagreb to Beograd, via Slavonski Brod, Brod and Tovarnik - Šid.

Calendar: New ICE to the Belgian seaside

From 6th June there is a new ICE connection - from Köln to the Belgian coast - thanks Kees on Bluesky for the reminder:

Köln - Oostende used to be a classic EuroCity connection, and one I took a lot as a teenager to get to school exchanges in Verviers (Belgium) and Koblenz (Germany). It is nice to see it return! It also serves Brugge and Gent.

If you would like to stay up to date with what I am doing, there are public calendars to which you can subscribe: Jon Worth - Speeches and Events ICS | Jon Worth - Travel ICS | Jon Worth - Other Rail Dates ICS And if you'd like me to speak at an event or run a workshop, contact me about that.

Photo Rights

All photos in this edition are taken by Jon Worth, except the Nox founders (from their press release) and Talgo render (from Talgo's press release). Bullshit Meter images always have photo rights listed directly on the image.