15 June 2022, and it is Day 2 of my very first #CrossBorderRail tour, and it is a gorgeous sunny morning in Nijmegen in Netherlands. I unfold the Birdy bike and cycle off towards the 6th border of the project at that stage, the dismantled line between Nijmegen and Kleve […]
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‼️ Important: today, 1 day before departure, #CrossBorderRail the finale is 65% funded. This means my costs are covered, but the time I invest is unpaid. Further donations would hence be very welcome – donate here ‼️ Tomorrow – 6th June 2025 – the last big tour of my #CrossBorderRail […]
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On Friday to start my #CrossBorderRail project I need to get from Ravières (Bourgogne, France) to Praha (Czechia), and this is the connection DB (the best rail planning site) shows me: 06:39 Nuits-sous-Ravières SNCF TER91371 06:49 Montbard 15min to change 07:04 Montbard SNCF TGV 6760 08:09 Paris Gare de Lyon […]
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One constant throughout my #CrossBorderRail projects – despite the name! – is my bicycle. The faithful Birdy folding bike has been with me throughout, in more than 30 countries. And mounted on the handlebars (using a Quad Lock mount – amazingly good as well) is an old iPhone 6s. And, […]
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When in some post-lockdowns, post-Brexit, where-do-I-invest-my-political-energy moment of inspiration (or madness?) I thought of crossing every internal border of the EU you can cross by train in one journey to investigate how we better improve international rail connections, little did I know I was starting something that would be a […]
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The European Commission and the state owned railway companies are getting very excited about the idea there could be a EU masterplan for high speed rail. With that in mind, let’s do a little thought experiment. This started as a Bluesky thread, and has been lightly edited into this blog […]
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Launched with some fanfare in the summer of 2024 (see The Times and Kurier that covered it for example), the “Trieste” – Rijeka international train service is no more. The train will not run in 2025, and there is no known date for the resumption of the route. This was […]
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Three short years ago when planning the first tour that was known as #CrossBorderRail, little did I know this would be the start of a project that would become a good part of my professional life in the years in between. That list of 95 rail borders investigated in 2022 […]
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There is no way to sweeten this: my original conclusion that Alstom’s Avelia Horizon (known as TGV-M with SNCF) is not legal at higher station platforms outside France was incorrect. Because transparency and correcting my errors matters to me, you can read the original blog entry in full here – […]
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When I went to Kumanovo in June of 2024 and found a railway station half complete, I must admit I did not think trains would run there any time soon. But this week I was proven wrong – the first part of the line that will eventually connect Skopje ion […]
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