European Union

#CrossBorderRail the finale 2025: route now set, journey starts 6th June

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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The accessibility problems with Alstom’s new TGV-M train – with implications for future Channel Tunnel operators

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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VDV on cross border re-activation of lines – nice idea, details more sketchy

The Verband Deutscher Verkehrsunternehmen (VDV) (Association of German Transport Companies) has a detailed new website about reactivation of railway lines, and a PDF report with more detail. And one aspect of their proposals are cross-border reactivations that they have been publicising with the little infographic that I reproduce here. So […]

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VDV zur Reaktivierung grenzüberschreitender Bahnstrecken – schöne Idee, Details noch unklar

(Dieser Artikel wurde mit Hilfe von Deepl aus dem Englischen übersetzt und leicht korrigiert) Der Verband Deutscher Verkehrsunternehmen (VDV) hat eine ausführliche neue Website über die Reaktivierung von Eisenbahnstrecken und einen PDF-Bericht mit weiteren Details veröffentlicht. Ein Aspekt ihrer Vorschläge sind grenzüberschreitende Reaktivierungen, die sie mit der kleinen Infografik, die […]

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A partial #CrossBorderRail success – Deutsche Bahn Sparpreis cheap tickets now work to Strasbourg and to some other destination in Eastern France

Credit to one of my students at TU Braunschweig, Roland Sivonen, for discovering this one – Deutsche Bahn’s cheap Sparpreis train tickets now work correctly from Germany to Strasbourg, and some other new destinations in France as well. In this blog post I am going to explain how this change can […]

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“Summer 2025” for the new Régiolis trains France-Germany – Leroy and Hermann are just picking dates at random

So the new Régiolis trains are going to be running on France-Germany routes in “Summer 2025” according to Transport Minister, Baden-Württemberg Winfried Hermann and President of Région Grand Est, Franck Leroy. They may as well be picking dates at random. It is all because of delayed approval of the trains […]

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