Author: Jon

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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The best photos from #CrossBorderRail South East Europe 2024

Finally I am done sorting and uploading photos from #CrossBorderRail South East Europe 2024 In this post there is one photo from each of the days, and a link to the full Flickr album from that day – to give an idea of this weird and wonderful journey! Day -02 […]

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Press coverage, interviews and presentations from #CrossBorderRail South East Europe 2024

At the somewhat dilapidated border station Šíd (Serbia, border to Croatia) I sat and talked with the freelance journalist Thomas Roser – he is based in Beograd. This resulted in 5 articles in the German speaking press – 4 in Germany, 1 in Austria. Frankfurter Rundschau Bahn in Europa: Letzter […]

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30 trains costing €376 million for France-Germany services – parked up without any prospect of operations until 2027

Regional rail services between France and Germany are poor, but change is supposed to be around the corner. A fleet of new Régiolis trains for the these services has been ordered and built (and I set out to find them) but when the operations of these trains will start, and […]

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North Macedonia’s phantom rail line, and why I am worried they’re repeating the error at the other end of the country

The railway line from Thessaloniki (Greece) to Bitola (North Macedonia) via Florina has a long history. It was completed in 1894, before the Balkan Wars in 1913 resulted in the final 17km ending up in Yugoslavia. Trains continued to run on the cross border section until 1987, and then ceased, […]

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