The UK’s Office of Rail and Road has today decided that Virgin Trains should have access to the Temple Mills depot in east London to maintain its future Channel Tunnel fleet, and has rejected applications from Trenitalia, Gemini and Evolyn to use the facility. It has also, importantly, rejected Eurostar’s […]
Netherlands
#CrossBorderRail: what am I trying to find? And what’s the goal?
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 […]
Preliminary conclusions from my #CrossChannelRail project
OK, I have to face it: I bit off more than I could chew. When I conducted the research for my #CrossChannelRail Project in March and April this year I thought I would be done with the report from the project by the end of May. And it is the […]
How to follow #CrossChannelRail online
#CrossChannelRail, my latest project, starts Sunday 16th March and runs until Sunday 6th April. As with all of my #CrossBorderRail projects to date there will be lots of ways to follow it online. Every day there will be a thread on Mastodon – you can follow me @jon@gruene.social there. This […]
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 – […]
#CrossChannelRail is GO! The future of long distance services through the Channel Tunnel
For the past three summers, #CrossBorderRail journeys have happened every summer. So far I have been to 288 international railway lines in Europe, and – with a bit of experience now! – I know how to run these projects. But, I wondered, why not apply the same method to one […]
