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 very particular railway issue – the future of the Channel Tunnel, after the rather surprising success of my work on this topic last year. Rather than investigate cross border lines, instead investigate stations from which trains to London could depart, the types of trains that could run, and the possible future operators of those trains.
Little did I know that organising a project like that would make getting to Turmantas or Zgorzelec look like a walk in the park! Because in this project I need to meet people who can tell me things, and trying to schedule all of that has proven a challenge.
But now – just over a week before departing – I am ready!
Most importantly this project, like those before it, is crowd funded. You can donate here on Betterplace. Crowd funding this work is important, as it allows me to be completely independent of any rail company or governmental organisation. As this one lasts three weeks, and I am mostly going to cities I know (meaning I can stay with friends), the funding target is €2713, more modest than my other projects to date.
#CrossChannelRail will run 16 March until 6 April, take me to more than twenty stations in 6 countries (the whole route map is here), and there are 12 public meetings (all listed here, and free to attend). Every day there will be a live thread on Mastodon, that will be bridged to Bluesky and turned into a Live Blog on this website, and there will be some posts on LinkedIn too. #CrossChannelRail is the tag across all social media. And there is even some dedicated merchandise available too.
I can’t promise this project will be very optimistic, but at the end of it I am going to be much more informed about what high speed trains to London are likely possible (or not) in future. I’ll tell it as I see it, no bullshit.
From London? Really?
What about Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh?
Yeah, really.
It’s all explained here: https://crossborderrail.trainsforeurope.eu/projects/crosschannelrail/
The UK government is not connecting HS1 to HS2. Even connecting from East Coast Main Line to HS1 is a total pain. And Campaign for Better Transport – who I am doing an event with in the UK – are investigating all the UK side.
Never did I expect to see Turmantas and Channel Tunnel mentioned in the same place, but here we are, I guess. Good luck!