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 major part of my professional life for the next three years.
The 95 borders crossed in 2022 have become 289 at the time of writing (mapped here), but by now I am running out of borders to research, at least those with passenger traffic or any sort of half intact railway infrastructure.
But there are enough borders I have not been to for one final big tour, taking in at least 80 more border lines.
These are at the EU’s eastern borders towards Ukraine and Moldova, and in central Europe. The borders Poland – Slovakia – Hungary – Romania are ones in particular I have paid too little attention to date. And as Romania is now in Schengen, there is the opportunity to rejuvenate lines without the need for time consuming border controls.
My aim this time* is the same as with all the #CrossBorderRail tours to date: to travel to these international railway lines (the places I am going are mapped here), examine the state of the infrastructure and rail services, meet local people who can explain the local situation to me, and then put forward policy proposals about how to improve the routes that can most easily, viably and obviously be improved. There will be events throughout the trip (sign up for those here, or contact me if you live somewhere along my route and would like to organise something). As ever I will have both the drone (for aerial photographs) and the folding bike (to reach places public transport cannot reach) with me.
Once more this time – and for the final time for a project tour of this nature – I need your help. This trip is the longest and most complicated I have organised so far, encompassing 44 trip days. This means €3316 is needed just to cover train tickets and accommodation – that is the minimum needed to make the project happen. A further €1210 will cover the costs of food on the road and €4964 will cover me being able to pay myself the minimum wage during the project (none of the preparation work is paid at all). The total costs of the project are €10172 if all is financed. You can donate to finance the project here. If instead you can help in kind – for example by offering a place for me to sleep – please do contact me!
And when the tour gets going on 6th June there will be daily threads on Mastodon, posts on Bluesky, a live video at the start and the end of each day, and a live blog here on the project website. The photos I take will be made available for anyone to re-use (Creative Commons Licensed).
What comes after this tour?
My work on railways is long from finished. Indeed it feels like it only getting started! But by the end of the summer I am going to have unparalleled knowledge of Europe’s international railways. How best I then deploy that knowledge is to be decided – presentations, videos, speeches, maybe even writing a book.
But that can wait for after the summer, and the amazing things to be found at Ceský Tešín, Trstená, Хирів, Fauske, Lasa/Laas, Hrušovany nad Jevišovkou-Šanov, Drégelypalánk, Ужгород, Sighetu Marmației, Vălcineț, Добрич, Szentgotthárd and many more.
* – yes, I also did a project about the Channel Tunnel in Spring 2025, and the conclusions of that project have still not been finalised, but that will be done before this latest #CrossBorderRail tour starts on 6th June!
