My earlier post about new night train company Midnight Trains has drawn quite some critique – that having ambitious goals is all very well (people even cited Elon Musk), and that even including a Paris-Edinburgh train in the plans is hence fine. All that is needed is a bit of […]
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Speaking in the European Parliament earlier this week, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen set out some details of European Union Member States’ post-COVID national recovery and resilience plans, and gave some details of the scale of the budget for transport: Let me give you some figures. […]
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Nostalgia is important in railways. Families and enthusiasts alike visit heritage railways, and railway companies across Europe try to motivate passengers to take trains today using symbolism of the past. And there is no symbolism stronger in cross-border rail in Europe than the Trans Europ Express (TEE), probably because more people alive […]
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The European Parliament is currently debating an own-initiative report about a Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy for the EU – the whole legislative dossier is here, and German S&D MEP Ismail Ertug is the Rapporteur. MEPs – perhaps all of them stuck at home and suffering from the same wanderlust […]
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The Council of the European Union today adopted Council Conclusions on railways, entitled “Rail at the forefront of smart and sustainable mobility” – you can read the press story about this, quoting Portugal’s transport minister here. The full conclusions are here (PDF). As I see it these are the two […]
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After a three year absence, the Paris-Nice Night Train is back. The first service ran last night with an important passenger on board – French Prime Minister Jean Castex. He even made the welcome on board announcement to passengers: Longue vie au Paris-Nice ! pic.twitter.com/POHhMZ51wB — Jean Castex (@JeanCASTEX) May […]
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On 17 May Germany’s Ministry of for Transport and Digital Infrastructure held its Schienengipfel (Rail Summit) in Berlin. The centre piece of the event was a renewed commitment to speeding up Berlin – Dresden – Prague – Vienna connections, but an eagle-eyed Josh Posaner of Politico spotted an interesting paragraph in […]
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The Ministère de la Transition écologique (Ministry of the Ecological Transition) in France has released a new report entitled ÉTUDE DU DÉVELOPPEMENT DE NOUVELLES LIGNES DE TRAINS D’ÉQUILIBRE DU TERRITOIRE (TET) (STUDY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW TERRITORY BALANCE TRAIN LINES (TET)) – this assesses the way train connections in […]
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