Just 2 changes (in Vienna and Budapest), and time for a coffee with @lgewessler@MartinSelmayr at Wien Hbf en route!
Trip time 35 hrs 58 mins...
Now how best to book that? 🤔
OK, so we can book Bruxelles Midi - Wien Hbf - Budapest Keleti with ÖBB, €219,80 in a single compartment in the NightJet and a regular seat in the RailJet for the last bit...
For some time I have been annoyed there is no discernible strategy for 🇪🇺-wide cross border rail jonworth.eu/long-distance-…
I am not sure I have all the answers yet... but I think I am starting to get there
Short 🧵
First, an idea I first floated on my blog - that the EU ought to procure a pool of night trains - I have now developed into the @TrainsForEurope campaign
When something goes wrong with cross-border rail in Europe - like Thello cancelling the Paris-Venezia night trains - there are howls of anguish, but little systematic action
This is part motivated by the excellent work done by @EuCyclistsFed with their bikes on trains report - we now know much better what does and doesn't work!
We need to do the same for cross border rail!
So rather than @BackOnTrackEU bemoaning Thello's demise, and @seatsixtyone trying to explain to his readers how to cross the FR-IT border with a much reduced service, an annual index would give a systematic insight into what's getting better and worse
Right, it's taken a while longer to finish than I'd hoped, but my report about what's happening to the railways in Serbia 🇷🇸 is done 👇 jonworth.eu/how-to-repair-…
The Subotica - Novi Sad train is probably the worst train I have ever taken, as the infrastructure is so bad. Closing the line to upgrade here makes sense...
Second, Serbia's rail upgrade plans
Whether all of these plans will happen, and on time, is the big question, but the plans themselves make a lot of sense - there is a solid logic here
Paris-Milan-Venice (recently abandoned by Thello) and Paris-Rome (previously abandoned by Thello) are similar to Paris-Madrid and Paris-Barcelona (abandoned years ago by SNCF-Renfe)
In all cases the state owned rail firms (SNCF, Renfe, Trenitalia) would prefer to run high speed daytime trains, than slower, less profitable night trains
But that means rail's overall market share suffers, as rail firms focus on profitability of international routes instead