Tweet

Jon Worth

19 Oct, 13 tweets, 9 min read

Want a cheap train from Brussels to Paris?

It sure ain't IZY!

And you better not speak German, Italian or Spanish (seriously)

Do read on in the #EUYearOfRail thread 🧵

There's a low-ish cost train service between Brussels and Paris called Thalys IZY - its own website is here 👇
izy.com/en

Services are reduced post-COVID, but it still runs...

But how do you book it?

Here's the train I want on the IZY site ✅

But presuming you might - naively - assume it's run by Thalys, you might think its trains were on the Thalys website

❌ But no, you'd be wrong - they don't show there 👇
booking.thalys.com

@SNCB_Int

If you're starting in Belgium you might think SNCB could sell you a ticket for it... But no @SNCB_Int doesn't have it either ❌ 👇
b-europe.com

@thetrainline

International rail portals @thetrainline @OmioGlobal don't have it either... ❌ 👇
omio.com
thetrainline.com

@ouisncf

But what about French railways ticket portal @ouisncf?

That's where it gets **REALLY WEIRD**

OUI offers you these language/country options

Search using any of the 🇧🇪 options, 🇨🇭 (French, English) options, 🇫🇷, 🇱🇺, 🇬🇧 and 🇪🇺 and...

✅ the Thalys IZY train is shown

Search using the 🇪🇸, 🇮🇹 or 🇩🇪 options...

❌ the Thalys IZY is NOT shown

Weirdest of all is the 🇨🇭 German version that tells you the cheapest price is €49 for the day (the Thalys IZY train) but then gives you an error when you try to get it! 🤪

And if you click 🇷🇺 or rest of the world... you get sent to the Rail Europe portal instead, which does not find IZY trains at all ❌ 👇
raileurope.com

@OUIsncf

Seriously @OUIsncf what the hell is going on here?

Restricting sales of low cost trains based on the language someone speaks? @beuc @moniquegoyens @ufcquechoisir @Test_Achats might have something to say about that!

@Djebbari_JB @GeorgesGilkinet might have some views on this too

Crux here remains this: if we are to make travel by train, Europe-wide, as attractive as possible - ALL timetables, tickets and live running data for ALL trains, regardless of operator - need to be made available to third parties

Without that passengers can't get an overview!

@Transport_EU

Might also be of interest to @Transport_EU who are supposed to be making the European rail market work, and @CER_Railways who are supposed to believe in transparency of ticketing from their members.

/ends

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More from @jonworth

Jon Worth

@jonworth

20 Oct

As #ZügeStattFlüge is currently up for discussion, and people are coming to me with the usual complaint "Waaaaa well trains are too expensive compared to flights!"... here's a semi-systematic response

Explained in the 🧵

Imagine 6 example cases

I am in Frankfurt 2 weeks from now, 4 weeks from now, and 6 weeks from now, and want to fly or take the train home to Berlin after a business meeting (depart after 4pm)

And same for München - back to Berlin in 2, 4 and 6 weeks

All prices are taken from DB for trains, right now

And flight prices from Kayak, right now

No discount cards used. Only direct connections

Read 16 tweets

Jon Worth

@jonworth

18 Oct

@albertowmazzola

Let's do a little check, shall we?

@albertowmazzola was happy to tell me the other week that Skyscanner for Rail tools exist in Europe

And @CER_railways has trumpeted the need for ticketing platforms in #EUYearOfRail and on #ConnectingEurope Express

A quick 🧵

@CER_railways

Were I to want to travel between Tourcoing (in France at the border to Belgium) to Lyon, tomorrow, where can I find the details of the only direct train there is?

Oh, and of course it's a train run by SNCF, member organisation of @CER_railways 👏

That train is a OUIGO low cost TGV

✅ Here is is on the OUIGO site 👇
ventes.ouigo.com

Read 13 tweets

Jon Worth

@jonworth

18 Oct

Another one of those trips where the absence of a night train makes the whole trip fiendishly complex by train...

The München-Villach-Ljubljana-Zagreb night train is summer only

So a Düsseldorf-Lesce Bled trip in December... results in a 3 hours stop in the night in Villach

And yes, there is the daytime ICE + EC option, but that (for this trip) means 1 extra night in a hotel in Düsseldorf and a day in Slovenia lost

There is the yearly Zürich-Feldkirch-Innsbruck-Villach-Ljubljana-Zagreb service... but try picking that up from Germany - results in very long and strange routes

Read 4 tweets

Jon Worth

@jonworth

15 Oct

The UK is indeed on the verge of joining the EU Digital COVID Pass - I know this from my own sources

In that regard, this Guardian piece is correct 👇
theguardian.com/travel/2021/oc…

But what is going on, technically here, and what changes will it bring for Brits travelling?

A 🧵

There are essentially 2 sorts of places where you might need to prove your 💉💉 status: upon entering a country (at a border control), or at a venue once you are inside a country (at a museum or cafe for example)

And there are 2 different ways to prove that status: the old way, based on papers, certificates, or the little yellow vaccination booklets. Or using a QR code - in the EU known as a EU Digital COVID Pass

(QR code can be on paper, but the important point is it's digitally signed)

Read 15 tweets

Jon Worth

@jonworth

12 Oct

@EP_ForeignAff

Trying to find what is going on in the European Parliament with regard to UK-EU relations remains a nightmare...

We know that last week the EP agreed to set up the EU-UK Parliamentary Partnership Assembly - @EP_ForeignAff put out a press release 👇
europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-…

@vonderburchard

Here's the Decision 👇
europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document…

And @vonderburchard wrote about it for @POLITICOEurope on 5 Oct 👇
politico.eu/article/europe…

@GreensEFA

At the time of writing @GreensEFA @RenewEurope @ecrgroup @Left_EU had chosen its members... but @EPPgroup & @TheProgressives have not

And then...
media.giphy.com/media/Az1CJ2ME…

Read 5 tweets

Jon Worth

@jonworth

12 Oct

How do you rid a country of a pandemic of stupidity?

It's not that UK political and commentariat class is ideologically wrong (although could be true as well), it's that so many - especially the cabinet - come across as stupid

As a start you have to take problems *seriously*

Take *any* of the aspects of the UK's multicrisis at the moment - food supply chains, clogged ports, gas prices, petrol supply, labour shortages - the whole thing is fiendishly complex to solve

I don't know how to solve it. But hell it's serious!

This, I suppose, is what happens when the political discussion in public is so disconnected from reality that bad decisions have no practical consequences

Where a referendum has left an opposition so cowed it cannot point out practical problems

Read 5 tweets

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