Thread by @jonworth

Back on 17th February I coordinated an open letter about the lack of trains to @kaunas2022 European Capital of Culture

The letter is here 👇
kaunas.trainsforeurope.eu

We wrote to railway companies

PV from 🇱🇻 replied, saying there was nothing they could do. Polregio 🇵🇱 replied, but we still don't know exactly when they will run the Bialystok-Kaunas train. @RailBaltica replied saying they would keep an eye on everything

But the absolute deafening silence... was from the politicians we contacted

European Commissioners
@AdinaValean (for Transport)
and
@GabrielMariya (for Culture)
were recipients

And we have heard nothing from either

I checked - the letter did arrive by email

We also received no reply from @kaunas2022 or @CER_railways

Letter was signed by a broad bunch of people & organisations

Signatories
@TrainTracksEU
@PRO_BAHN
@KolejDEPL
Wykluczenie Transportowe
@AnnaDeparnay
@seatsixtyone
@lukasz_janeczko
@martin_speer
@mitost_org
@ElmervBuuren
@moritzkraehe
@jaroslavrudis
Kulturzug Wroclaw

And since writing the letter... the geopolitical situation has worsened. But the only international passenger train on Lithuanian tracks is - the RZD Russian transit train to Kaliningrad!

https://twitter.com/keithbarrow80/status/1507291176797413378

Yes, that's right

Lithuania has NO TRAINS to either of its EU neighbours, Latvia or Poland

But it does have a Russian train transiting its territory, even now

Now do I expect Gabriel or Valean to really solve this issue?

No, not really

They're not magicians. They can't force rail firms or national administrations to shift

But they *could* pay lip service to sustainable transport being important. That rail connections are geopolitically important. That the aims of the EU's culture and transport policies ought to line up

But the European Commission, it seems, is incapable even of that

I don't take the excuse that they're too busy. Hell, the officials in @Transport_EU coordinated the #ConnectingEurope express through Lithuania last year - getting out a holding reply at least here would not be hard

And would be better than being berated on Twitter no doubt!

So what is going to happen?

I can see no prospect that 🇱🇻🇱🇹 trains will return. Neither side wants to do it, and 🇱🇻 claims it can't

🇵🇱🇱🇹 won't restart before 31 May *at the earliest*, and then we don't know. Official reason is COVID

There's just a 1-liner on Polregio's website 👇
polregio.pl/pl/oferty-i-pr…

Google translation 👇
polregio-pl.translate.goog/pl/oferty-i-pr…

Like so many #CrossBorderRail problems this ought to be easy. But truculence from railways, and silence from politicians means... nothing moves

/end