Jon Worth Profile picture
X account no longer active / X-Konto nicht mehr aktiv Mastodon: https://t.co/qYiUzF5O9Q Bluesky: https://t.co/uV14JMCdKR
LittleGravitas 🇪🇺 🇪🇸 🇺🇦 🇮🇱 🇵🇸 #FBPE Profile picture Dame Chris🌟🇺🇦😷 #RejoinEU #FBPE #GTTO🔶️ Profile picture sl-xf Profile picture Mark Wintle Profile picture 💬 Profile picture 18 subscribed
Dec 11, 2022 8 tweets 5 min read
This morning I’m one of the first new regional trains Maubeuge 🇫🇷 - Charleroi Central 🇧🇪 #CrossBorderRail It was a bit of a #fail at the station. I needed a ticket to Erquelinnes, the first station in Belgium. But prior to today trains from Maubeuge didn’t stop there!

Ticket machine ⛔️
Dec 10, 2022 12 tweets 5 min read
Signal failure south of Fulda. Looks like I could miss the event in Mons I’m organising 😭 Delays in my favour. Maybe? S-Bahn to FFM Flughafen. Get a late running ICE to Köln Messe/Deutz there. Then try to blag my way onto a Thalys Köln Hbf to Bruxelles? It’s a long shot but it might work…
Dec 1, 2022 16 tweets 10 min read
Already on the 2nd train of the day: TGV Montbard - Paris. All being well I’ll be in Denmark tonight… but that feels a long way off just now! #EGPCongress #crossborderrail Across Paris RER Gare de Lyon to Gare du Nord, walk to Gare de l’Est (faster than changing into a Métro to Est) and it’s onto the TGV to Mannheim. So far so good, but I banked on this bit working 🙂 #EGPCongress #CrossBorderRail
Nov 30, 2022 4 tweets 2 min read
Tomorrow hundreds of delegates - myself included (from 🇫🇷) - will start their trip to @europeangreens congress in København

Most of us will go by 🚆
Many trips will be disrupted as railways are a mess

But there’s nothing about transport on the programme europeangreens.eu/congress2022/p… I don’t blame @europeangreens for this, short term. They only have on their programme what member parties want.

But there isn’t the fierce debate or intellectual exchange in the Green movement about transport as there is about other issues.
Nov 17, 2022 5 tweets 2 min read
Talking #9euroTicket at #PassengerFest - slightly frustrating that it’s DB talking about it. Other views are available 😉 “Did behaviour change in the way the government intended?” asks the moderator. Ha. Did the government even *know* what its intention was?
Nov 12, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
😭 Germany builds a high speed line through Baden-Württemberg - to speed up Stuttgart-München services

It’s been in planning for *years*

But SNCF’s TGVs used for Paris-Stuttgart-München services haven’t been updated to be compatible with the new line!

swr.de/swraktuell/bad… Jeez. It could take until 2025 until TGVs are approved for the line.

And the whole effing point of Stuttgart21 - of which this line is a part - was to create a Paris-München high speed corridor!

Really, how can everyone mess up *so badly*?
Nov 9, 2022 13 tweets 4 min read
So you’re concerned about the impact of the Musk takeover of Twitter?

And you’ve heard about Mastodon as an alternative, and want to know quickly and easily how to make a start there?

This is the 🧵 for you ⚠️ What you need to start ⚠️

ALL of this works better in a web browser on a regular computer than it does on a mobile or a tablet. So *start* there

You’ll need access to your email, and about 10 minutes to do all of this
Nov 6, 2022 9 tweets 2 min read
OK, let me explain this one in some more detail

I am not that much of a fan of building high speed lines, but the one I sketch in green on the map here - I call it LGV France-Allemagne - would make a lot of sense

I will explain it in the 🧵 First the credit: @nicohuurman was the one who suggested this solution to me

And this is based on what I saw on the ground this autumn when I cycled from Rastatt 🇩🇪 to Roeschwoog 🇫🇷 - you can find those tweets here:
Nov 4, 2022 13 tweets 3 min read
The new #49EuroTicket for regional public transport in Germany is good news!

But how it will work, and who and when it can be purchased, has caused some confusion

So I have made a FAQ about it in English on my blog 👇
jonworth.eu/germanys-49-eu…

Summary in the 🧵 What is the 49 Euro Ticket?

It is a flat rate public transport ticket – for 49 Euro you can travel on all local and regional buses, trams, metros, S-Bahn and regional trains for 1 calendar month in the whole of Germany.
Oct 23, 2022 4 tweets 2 min read
Another thing…

Tory MPs send nominations to 1922 Committee, but AFAIK the 1922 will only publish the final totals, not the names of nominees

Is it possible Tory MPs say publicly they’ll back Johnson, but in private actually nominate Sunak?

So Johnson needs >110 publicly? Declaring for Johnson - publicly - might serve two purposes

It keeps local members - who lean towards Johnson - happy. And Johnson is mendacious, so will more strongly reward only backers than Sunak or Mordaunt

Wdyt @patrickjfl @robfordmancs @ProfTimBale @SnellArthur ?
Oct 21, 2022 12 tweets 3 min read
My diagrams are back!

Not sure if this is 🎉 or 😢 or 😡 but hey ho, this Tory leadership contest only lasts a week

And we all want to know: who is going to win! #Toryleadership

So here’s my effort to work that out…

Explanations in the 🧵 All versions of these diagrams, calculations will be available at:
jonworth.eu/nextprimeminis…

Version 1.0.0, headline figures
Sunak - 4️⃣3️⃣% chance
Johnson - 3️⃣4️⃣% chance
Mordaunt - 1️⃣3️⃣% chance
Someone else - 2️⃣% chance
Chaos as procedure rendered invalid - 7️⃣% chance
Oct 20, 2022 10 tweets 2 min read
OK, a quick 🧵 on #ToryLeadership permutations

This isn’t about what I want to happen, or what ethically should happen, but is about what could well actually happen - basically there are no value judgments in here The Q: which MPs that could stand will get 100 nominations?

Sunak - highly likely
Johnson - possible (he’s already at 41)
Mordaunt - probably

Wallace probably doesn’t want to run - and that’d be to Sunak’s advantage

Braverman, Badenoch: unlikely to get 100
Oct 18, 2022 14 tweets 5 min read
I’ve spent a *lot* of time on railway issues in the past 18 months, but I am not really a railway person. I have never worked in the rail industry

That means I have many 🤯 moments when reading the rail trade press

A 🧵 on decrypting rail stories

Let me present Kevin Speed First, no, this is not a joke

This is not 1st April

Someone is genuinely proposing to build a railway company called Kevin Speed

But it’s important to bear in mind: there are lots of really *weird* plans and names in rail. Who calls a train FLIRT, seriously? Anyway I digress
Oct 15, 2022 11 tweets 2 min read
There’s a question implicitly being asked in UK politics just now: how could Britain end up with someone so obviously ill suited to the job of Prime Minister as Liz Truss? And is she even intelligent?

I think I can partially explain it For the record: I’ve never met Liz Truss. I have however met and worked with a bunch of notionally successful politicians in the UK and elsewhere over twenty years
Oct 12, 2022 4 tweets 2 min read
TGV Paris-BCN (train 9713) now - takes 6 hours 40 mins, inc. planned 38 min dwell time in stations

From 11 Dec Paris-BCN (still train 9713, amended timetable) - takes 6 hours 56 min, inc. planned 36 mins dwell time

How? 🤯
10 mins more Girona-BCN
7 mins more Paris-Valence Here’s the full calculation

And you can get all the times - inc. interim stops - here sncf.com/fr/itineraire-… (put dates before or after 11 December) Image
Oct 10, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
I’ve tied myself in a bit of a knot

I am now known enough in EU rail circles to be invited to chair panels at events

However I’m currently earning ZERO from rail advocacy, so finding €125 for Thalys home from that event is tricky… and the “pay” to chair is free attendance And to those saying “if they want your time they should pay”, the response sadly is no, not really. Organisers would find loads of people who could replace me who’d have all their costs covered by their employers in the rail industry… so it’s at my costs, or not at all.
Oct 10, 2022 6 tweets 3 min read
Why French rail needs better timetables, part 6242639

These are the times for Paris-Lille trains on Monday 14 November, across the morning and lunchtime

If you think *only* about Paris-Lille this sort of makes sense… More trains for commuter peaks But what if Paris-Lille is only one part of your journey, and you need connections?

My trip is Nuits-sous-Ravières (2 hours south of Paris) to Bruges (90 mins north of Lille) on that day

And I need to be in Brugge by 13:15 or so

And so it all breaks down…
Oct 10, 2022 4 tweets 2 min read
Sorted Nuits-sous-Ravières 🇫🇷 - København 🇩🇰 🚆🎟 to go to @europeangreens Congress 1 Dec

7 🚆 (Nuits-Montbard-Paris-Mannheim-Neumünster-Flensburg-Fredericia-Kbh)

⏰ 18 hours 40 mins

💻 2 bookings, giving me 4 tickets

🤪 trick needed to save €€€ by avoiding BXL / Thalys Booked Nuits-sous-Ravières - Neumünster with @SNCB_Int for €82.50 - gave 3 tickets (Nuits-Montbard-Paris, Paris-Mannheim, Mannheim-Neumünster)

Hamburg - København H with @DB_Bahn 1 ticket €30.65 *

Seat reservation Mannheim-Neumünster €4.50 from @DB_Bahn as SNCB charges €6
Oct 4, 2022 15 tweets 2 min read
I see tweets saying Liz Truss’s premiership is already “done” and that she might not even see out the year

But a serious question: HOW is it going to end?

Theories in the 🧵 RESIGNATION

Truss sees the game is up and resigns

Her ego might not be quite the size of Johnson’s, but it’s still quite large, although you can see the pressure of the last week has started to tell…
Oct 1, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
The last time I took Jadran Ekspres - to Budva in 2019 - it was massively delayed and grim. The bus hasn’t changed, but maybe I have better luck today, off season? Only as far as Herceg Novi today It’s funny. A person from the bus station, not the bus firm, checks tickets. She speaks decent English. Passengers in front ask “can you tell me the bus times Kotor back to Dubrovnik?” “No! Other country!” she says. She must be asked this *every single day* 🙂
Sep 27, 2022 15 tweets 6 min read
Why does it have to be so “Great”?

Starmer today proposed to form

Great British Energy

Story 👇
msn.com/en-gb/news/ukn…

A quick 🧵, inspired by @Mattio_mattioli This follows on the heels of

Great British Railways

Background 👇
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Bri…