Norway stops further competitive tendering of passenger rail
The new Norwegian government is making radical changes to the railway policy. They say no to tendering, splitting and privatisation of the railway, and plan to stop the ongoing tendering of railway sections in Norway. Read more
Railcoop has to delay Bordeaux-Lyon service for 6 months
French cooperative Railcoop is postponing the launch of its Bordeaux-Lyon passenger service by six months. The requested train paths have not been allocated by infrastructure manager SNCF Réseau, making the initial launch of 26 June...Read more‘Flight tax more important for shift to rail than lower track access charges’
“We have to reduce track access charges, and especially Germany has a problem with this”, said Oldag Caspar of Germanwatch during a panel discussion at the arrival of the Connecting Europe Express in Berlin. But,...Read more
ILSA starts homologation for Spanish debut
New Spanish high-speed operator ILSA started the process of homologation of their brand new fleet. The first ETR 1000, out of a fleet of 20, began the first stage of the process on the Figueras-Perpignan...Read more
Renfe gears up for branch in Paris
Spanish national operator Renfe will make a request to the ministry of finance to create a branch in Paris. The board of directors has approved this step to develop business opportunities in France, for which...Read more
Plan for European night train network presented by German green party
German party Die Grünen has presented a plan for a European-wide night train network. They sharply criticise the German railway policies of the past years and call for expansion of infrastructure, lowering track access charges...Read more
Green light for first Dutch open-access train services by Arriva
Arriva is allowed to offer three new open-access train services in the Netherlands from 2023, a breakthrough in the country. The trains will run partly at night, once a week between Groningen and Schiphol and...Read more
‘Thalys does nothing to reduce its costs’
ColumnCOLUMN – Too often, the price of a ticket on an airline is cheaper than the price of a train ticket between similar cities. Airlines have a tradition to lure passengers by giving good services....Read more
A first in France: Transdev to take over TER Marseille-Nice from SNCF
For the first time in France, the SNCF is set to lose the operation of a TER (Regional Express Train) line. The Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region is expected to vote in favour of the bid put...Read more
Night train subsidy Stockholm-Hamburg leads to critique
The fact that Swedish operator SJ will run a new night train from Stockholm to Hamburg is not seen as fair by everyone. The train, with government subsidy, will run on days that private operator...Read more
Dutch mobility companies go to court to fight against NS monopoly
Regional transporters want to prevent Dutch Railways NS from holding the exclusive right to run trains on the Dutch main railway lines for ten years from 2025. The Dutch Mobility Companies Federation (Arriva, EBS, Transdev,...Read more
Is it time for a railway reform in Germany?
AnalysisAfter a report from the German Monopoly commission, now seven rail and passenger organisations call to separate Deutsche Bahn’s infrastructure management and operations. What are the arguments made by the various parties, and not to...Read more
Monopoly commission: separate Deutsche Bahn’s infrastructure from operation
The current structure of Deutsche Bahn group is not appropriate for the planned increase of capital with 7.5 billion in favour of DB, says the German monopolies commission. It cannot be guaranteed that this will...Read more