EVOLYN came in OCTOBER, then HEURO arrived in NOVEMBER, will it be VIRGIN in DECEMBER?

Despite the many obstacles put in the way of train companies running high-speed trains between the UK and Europe, recently 2 consortiums have made public announcements of their plans to compete with Eurostar. While others have come and gone over the years, maybe this time we will eventually enjoy some real competition with a more frequent and cheaper service. Competition in recent years seems to have brought significant benefits to passengers using the high-speed lines in Spain and Italy. It remains to be seen whether any of these plans will see the light of day. On the 11th of October, EVOLYN (a Spanish-led consortium of various investors) announced plans to order 12 trains for a service through the channel tunnel

CLIMATE CHANGE HITS 3 KEY EUROPEAN RAIL ARTERIES

At a time when we need to use our European Rail Network more than ever, 3 separate extreme weather events blocked 3 important rail routes during August and September. (1) On the 7th of August during “Storm Hans”, extreme rainfall and flooding caused the collapse of a bridge near Lillehammer on the main trunk line serving Northern Norway between Oslo and Trondheim. It will take a minimum of 3 months to restore any kind of service. There is only one alternative slower route with limited capacity. (2) On the 27th of August there was a very large rockfall near Modane which blocked the key Transalpine link between France and Italy. It is estimated that it will take a minimum of

ALL ABOUT TRAINS – A TRAIN TRACKER WHICH NOW COVERS 11 EUROPEAN COUNTRIES !!

While many countries may have their own train trackers on websites or via an app – did you know there is one which now covers 11 countries, which is effectively most of Central and Western Europe, including Eurostar to/from the UK ? You can find out current and historic punctuality records for all long-distance trains by train number or by station. You can also access diagrams to see how well parts of the European Rail Network are currently performing. Another useful feature is the ability to find the reliability and punctuality of particular connections, which can be useful if they are rather “tight”. The Countries covered are:- Germany, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Switzerland, Austria, Czechia, Slovenia and Italy. You

MORE TRAINS – LESS PLANES

This is the title of a comprehensive report which was published by Greenpeace last month. They investigated 112 routes across 27 European countries and came to the conclusion that on average travel by train costs twice as much as travel by plane. For each route they checked the fares for 9 different travel days. The worst example was the cost of travel on the same day from Barcelona to London, where the cheapest train fare was a whopping 30 times more expensive than the air fare. London-Barcelona is also one of the busiest air routes in Europe with a rather poor rail alternative at present in terms of cost, speed and frequency. The report outlines some suggested action points for

BY TRAIN TO SPAIN COULD SOON GET A BIT EASIER?

Since the completion of more high-speed lines in France and Spain over 10 years ago, it has been possible to make a daytime journey from London to Barcelona by changing trains in Paris. Unfortunately, SNCF (French State Railways) have run only 2-3 direct daily services from Paris to Barcelona in recent years. This means there is only one realistic connection with Eurostar in Paris giving a London-Barcelona journey time of around 11-12 hours. Until the rest of the high-speed link between Montpelier and Perpignan is completed, the journey to Spain can be more attractive by making stop-overs in one of the interesting places along the way. Once this line is completed, there could be up to 20 daily services connecting

BELGIAN TRANSPORT MINISTER SHOWS US THE WAY FORWARD

Earlier this month Georges Gilkenet the Belgian Transport Minister gave a very positive interview at the RailTech 2023 conference held in Brussels. He outlined the long-term commitment his Government has made to develop the rail network over the next 10 years. During the interview he made clear the importance of rail in helping the Belgian Government meet their targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He also confirmed his commitment to develop Brussels as a night train hub by announcing that night trains will pay no track access charges or energy costs in Belgium for the next 2 years. You can find out more here at: https://www.railtech.com/all/2023/06/09/belgian-minister-gilkinet-talks-rail-challenges-night-trains-and-more/, where he gave a 12-minute interview in English. This is in marked contrast to

A NEW NIGHT TRAIN CONNECTION FROM BRUSSELS TO BERLIN HAS STARTED.

On the evening of Thursday 25th May the first European Sleeper left Berlin at 22.56 arriving in Brussels at around 9.30 the next morning. The return service to Berlin then left Brussels at 19.22 on Friday 26th May arriving in Berlin around 7.00 the next morning. This new service, running 3 times a week offers useful connections with the Eurostar service from Brussels to London and can also be joined at Rotterdam & Amsterdam. They hope to extend this service to Dresden and Prague next year. For further details see: https://www.europeansleeper.eu/en The launch of the new service got a lot of good publicity including this article in The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2023/may/29/berlin-to-brussels-night-train-renaissance-gathers-speed-new-european-sleeper

RAIL – SEA – RAIL TO EUROPE A BIT EASIER NOW

RAIL/SEA/RAIL VIA HARWICH to HOEK VAN HOLLAND On this route to mainland Europe Stena Line run both a day and a night crossing 7 days a week 365 days a year. It is also one of the few routes that is rail connected at both ports. It has become a little easier with the opening of the light rail (or metro) extension to Hoek van Holland Strand and the brand new through station at Hoek van Holland Haven. On April 5th our correspondent disembarked from the night ferry at 08.05 and by 09.15 was on an Inter City train from Rotterdam heading towards Brussels. Before you had a 500-meter trek to a temporary wooden platform, whereas now it is only 30 meters from

EU HELPS TO IMPROVE CROSS BORDER RAIL TRAVEL

Early last year we reported on the European Commission action plan to boost cross border rail travel. As part of this action plan, they agreed to identify and support 10 pilot projects to establish new rail services or improve existing ones. Together, they will improve cross-border rail connections across the EU, making them faster, more frequent and more affordable. While most may not start this year, most of them should be in operation during the next few years. The list of the 10 pilot projects was published at the end of January this year – for further details you can find them at:- https://transport.ec.europa.eu/news/connecting-europe-train-10-eu-pilot-services-boost-cross-border-rail-2023-01-31_en Rail passengers from the UK will be pleased to find several new connections between Germany, Denmark

EUROSTAR – A GLIMMER OF LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL ?

Last October, we posted an item highlighting how Eurostar has been effectively strangled since the start in 1994 from reaching it’s full potential. We then sent letters to various media outlets based on this item – in case you missed it see the monthly news item on 12th October 2022 at https://www.eurorailcampaignuk.org/monthly-news/ . Although it was not picked up by the National Media it was published in full in the December issues of Modern Railways, Todays Railways-Europe and Railwatch. Later on, in early February another fortnightly publication called Rail covered the topic in 3 separate articles in the same edition, including one by Christian Woolmar in his regular column. These articles all explained how and why Eurostar could not charge