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This year, I decided to travel from Berlin to #COP26 in Glasgow by train. The journey was expected to cover 4 trains from 4 different railway operators and to last 17 hours. I had planned for at least 30 minutes transfer time in Cologne, Brussels and London.
Well, as you might have guessed, in reality the trip took 32 hours and I spent one extra night at a hotel in London.
What went wrong? Some (3 out of 4) trains were delayed, but this was not the main problem. But as none of the four railway operators was responsible for my whole journey there was basically no communication between trains along the journey, no feeling of liability, no compensation for delays and costs incurred further down the journey.
What is missing is a better integration of railway markets. It is impossible to book such a train journey with one operator, to have one ticket and one interlocutor if something goes wrong as in this case.
As long as we do not sort out these intrinsic weaknesses and deficiencies in international rail traffic we will be hard-pressed to make the case against air travel and in favor of trains. We do not need new high-speed trains in Europe that urgently but rather a European regulation of cross border rail traffic.
Well, as you might have guessed, in reality the trip took 32 hours and I spent one extra night at a hotel in London.
What went wrong? Some (3 out of 4) trains were delayed, but this was not the main problem. But as none of the four railway operators was responsible for my whole journey there was basically no communication between trains along the journey, no feeling of liability, no compensation for delays and costs incurred further down the journey.
What is missing is a better integration of railway markets. It is impossible to book such a train journey with one operator, to have one ticket and one interlocutor if something goes wrong as in this case.
As long as we do not sort out these intrinsic weaknesses and deficiencies in international rail traffic we will be hard-pressed to make the case against air travel and in favor of trains. We do not need new high-speed trains in Europe that urgently but rather a European regulation of cross border rail traffic.
