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The problem is that in a democracy, things don't work that way. See Brexit, see Reform UK, see Trump ("Hillbilly elegy"!), see Le Pen, see Kickl (in Austria) etc. Unfortunately, mainstream parties still don't get the lesson and treat their constituencies like a profit center in an international...

Not treat it like UK Shinkansen. Make sure Curzon/Moor Street works as the new central station of Birmingham, with possibilities to run Bristol/Reading - B‘ham - HS2 - Crewe/Leeds or London - HS2 - B‘ham - Wolverhampton/Worcester etc. Do the same in Leeds and use Leeds HS2 as an „overflow“ East...

Thank you. Out of interest, even though OT here: will the Bordseley chords allow for a Bristol - Moor Street (reversal) - Derby service withouth crossing the Snow Hill lines?

I apologise. I did not want to presume to tell the Dutch if it is right or wrong, just that it does sound less extreme to me than doing the same in most other capitals or major cities. Personally, I obviously would want to arrive at Centraal since that is the place I always arrived in and I very...

I agree of course, but there are trade-offs to be made. And many other central stations in other capital cities are neither splendid, nor bang in the city centre (Wien Hbf being a case in point). I rather doubt that anyone who takes an international train to Amsterdam now will not do so in the...

Sounds like a good plan in principle once Curzon Street opens. There still will be a case for through LD trains through New Street though, not everything will be able to go through Moor Street I believe. That might make it a tad more difficult. Sounds like a good thing for Amsterdam CS in any...

Just as an info: from this week, the Vienna - Passau - Nürnberg - Frankfurt/Berlin ICE service is severely limited for the rest of the 2026 timetable year. There are only three direct ICE train pairs between Vienna and Nürnberg, diverted via Ingolstadt, which adds about one hour of travel...

The Czechs, wisely, refused to do anything for these trains, including moving their domestic paths. They do provide the stock, but of course, ÖBB has to pay for it (or compensate with reciprocal train provision). I am all for direct international trains BTW, but in this case, it is not worth...

I don’t get your point. But for what it’s worth, it’s Austrian money, both from the central government and the regional government of Lower Austria.

On the Czech side, these trains have always existed and were simply extended to Vienna, meaning that on the Austrian side new paths had to be found, which are not good and above all not aligned with the basic (and bad) two-hourly Takt (it rather goes 30-90 minutes). So no, it is not a good use...

Two Vienna - Gmünd - Prague train pairs. Obviously not for Vienna - Prague trips (they are basically a political stunt, meant for regional cross-border connectivity, but mostly useless).

Unfortunately, the opportunity to build Curzon Street as a genuine Birmingham medium/long-distance station for all services, not only HS2, was missed - as were so many other opportunities HS2 could have brought because of the ill-thought decision to try and build a Shinkansen. No wonder it got...

Vienna City buses have not been selling tickets for ages. They used to have ticket machines, but the bus vibrations made them break very quickly. For a short while, drivers sold tickets but it was soon discontinued (trams still have machines). It was not a big deal, because season tickets are...

Well, there have been a few decisions to ensure that the available infrastructure will also stay available in the future: plans to completely redevelop Westbahnhof and Penzing sites and shrink the available space for the railway have been put on hold, and ideas to not rebuild the Oswald Schleife...

Yes, and for people with luggage and no local knowledge, the walk (or VAL) will be enough to put them off using a connection from E* to a TGV, never mind the beer.

Indeed. They wait in Innsbruck to take up a regular path an hour later, avoiding the need to completely remake the timetable west of Innsbruck for temporary works. Innsbruck, Tyrol and Vorarlberg unfortunately will have to get used to longer journey times to the East of Austria from summer 2026...

Since it came up a lot in this discussion: the trains from Poland via Wien Hbf to Wien West and Vice versa are booked to use platforms 7 and 8 at Wien Meidling, meaning they don‘t touch the S-Bahn tracks. Going towards Wien West, they can use the flyover from Hbf and after calling in Meidling...

It actually is a legal requirement, both variants being official names. In many if not most cases, the German version is the original, with the Italian being a more or less creative translation/invention.

AUSTRIA/ITALY On the Lienz - Fortezza/Franzensfeste line, the border station, where infrastructure norms and voltage change, is at San Candido/Innichen. To the east of it, but still in Italy, is Versciaco/Vierschach, where it is still an line with Austrian technical standards and voltage...

Cáceres is nice as a base, but a bit schizophrenic. With the exception of the main square, the spectacular old town is a ghost place, tourists (and there are not that many) excepted. Almost all life is in the new parts of the city. And the walk to the train station is a bit long - still I...